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The WPC Club,
Inc. 
Plymouth, Dodge, Fargo, DeSoto,
Chrysler, Imperial, Maxwell, Chalmers,
Jeep and Eagle & related
Automobiles. All Mopar / All Years /
All Models
2014 Annual National Meet, Full
coverage and photos below. July 9 – 12, 2014 • Auburn Hills, Michigan
More
photos on our Facebook Page
From
around the country and around the globe WPC members came to Auburn Hills
for the annual WPC Meet. They started arriving on Sunday, several days
before the meet was scheduled to begin and by the time the meet officially
began we had quite a good crew on hand. Members from Arizona and Colorado,Texas and Louisiana
and Massachusetts and all points in between were ready to tour. It was nice
to see so many faces not seen in recent years. We also had a small
contingent from Sweden and Norway and Canada
as well.
For
those anywhere near Detroit on Tuesday it was monsoonal rain, it took
us 3 hours to drive in from Kalamazoo and I'm not sure we really ever
made contact with the road until getting just outside the parking
lot. Many other members mentioned this
whether coming from the east or farther west, but once in Auburn
Hills the weather was perfect for the entire week.
The
tours had a WPC theme to them, even if we weren't touring
much owned by the makers of our cars. The Ford Piquette Avenue plant which was the second Ford
factory was very interesting and fairly small,but it turned out some of Ford's best early
cars. Ford's original plant. Mack Avenue where the original Model A
was built was only a few blocks away, Studebaker had a factory next
door and the old GM Building could be seen out the window just a
couple of blocks over on the other side of Woodward Ave. Many of the
parts for the early Fords were made by the
Dodge brothers. When Henry started production
of the Model T in 1908 the Dodge Brothers factory provided most of
the heavy metal used in that car, the engine and many of the parts of
the running gear. John and Horace and Henry
parted ways in 1914 and a new car was bom,
the Dodge Brothers, a bit bigger and a bit better than the Model
T. Of course the Dodge's had made a large fortune while working for Henry Ford and put it to good use.
We
learned that the early Ford's built at this plant had wings
emanating out to either side from the Ford logo. This plant was where the Model T developed and the earliest T's
were built there beforeproduction shifted
to Highland Park where the moving assembly line was perfected.
After this stop we toured on down Woodward to the General
Motors World Headquarters on the Detroit River in downtown
Detroit. The building was built by Ford Motor a couple pf
decades ago as a headquarters. It is easily recognizable as the
tallest building on the riverfront and in Detroit and by its
five cylindrical towers. The view from the top is just
spectacular and you can look south to Canada across the Detroit
River, or to Cobo Hall, site of the
North American InternationalAutomobile Show,
Belle Isle or out across Detroit into the far suburbs. Many took advantage
of the huge Food Court on the ground level and dined on just about anything
your heartdesired. Others walked out onto the new
River Walk along the Detroit River where they were setting up for the boat
races on the weekend.
After
a few hours it was back to the buses and back to the hotel for the
night. It was good to get into Detroit again and see it was so
busy downtown and along Woodward, the city at least in some
areas has made a remarkable comeback, it still has a long way to
go, but it has started making noticeable strides and should be
able to make more in the years to come.
Thursday
we headed over to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village for a
day of many eras and types of history. From the earliest Ford cars,
and Presidential Limousines to the bus on which Rosa Parks moved the
civil rights movement forward to other types of vintage machinery,
airplanes, trains and just about everything else used to build
American industry and much more of what it built are on display in the
Ford Museum. Over in Greenfield Village is displayed life in
simpler times from the old village square to the Wright Brothers
home to Thomas Edison's Menio Park complex, where
the inventor created so many of his famous inventions. It is worthy
of a day or two just to stroll around and soak up the atmosphere,
you can forget you are in the center of a bustling city and right
next to a Ford Motor Company engineering center. Not far down the road is the new River Rouge plant where Ford is
building its all-new aluminum F-150 pickups. And out across the
parking lot is the old Ford Airport where
Tri-Motors used to land bringing people to Dearborn, now part of
Ford's Engineering Department it is used as a test track.
Thursday night we had Dr. Charles Hyde, noted historian and author speak about Detroit and the Arsenal of
Democracy. Dr. Hyde has written several books on the Dodge Brothers, Chrysler and orphan cars as well as his subject
of the evening. Friday we drove over to Meadowbrook Hall, just about
5 miles from the headquarters hotel. The
group toured the home of Matilda Dodge and
Alfred Wilson had a fine luncheon under the big tent outside the
house and got a close look at the Dodge Garage which housed 6
Dodge Brothers cars including the last personal cars owned by
Horace and John Dodge. Many of the group had the opportunity to
get pictures of their cars in front of Meadowbrook Hall on the
circular driveway.
From
here it was a short dive to the Walter P.
Chrysler Museum where we had the opportunity to spend some time viewing the
magnificent collection of Mopars on display. It
looks surprisingly like it did the last time I was there several years ago.
There are some different cars on display, but most of the displays were
pretty much the same. It is definitely worth seeing if you get the
opportunity. I am asked all the time about the museum as so many people
would like to see it, both cars guys and regular tourists, but there is not
a real good answer I can give them. The museum is available for
pre-arranged group tours, just give them a call and set one up. As the Mopar guys in town we need to keep spreading the word
and maybe Chrysler will notice that many people would like to see it and at
least open it occasionally.
While
at the museum we got a group photo of many of the cars parked up in
front of the building in celebration of Collector Car Appreciation Day
sponsored by SEMA to recognize the importance of the auto restoration
hobby in America. Clubs of all types around the country celebrated
that day and the photos can be viewed on their
website. A short hop after this brought us back to our
headquarters hotel. The evening brought our membership meeting where
it was great to see so many old friends and make new ones as
well. Then the highlight of the evening was the Fun and
Ugly Auction. Many items were brought in to the auction
ranging from books, posters, car parts, and other objects de art. All fund new homes and raised about $500 for the clubs
coffers. And it was great fun. I have to give a special thanks to Sue
Simonson who acted as our auctioneer and Dwight Fish as our ring
man who really got into it. Hopefully we can do more of these in
the future.
Early
Saturday morning the parking lot became busy with
activity as vehicles began to lineup for pictures and
placement in their proper classes. Saturday was a bit warmer and more humid than the rest of the week which had
beautiful summer weather, but once your car was parked you could sit
right on the hotel patio and watch all the activity, have lunch and
have a drink. It was a great way to take in the show. The cars
were arranged in 15 classes covering the entire
production history of Chrysler. We had Airflow, 300, Town & Country, Prowler, a Chrysler boat. Charger,
Challenger and it seems likeeverything
in-between. We even had a small swap meet at
the edge of the show field to help finish up that next show car. It
was a fun and relaxing day.
As night fall approached we all headed to our banquet, just yards away from the show. The dinner was very good the
company excellent and then we were ready to
give out the awards. The awards were handed
out by our two newest board members. Pat Opipari and Terry Williams, both new to the
board but veterans of many WPC Meets. Awards in the 15 classes,
plus the special awards, plus a new award this year. The Bob McClure Award
honoring his service to the club and his love of Imperials of the 1950s. The
first one being awarded to Clyde Horst and his beautiful 1956 Imperial
convertible. The other special award presented which goes to a member who
best represents the spirit of the meet was awarded by its benefactor Dr.
David George Briant, along with his son and
grandson was given to Janet Cook who worked tirelessly at registration all
week. I am not sure who was more excited by the award Janet or David when
she kissed and his hand went up in salute. It was truly a great moment.
The
Lee lacocca Award is presented to a member who has worked for the WPC Club and the old car hobby
over the years. This year it was awarded to Norm Frey, the first
president of the WPC Club. Norm has continued to be very active in the
old car hobby well into his 90s and continues to be an
ambassador for everything Mopar. Usually we
take up a collection for the lacocca
Foundation and diabetes research at the banquet, but this year decided
to open this up to anyone wishing to donate to this worthy cause. So
you can write a check to the lacocca Foundation
and send it to Greg Biskey, 2535 85th Ave
NE, Blaine, MN 55449.
A
national meet takes years of planning and a small army of
people to make it happen. This year we are indebted to our Great
Lakes Region under the direction of Sue Simonson for taking up the
challenge and pulling it off so flawlessly. All the members of the
region deserve our thanks for helping Sue make this
such an enjoyable week for the membership. I know I will miss
many if I tried to name names so hopefully a group thank you will
suffice. A few special thanks are in order to Marc Rozman
and Tom Wilson who put together the Power Point presentation of
winners for the banquet and to Marc for his acting as official
photographer and to additional photographic help from Ken Angyal, Terry Williams and Ron Glowen.
Now it is time to turn our thoughts to the next National Meet in
Springfield, Illinois in 2015, planning is just about done and it
looks like it should be a great meet, it will be about 2 weeks later
in July next time. And it is never too early to think about 2016 when we will be heading to Maine for our
meet and doing something a bit different and having it in early
September. Hope to see you all at one of
these future meets.Explanation of the title of the
article, the 100 is the anniversary of the Dodge Brothers first car in late
1914, the 90 refers to the anniversary of Chrysler which started in 1924
and the 50 refers to the 50th anniversary of the Plymouth Barracuda which
beat the Ford Mustang to market by a couple of days. Chrysler Corporation
has a lot of history to be proud of and to celebrate.With
that in mind next year is the 60th anniversary of the fabled 300.
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