Syed Ahmed
Porsche Cayman GT4
Even though he always had an interest in cars, Syed Ahmed first became enthralled with fast vehicles when he got to drive a 2002 Porsche 996 Turbo, courtesy of a buddyβs uncle. βThe first time I drove that car, I was like, whoa,β he says. βI was like 21 years old, driving this car that was the pinnacle of cars at the time. It just blew my mind.β
Shortly after, Ahmed started going to the Waterford Hills Road Racing track. βThe first time is a humbling experience,β he says. βYou think you know how to drive, then you get on the track and realize you have no idea. Itβs way different. I pulled in the first time, I thought my car was on fire, the brakes were smoking so bad!β
Today, Ahmed runs Platinum Motorcars, a high-end Birmingham dealership. He says he ordered the Cayman GT4 as soon as it was announced, opting for the racing carbon bucket seats. As a connoisseur of speed, Ahmed says he was impressed by the GT4.
βThis car is very well-balanced, because the engine sits here instead of in the back,β he says. βSo all the weightβs in the middle. Iβve driven quite a few cars, and this one handles better than almost any of them.β
Ahmed says heβs since grown to find the track to be a Zen-like experience. βItβs funny. I could be having a crappy day and just run down the road and turn a few laps, and be like, βAlright, Iβm back. Bring it, whatever youβve got.ββ
Adam Genei
1966 Lincoln Continental Coupe
For Adam Genei, the Lincoln Continental is the pinnacle of Detroit autos. βIt speaks volumes of the Motor City in its heyday,β he says. βItβs a real powerful vehicle, not only the looks of it, but all the chrome and how strong the body is, and the lines and characters of it.β
Genei channeled that love into his shop, Mobsteel, which gained the attention of NBCSN, which signed them on for a reality TV series, and they are filming another season on a different network. This Lincoln was the first car Genei built on the show. The car was originally intended as a gift to the pastor of Geneiβs church, but he couldnβt bear to part with it.
βFortunately the pastor is a good friend of ours, so he understood,β he says. βHe still gets visitation rights.β
The Brighton resident maintains two shops: one in his hometown and another in Detroit. He sees Mobsteelβs work as part of carrying on Detroitβs manufacturing legacy. βI just built a truck with my [14-year-old] son on the show,β he says. βMy whole family works. I was raised in a shop, they were raised in a shop. Weβre just carrying on the family tradition.β
Genei says the premise of the television show is less about the drama of building any particular car and more about showing a slice of American life. βItβs another opportunity for us to keep sharing some of the automotive history here in Michigan,β he says. βItβs our opportunity to let people know that the Motor City was basically the heartbeat of this whole country.β
Zach Fox
1959 Chevrolet Impala
Driving isnβt about speed, which is what led Zach Fox to his love of lowrider culture. βI canβt really pinpoint it,β he says. βItβs more of like β I donβt know, this is going to be weird β but I like the romance of it, the elegant form, more than going fast.β
The Livonia resident revamped his β59 Chevy with the help of his father. βI bought it from an old man in Garden City. It maybe had been painted a couple times before I got it, but it was all complete and like, undisturbed,β he says. βI made it better.β
The overhaul meant taking the body off the frame and installing hydraulics made from military aircraft parts from the β40s through the β60s. Fox says he wanted the entire car to be era-correct to how lowriders were in the late-β60s and early β70s.
In all, it took four years to get the car to where it is today.Μύ βItβs not done,β he says. βTheyβre never done.β
Fox says he tries to take his car out at least a couple times a week, even if itβs just to cruise to his job as an industrial designer at Shinola in Detroit, or as part of the Detroit chapter of the Road Devils car club. He says his car is a hit in both the world of customs and the world of era-conscious autos. βIt stands out in either case. Which is kind of cool,β he says.
Ron Hausmann
1923 Kissel 6-45 Gold Bug SpeedsterΜύ
With seven Kissels to his name, Ron Hausmann has the largest private collection of the cars in the country. Most Gold Bugs originally sold in Hollywood. βThis was a movie starβs car,β he says. βSilent movie stars. You and I donβt even recognize names, but they were big back then.β
Hausmannβs 1923 Gold Bug is his favorite for its novel outrigger (βsuicideβ) seats that fold out on the sides. Despite the relatively fast speeds the car could reach (75 mph, at a time when the Model T maxed out at 35), the outrigger didnβt have seat belts. The feature was quickly discontinued. βItβs a dumb idea,β Hausmann concedes. βBut it does look neat.β He would never give anyone a ride on them, but is happy to let people try them out when the car is parked at the Woodward Dream Cruise, or when taking it to downtown Birmingham.
Hausmann, a former co-owner of construction firm Walbridge, acquired the car in a federal auction: It was seized when its owner (a New York criminal) was murdered. The car had seen better days, but all it needed was some tender loving care. βWhen you own these kinds of cars, youβre really not an owner,β he says. βYouβre more of a caretaker β¦ the cars live longer than you do.β
Diane Flis-Schneider
1932 Ford Tudor Sedan
Growing up in rural Michigan, Diane Flis-Schneider was immersed in car culture at an early age. βMy dad always said he couldnβt teach us anything, but he βlearned usβ stuff,β says Flis-Schneider. βWe lived on a farm, and so we had to learn how to drive and fix vehicles at a very young age.β That necessity turned into an appreciation of cars by Flis-Schneiderβs adulthood: She is now the executive director of the Concours dβElegance of America.
When she was in her 20s, Flis-Schneider and her father set out to rebuild a Ford Tudor. The car is powered by an engine pulled from her dadβs old dump truck. When her sister totaled her momβs station wagon, Flis-Schneider simply took its Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission. Some things Flis-Schneider didnβt choose: βI got a real sick-sounding βaoogaβ horn as a result of getting too much water in it on my trip to Louisville one year when everything flooded,β she says. βI canβt change that, because everybody knows that itβs my car if I honk my horn.β
Wanting to stand out from the guys in the car scene, Flis-Schneider had her car painted fuchsia: Estee Lauderβs No. 07 βFaultless Fuchsia,β to be precise β her favorite brand of lipstick at the time.
βSometimes breaking down on the side of the road is not so much fun,β she says. βBut thatβs part of it β itβs the camaraderie and the friends you meet along the way with these cars, thatβs what itβs all about for me.β
Rod Freeman
1955 Chevrolet Bel Air
During the week, Rod Freeman drives a forklift. On the weekends, he likes to let loose in his beautiful Chevy Bel Air.
βItβs strictly a toy,β he says. During the summer, things are different: Freeman says he typically is aware of at least one car-related happening going on every single day of the week. βIf I wanted to go somewhere on a Monday, I know where Iβm going,β he says. βFor about two months straight, if it wasnβt something I was attending, it was something that I knew about. Thereβs something car-related going on somewhere in Michigan.β
Freeman acquired his car from a friend who was looking to sell. After the car went unsold for six months, Freeman knew he had to find a way to get it, eventually taking out a loan.
The first steps were to get it freeway-ready, so Freeman replaced the motor, transmission, drive shaft, and the rear end. Other than the wheels and suspension, Freemanβs ride is bone stock β aside from what he calls the βmust-haves,β or era-correct accessories like a visor and spotlight mirrors.Μύ βTo me, my car is what itβs supposed to look like,β he says. βMy taste in cars is sort of like out in California. Those guys out in California go all the way, but they still drive them cars on the street. Versus here, mostly you do what you can with the resources you got.β
Bob & Julie Hertzberg
2010 Ferrari 458 Italia & 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z07
For Bob and Julie Hertzberg, fast-paced day jobs as attorneys could very well explain their love of driving at high speeds. Bob says he started amateur racing more than 20 years ago at Laguna Seca in California. Later, Julie was introduced to high speeds as Bobβs passenger when she caught the racing bug herself. Thatβs when she found she was a natural, with her race instructors noting she seemed to have a preternatural gift for following procedures and being calm. β(Thatβs) probably from my roots of being a very Type-A lawyer,β she laughs. βIt helps that Iβm all about listening to the problem, coming up with a solution, and then implementing the solution. I apply that to my driving on the track.β
The Hertzbergs say they routinely get funny looks when friends and acquaintances find out they donβt keep their car collection, which also includes a 2017 Mustang GT350R, under covers in a garage.
βOne of my favorite questions I always get from people is, βWhy do you drive your car on the track?β β Bob says. βItβs a Ferrari. The car is not built to go 25 miles an hour to the country club. Iβm not here to look at them,β he says (although in fact the Hertzbergsβ two-tier garage features a glass floor cutout so the cars can be admired from the second level). βI love looking at them, because theyβre great-looking cars. But the fun is taking them on the track and seeing what they can do.β
Rory Carroll
1948 Willys CJ-2A Jeep
What we now know as Jeeps were originally developed during World War II, gaining an even bigger following as a civilian vehicle in the years after. When Rory Carroll, interim publisher at Autoweek magazine, found this Jeep for sale, it had lived a long life as a piece of farm equipment in upstate New York. He paid just $2,300. βTheyβre popular for a reason. Itβs a lot of fun for the money,β he says. βItβs a really happy little car.β
Jeeps were meant to be quickly serviced on the battlefield with basic hand tools, which is why Carroll says theyβre perfect for anyone just getting into car collecting. βThereβs really nothing you canβt do to this car, even if you donβt consider yourself a mechanically savvy person,β he says.
βI think especially young people think that this is something that they canβt afford to do right now, or they donβt have time for, that itβs somehow out of reach for them. But there are a lot of really cheap, really fun old cars out there, and the time to do that stuff is when youβre young, when you can appreciate it and enjoy it. The idea of waiting until Iβm 50 years old to have a fun car is really crazy to me,β he says. βIf you want to own an old car, if you want to get involved with car culture, itβs incredibly rewarding, and you can do it now, at pretty much whatever station youβre at in life.β
Brad Oleshansky
BMW i8
As the proprietor of Pontiacβs M1 Concourse, Brad Oleshansky has to fit in with all aspects of car culture.
He has three cars in his collection, including a 1951 Pontiac Chieftain, 2015 Porsche GT4, and a 2016 Ford Focus RS. For daily use, Oleshansky drives this hybrid i8 (despite the bold blue color, Oleshansky says it is an unassuming car: Its electric mode is so quiet you can barely tell itβs running).
Oleshansky first got the idea for M1βs βcar condosβ nearly a decade ago. He started working on it in earnest after quitting his job as CEO of Ferndaleβs Big Communications. When General Motorsβ abandoned 87-acre Pontiac plant became available as part of its bankruptcy, Oleshansky found the perfect location for his vision. Eventually, he decided to add a 1.5-mile, 11-turn performance track to the project. βWe got 80 people to sign up to buy these before we put a shovel in the ground,β he says, adding more than 130 garages have been sold.
The facility opened last summer in time for the Woodward Dream Cruise. Oleshansky says expansion plans include restaurants, auto-related retail, and a large-scale banquet facility.
βEveryoneβs got their own definition of their pride and joy,β Oleshansky says. βThatβs the beauty of the car audience. You get a guy with a Volkswagen Beetle next to a guy with a Ferrari.
βThey donβt ask where do you live, what country club do you go to. They say, βTell me about your Volkswagen.ββ
About the location
The M1 Concourse in Pontiac offers private garage ownership, party rentals, corporate events, and more. The Champion Motor Speedway offers a 1.5-mile track and is also open for rental. The concourse is open year-round. Visit or call 866-618-7225 for inquiries.
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