Driving back towards Woodward with Carmine in his beautifully aged Imperial and talking about Kirk Kerkorian, Jerry York and Robert Eaton I was totally hyped but also concerned that I would not meet Ed, the retired Chrysler Engineer and his engineer friends from Auburn Hills.
A rare sight, a Challenger R/T Sheriff unit at the Chrysler display;
I was seriously late and unfortunately he did not hear my call so after Carmine dropped me off at the Chrysler display and returned to work, I hurried south to Ferndale where an Emergency Vehicle Show was on...they already had the parade and it seems several cars took off after it but there was still quite a few interesting ones left. Since I'm a C-body guy there are few things better than a C-body Highway Patrol car and I like the beautifully finished American emergency vehicles in general, quite a contrast to the ugly cheap looking European ones! There were still a good variety of different MoPar bodystyles present including the fantastic Michigan State Police Fury familiar from the Nats;
The mandatory Blues Brothers car was present as well...this one was nicer than most and if I remember correctly it was a rare civilian 440 car...
Remember when ambulances used to be based on Cadillacs and other big sedans? Beautiful and luxurios Superiors and Miller-Meteors? What happened there? Downsizing of the sedans and thus killing that style? No, gubmint happened in 1973 (from coachbuilt.com);
"1973 EMS SYSTEMS ACT - The 1973 EMS Systems Act - passed in 1974, implemented four years later in 1978 - required that communities receiving federal funds for their programs had ambulances that met new federal specifications. Three chassis styles meet the criteria and are still in use today: Type I uses a small truck body with a modular compartment, Type II has a van body with a raised roof and Type III has van chassis with a modular compartment. Passenger-based vehicles were purposely excluded from legislation and the last American-made automobile-based ambulance was built in 1978. However a handful of automobile-based ambulances are still made in Europe using Mercedes E-Class and Volvo S-60/S-80 chassis."
Ford had a big display under construction in Ferndale;
Driving back to the Chrysler display I had a look at the Detroit Masonic Temple, another amazing structure with 1037 rooms and 12 million cubic feet of space!
