Like a dragster leaving the starting line with full force, our film, Detroit: A City of Hot Rods and Muscle Cars, is humming down the strip with a great deal of horsepower. I offer this analogy after we have just returned from filming in LA with one of Michigan's most iconic actors/comedians and one of the nation's most respected car guys, Tim Allen. Make no mistake, Tim knows his cars as well as his way around an engine. Of course, his collection is impressive ranging from the original Shelby Cobra, 68 GTO, Dodge Demon, 1932 V8 Ford, vintage and modern Mustang GT350s, modern Ford GT 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS with the LT5 V-8 from a C4 Corvette ZR-1, 1968 Camaro restomod and a modified Nova and a Tesla Model 3 that he says he has a “love/hate relationship” with. This gave us a great opportunity to have Tim offer his thoughts on the future of hot rods and muscle cars.
Allen enjoys driving these cars and several more on any given day with his close buddy, Jay Leno, or his wife and other friends. That was not the only reason I wanted to sit and talk with one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors/comedians. I wanted Tim to share his vast knowledge of the impact Detroit had on the world of “Let’s go faster,” “Let’s build it better.”
Allen’s real respect is for those who looked at an everyday ride and said, what if we do this or do that? Will it look better? Could it be faster? Will it handle smoother? Allen is cut from the same cloth as we all know, always trying to improve the working of a machine to be better than its original design. He built his stand-up career around this thinking, and it was apparent that this is the real Tim Allen to this day. Sitting in his private office area where he and his team is in production working on the new Santa Claus series by Disney, it’s hard not to smile at every memorable item hanging on the wall from his 47 year acting career.
Traveling with us along the way was a longtime supporter of many of our productions, Executive Producer John Kulhavi. Kulhavi’s history as a retired Brigadier General/Huey pilot (with over 3,000 flight missions in Vietnam), collector of cars, as well as historical military armored vehicles (including a British Falkland tank) gave Allen and Kulhavi plenty to talk about considering Allen’s love for tanks and anything military related, but even deeper than that is his respect for our country’s veterans.
His close friendship with Jay Leno was so apparent that anytime he could make fun of Leno’s car collection, he would do so in full impersonation of Leno’s voice. Of course, we all have bite marks on our tongues from avoiding laughter.
One of many stories Allen shared was when he worked at the GM Tech Center as a young Detroiter. Allen was often asked to take tubes from one office area to a few floors down. One day, bored and making a bathroom stop, Allen said to himself, "hmm I wonder what’s in these tubes." He pulled out what was concept drawings for cars that were being created for years down the road. “So, I opened up one of these tubes and I laid it out, I go, yeah, that's gonna sell and I'm looking at it to our drawings of cars and it was the, it was a Camaro but way ahead of the Camaro, I go, yeah, I’d trim the back up a little bit, but that's gonna be alright, and I rolled that up, put it in, took another one out and an executive comes in. He goes, hey, hey there, what are you doing? I go, I'm just checking on these blueprints he goes, you're not supposed to be reading that stuff."
"He didn't turn me in, but I realized that at that point, that GM was a car company. They know what they're doing. I build hot rods; I don't know what I'm doing. We don't sort this stuff out. They’d make these product types, and you'd see a kind of a version of driving around Dearborn or Highland Park and that was the most amazing thing about being in the car company.”
Tim, who still exudes that smart ass youthful energy, over the course of almost three hours spent with us was so humble, charismatic, and quick witted. Most of the time we felt like we had a front row seat at a Las Vegas show. Between the f-bombs dropped at every possible turn about Vladimir Putin with such lines, simply put “F” Putin with a real sense of range that while you laughed. We knew this anger came from deep inside him as a caring humanitarian who has become known as the silver screen America’s loving Santa or his voice of Buzz Lightyear and, of course, his often outspoken character on Last Man Standing.
I wanted to film Allen driving his 1950’s series 60 Cadillac so we can build a sequence of Tim behind the wheel. Allen made sure we felt the power under the hood of his Caddy as we circled the neighborhood that houses his private collection. As our time came to a close, we thanked our fellow Detroiter for such an outstanding interview that covered cars, music, and his days of racing up and down on Woodward.
As we drove away glowing with excitement of just how fun that was thanks to his team that helped bring this all together, Marleah, Brett, Wendy, Roxie and Judy, we reminded ourselves that we were now going to drive two hours to meet and film with Chip Foose, probably the most well-respected custom car designer in the world.
Chip Foose
As the host of the acclaimed, Overhaulin’ television series and owner of Foose Designs, Foose greeted us with warmth and excitement to be able to offer his thoughts on Detroit and the impact the Motor City had on the hot rod and muscle car movement. His design studio and auto renovation facilities were filled with custom builds going through the painstaking process of being birthed into a new ride that would turn heads while on the open road. His clients come from all over hoping they can find a way onto his team's building calendar. As you can imagine, you better have a check book that says cost is not an issue.... these builds are often well into the six-figure price range. Foose is a winner of every award out there, including winning the coveted Ridler Award four times. Foose is a very humble guy who got his start from watching his father, Sam Foose, who was a self-taught master welder, painter, and panel beater with extraordinary mechanical skills.
Foose later in life would build cars with his dad. During our interview, Foose found himself on an emotional journey of reminiscing and still missing his dad who lost his battle to cancer in 2018. As Foose talked about his dad with tears rolling down his face, we all could not help but get choked up as we all reflected on our times with our own fathers. Foose reminded us just how precious time is and to always try to keep that in mind when spending time with family and friends.
Throughout the interview, Foose was sketching and when our interview came to an end, he held up what took him a very short time to create: a tribute to Detroit with the line, “You know, whether it's a muscle car, a hot rod, a pickup truck, no matter what it is. They all have one thing in common. They're all born in Detroit.”
As a filmmaker, storyteller, and director, it was hard for me not to say that was just brilliant. We left LA having gone there to make sure we built into the story how the west coast was inspired by Detroit and vise-versa. I’m proud to report that we did that and much more. Stay tuned for possibly more filming in Tinseltown as our journey continues.