Thank you again for the kind words! It is fun to share these as I did most of this stuff by myself. That has its pros too though, it is hard to find nutcases like me who wouldn't start to compromise after a two week overload of automotive history and old stuff in general!
So, no letting off the loud pedal, actually, now the faster pace starts after sitting mostly idle for a couple of weeks! One last look at Detroit stuff, I had a few places I had to skip but I think I did pretty good and accomplished a great deal of what I had planned.
Once again a fantastic structure with a rich history, the Plymouth Road Office Complex that was unfortunately vacated recently. 1.5 million square feet on 50 acres, built in 1926 to make Kelvinator refrigerators (God, I want a 1950:s Kelvinator Food-A-Rama!!) it made its way to being AMC Headquarters after Kelvinator first merged with Nash in 1937 and Hudson was then added in the mix in 1954. When Chrysler bought AMC in 1987 the complex served as the engineering location for all corporate trucks and SUV:s until it was cleared and the operations moved to Auburn Hills.
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/factories/PROC.html
Before saying farewell to Detroit I wanted to see the location of Stanford Dodge as they raced, among other things, 1960 and 1961 Dodges back in the day. If you want to get some awesome old photos like this, go to (Hi Patrice, will order some when I recover from this trip);
http://www.joestevensphotos.com/NHRADrag...049556160_58b3Q
The building seems to have survived very well, anyone have any shots of it from back in the day???
Moving really slowly towards Chicago here's one more Chrysler stop on the way, the Trenton Engine Plant Complex (North and South);
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/trenton-engine.html
Here something went very wrong! Maybe it was my looseleaf note system that failed or the stress of making all the planned stops during Sunday to be able to drive the longer distance in the evening before the sights on Monday but I completely forgot about the Chelsea Proving Grounds!! Well, excuses, excuses!
Here is another excellent read from Allpar, the 3,850 acre Chrysler Proving Grounds;
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/chelsea-proving-grounds.htmlNext stop was Fords Willow Run complex that originally made the B-24 Liberators (read the first link, it is fantastic and it is another example of how Detroit to a great extent saved the western way of life, I wonder how the world got so screwed up that people make fun of it today??), then Kaisers and later Hydramatic Transmissions, trucks, Corvairs, Novas, Caprices and even M16 rifles! Unfortunately a severe rainstorm appeared just before my arrival to the complex and I was forced to continue as it was impossible to see anything. Besides, to get any kind of an idea of this facility you'd need a helicopter...this was at the time the largest building in the world and there were over 40,000 workers here at the peak, it is extremely impressive no matter how you look at it. There's also the fantastic story of GM putting together a Hydramatic transmission factory, after the biggest industrial fire in history, in just 9 weeks!! Here's some links and old photos, there's a lot of history here so there is a lot more to be found if one wants to do that;
http://www.strategosinc.com/willow_run.htmhttp://liberatorcrew.com/06_B-24_Prod.htmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKlt6rNciTohttp://www.allpar.com/cars/adopted/kaiser.htmlhttp://www.autotran.us/TheGreatHydraMaticFire.html
