Detroit: The City of Hot Rods and Muscle Cars

Several days ago, Detroit: The City of Hot Rods and Muscle Cars premiered at Emagine Theaters in Novi, Michigan. If you’re like us and don’t live in the Great Lake State, then you may be wondering how you can view this documentary or even what it is in the first place.

According to the filmmakers, Muscle cars didn’t just change Detroit automotive culture; they reimagined it. The ability to control raw power on an open road without checkered flags or pace cars, with distant frontiers beckoning, came to symbolize the unbridled freedom of the American spirit. Now that those frontiers are all but subdued and the future appears to be the domain of cleaner and tamer electric vehicles, it is worth a look in our review mirror to an era where big-block engines roared and guzzled leaded gasoline, where chrome glittered and a car’s worth was determined by the number of horses that powered it.

The documentary shows “a human side of how the automobile became an intricate part of American lives.” Of course, this is especially true in California and Everywhere, USA, but Detroit is Ground Zero and that is what this film focuses on. Highlights in the film are stories about everybody’s cruising spot, Woodward Avenue (though don’t forget Telegraph and Gratiot!), Hot Wheels, and Autorama, among others, plus a future focus on the next generation of car builders and designers.

In the past 18 months, the film crew have visited with the likes of Bob Larivee, Tim Allen and Chip Foose, Harold Sullivan and the Silver Bullet, and Bob Lutz, and attended Detroit Autorama, EyesOn Design, Pontiac Oakland Automobile Museum, and the Woodward Dream Cruise, among other automotive cultural institutions. Some may unfamiliar to you, but they all have contributed to automotive culture or capture the culture of the past and present.

The above trailer is a preview of what you will be able to view online on Detroit Public Television on Friday, June 23^rd at 8:00 p.m. EDT. We know the options of streaming content from other places exists but we don’t know how this will pan out for you outside Detroit, so we suggest some trial and error before the showing.

There also will be a showing on Sunday, June 25^th at the Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay, Michigan. Times are 4:30 and 7:30 p.m.

If you can’t catch the documentary, we soon will let you know of other ways to view the documentary, including a DVD that will be announced shortly.