Classic cars return to Detroit for NAIAS

DETROIT (WJBK) - They traveled nearly 3,000 miles across the country to get to Detroit in time for this year's auto show. But they weren't riding in modern cars, they were doing it in three vintage cars to bring them back to the Motor City.

The 1957 Chevy Nomad, 1961 Chrysler 300G, and 1966 Ford Mustang all pulled into Detroit Friday morning. The drive home celebration is kicking off the North America International Auto Show one week in advance.

When these classics pulled in, they admittedly didn't look so great. That's because it took 11 days get from Tacoma, Washington to Detroit, with several stops along the way.

And these classic cars? No problems on today's roads.

"We took this one through the mountains. Talk about that. Oh man, it was fantastic, it was incredible. This is really a nice handling car. It's so smooth," Bill Hall, who was driving the 1957 Chevy Nomad, said.

The three classics came from America's Car Museum in Tacoma. Friday's celebration started at Lincoln of Troy, made its way down Woodward, and ended at Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit.

"It's incredible, it's like Caesar coming home from campaigns in Rome or something, it's great," Hall said.

NAIAS Executive Director Rod Alberts said these cars are true symbols of history.

"There's great history that's often forgotten. You remember the days with your grandparents and you had family time, it's like dinner, and those are the times that you miss the most and mean the most to you," Alberts said.

So will they be washed? That's the great debate online. On one hand, yes, you should clean it to make it look as beautiful as the day it rolled off the line. On the Other? David Madeira with America's Car Museum has that side.

"If you followed it online people were arguing about that and after a while everyone who was about keeping them dirty totally overwhelmed everyone else say what do you mean was the car, it's supposed to look like this, it's gone about 3100 miles, it needs to show it. If we brought this into Detroit all shined up, yeah sure you drove it on a trailer," Madeira said.

Clean or dirty, the lady red trio will be in the Motor City as part of the Auto Show celebration.