𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 & 𝐋𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐮 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐚
Each summer for me there's nothing I look forward to more than our family time up north. We find a place to rent for a week and we build wonderful memories. This past August was no different, but for me as the Visionalist behind all of our productions, I'm always in search of story ideas to enhance any film we are working on. So I end up in conversations very often with anyone on any subject. My kids I'm sure roll their eyes, there goes dad again talking to anyone about anything. On one particular day, we were in Traverse City being tourists. As we have a four year old grandson, who is my adventure partner when my older kids just want to chill, I found my way into the Trains & Things Hobbies on Front Street. I was on a mission to find a few playful items to build new adventure memories. Just before walking in I watched as if all things slowed down; a bright orange, late sixties Road Runner cruisin down Front Street with a dude who had to be in his early 70's with Seger's “Night Moves” faintly coming from his radio. These days I'm hypersensitive to the sounds of growling muscle cars and hot rods. At the counter were three gentlemen in their late 60s/70s. So with Hot Rods and Muscle Cars on my mind I asked, "Are you guys cars guys?" They looked at each other and then around the store and then back at me like DUH, no we are train guys. I just nodded as if I understood and was content with leaving it at that. Then the store owner, Pete Magoun said, well we used to be car guys, and they asked why do you ask? Well that was all I needed to hear. So I quickly pulled out a postcard overview of our film, Detroit: The City of Hot Rods & Muscle Cars, which started a whole conversation as they rattled off names of car guys who have now made this part of America their homes after retirement. One of them offered up Ernie Barry, a Northport resident who spent his life as a designer in the automobile world. He retired as Director of Advanced Design at Chrysler. The adventure began once I was back home. I received a rather enthusiastic email from Ernie introducing himself after he must have gone to the film’s website. For a few weeks to follow through Erinie's introductions I was able to connect with what was quickly becoming clear to me one of Michigan's primary locations where so many historical car designers, engineers and executives have moved. These Rebels of the past still live on with that same gasoline flowing through their veins as it once did some 50, 60 years ago when cruising Woodward was their favorite pastime. After taking a deep dive into this world of car lovers, I decided we need to take our production team up there before the snow flies to lift the hood of this car culture and show these at-one-time tycoons of the auto world as their lives have progressed today. So here are the stories of this wonderful fall weekend in Northern Michigan with the Rebels who call this their home.

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 - 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞
We left our offices in Wixom early Friday morning and landed in the quaint town of Northport on the Leelanau Peninsula. It was here that we were able to spend the day filming with third generation car builder renaissance man, Darin Irvine and his lovely wife Lynelle. My interest was not just the fact that Darin is considered one the nation's foremost custom car builders, but also that his craft was inspired and handed down from his grandfather Tyron (Lefty) at Fredericks Collision in Detroit. His father George would find himself on a path of everything cars and eventually would end up in Traverse City and not long after, settled in Northport. It was here where Darin would hone his craft working long hours with Dad. This was the story I was really chasing on how dads have had an impact on their kids' passion for hot rods and muscle cars. Still to this day, Darin uses tools handed down from his grandfather and dad. Darin and Lynelle are somewhat the unofficial ambassadors to this crown jewel of Michigan villages. The interview along with the filming of Darin working on several cars was exactly what I was envisioning. During our four-hour filming session, Lynelle mentioned that Darin happens to be a talented singer and guitarist. Humble and seemingly somewhat shy, Darin kind of let the mention go as if he was hoping to keep it tucked away. But that mention only meant well we need you to sing and play for us. With the right prodding, I convinced him to break into song, which turned out to be the Buddy Holly song, “Not Fade Away.” A big thank you to Lynelle who swiftly jumped into the family Ford Focus and retrieved the guitar from home.

That evening we arrived in Traverse City thanks to the introduction of the Traverse City Chamber of Commerce director Brenda McLellan, we were introduced to the Delamar Traverse City Hotel. They, understanding the significance of what we are producing, offered us rooms in their newly decorated Traverse City hotel.

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐬 & 𝐂𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐞 - 𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐦 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫
Saturday morning was Cars and Coffee with Adam Hammer at Hammer & Dolly Automotive Restorations, LLC. Of course on the way we needed to stop at one of my all time favorite places, Mundos Roasting & Co. It's here you will find truly creative eats and of course that caffeine fix you may be needing and in our case this was a priority.

We were able to sit with Adam, a graduate of the famed Kansas based McPherson College of Automotive Restoration, at his home to gain a deeper understanding of the youthful car culture in the region. Adam is a New Jersey native who discovered Traverse City and knew he could build a flourishing business because of the car culture here. A few times a year, he hosts a gathering of cars and coffee. These gatherings bring together like-minded people from all walks of life with a very diverse collection of even just one prized possession to gather and not judge but to share the brotherhood/sisterhood of their love for cars. Featuring Adam and many of his staff, both younger and older, shined a light on how those young 30 something year olds are keeping this industry alive, not only the older baby boomer generation but also as a mentor for the younger generation that likes to work with their hands inside the old style engine blocks that you won’t find in an electric car.

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐧 - 𝐃𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝'𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
If you love cars and your cruiser, you've more than likely heard of Dan McDavid and his collection of some of the most impressive Italian sports cars. It was here in Leland that we conducted several interviews. McDavid invited us with open arms to use his incredible architectural work of art display (he refers to it as a garage). Let’s just say Northern Michigan’s rustic automobile museum to host interviews with a few of Michigan's most notable previous automobile executives. McDavid, by the way, grew up in rural Kentucky. His first memory of cars comes from how his father traded their house for a 1948 Desota so the family would travel to Springfield, Ohio where the family would settle. Like so many stories of the Northern Michigan auto executive retiree community, McDavid would grow up to go on to have a colorful successful career in the automotive industry as a General Purchasing Agent working for the likes of Lee Lacocca and Bob Lutz helping with the development of the viper.

𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬 - 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫
If you are a car person, even just a smidge, you know the name GTO and if you’re a movie buff, you surely know the movie franchise Back to the Future. While this entire post could be about Bill Collins, who at 91 still is very active in everything cars as well as one of the leading community members in the Leelanau area. For the sake of this post, let's just say this: Collins is considered by just about anyone you talk to as the father of the Pontiac GTO. That creation in the 1960s was the birth of the muscle car. For anyone who understands the history of cars understands just what this meant to the baby boomers of that era. Collins, an extremely laid back humble man, really does not thump his chest loudy about this, maybe because he just knows his place in history. But let's not stop there. Collins, while working with John DeLorean, was the guy that took on that project and his influence helped create one of the most iconic cars ever to be featured in movies, the DeLorean from Back To the Future. Collins was part of the auto industry all his life. Once he retired from working for the big auto companies, he felt there was a need to create a family style motorhome, which his daughter simply named the Vixen. Over the course of this adventure, he and his company produced 500 of these ‘take the family anywhere’ vehicles. The prototype will soon be sitting in the future Pontiac Transportation Museum.

𝐉𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐫 - 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫
As the Chief Creative Designer at Chevrolet Studio #3, Jerry Palmer’s creative vision and leadership would take him down the path of working on every type of GM car from the 1984 Corvette to the Camaro Z28. Palmer would eventually become the responsible for the GM Advanced Concept Center in Thousand Oaks California. Our detailed conversations with Palmer enabled us to talk about everything from design to how a car is named.

𝐊𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐲 - 𝐀 𝐆𝐮𝐲'𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐲
Keith Ashley and I quickly hit it off after he jumped to two feet in to help rally the community after receiving my email about what we were doing. For this, we are so grateful. Ashley, now 82, still seems to personify that early youth of his era. His deep passion for hot rods stems back to his teens when he and his friends would watch the dates on the calendar around the 14th because he knew the next edition of the Hot Rod Magazine would be out. To this day, Ashley still has that first magazine. Besides his years of owning and running Fairlane Automotive Specialties, he also built a number of hot rods, including the one he showed up in for his interview. Dan McDavid so graciously offered to place it in the center of everything Italian. I'm sure if Keith’s car could talk it would have loudly said, ‘Who's the big dog now?’ Ashley is one of the most involved car guys of the north helping orchestrate and host cars as art exhibits in Northport with Ernie Barry & Bill Collins.

𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 - 𝐇𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤
It's 7am and Darin and Lynelle are already in the picturesque park that sits on the bay harbor area of Northport on the Leelanau Peninsula, there's a Michigan fall chill in the air as we start to build cameras and set up the shots we want to capture to tell the story of how this small Northern town can quickly become ground zero for the hot rod and muscle car afficindos. As Darin will boastfully tell you, the 200 plus car show that takes place here each summer is second to Pebble Beach. It’s easy to understand why with one of the most stunning locations and a car culture in Michigan that knows and understands cars more than likely better than anyone else in the country. But on this fall day, Darin sent the word out that he was wanted to host an impromptu gathering of whoever wanted to show up for some coffee and car talk before the snow flies. As expected, like bears drawn to honey, almost 40 cars from every shape and model showed up which allowed us to document this epic arrival with multiple cameras and drones. This was the story I was exactly looking for; everyday folks talking in a language that is only understood by car affinodos. The highlight of the morning was for sure Bill Collins walking around a beautiful blue 1964 GTO, and when he said, “I'd sure like to take that for a drive,” to which the owner happily handed him the keys and off for a drive they went. The best analogy I can think of if you’re not a car person would be if John Lennon said to someone, can I try out your guitar?

A very big hug of thanks to all who embraced this project and were patient during our morning filming.

Here is a short video story from our adventure: https://vimeo.com/756534381