It seems fitting that Saline Journal is balanced between the legacy automobile history that made Michigan and assertions about the future of universal access to autonomous mobility. [1,2]
After a week that started out with coverage of the Ann Arbor SPARK event at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, tomorrow offers the opportunity to see “more than 300 exotic, antique, classic, and one-of-a-kind cars” on closed streets in downtown Ann Arbor. That’s where you’ll find the Rolling Sculpture Car Show, from 2:00pm to 10:00pm. Our own Bill Crispin is its major sponsor. [3]
Bill Crispin Chevrolet is best known in Saline as a leading General Motors dealership that sells new vehicles. Mr Crispin started out in the business in 1975 with an operation out of Detroit before staking his own claim here locally three years later. His lot was originally located on the property now known by the Chelsea Lumber marquee — before moving significantly eastward on Michigan Avenue, ultimately settling on this side of South State Road. [4,5]
Predominantly placed and meticulously cared for in its main lobby is certainly some part of the DNA for the Rolling Sculpture Car Show sponsorship. “The 1956 Cameo pickup was very hard for a dealer to get,” Mr Crispin said when opening the door of that baby blue Chevrolet for Saline Journal.
“How in the world did farmers in the ’50s afford that truck?” he asked rhetorically. “I can’t imagine hey or corn being hauled in the back. It was a delux model in the ’50s.” Perhaps relatively more recent Cadillac Escalade truck can empathize.
The Rolling Sculpture Car Show honors the tradition of fine transportation such as this in a way that steps beyond museum displays: On the road — the environment for which they were engineered. In fact, the arrival and staging of vehicles is an event worth seeing in and of itself. Each in its own time, these were cars that matter-of-factly populated the streets of Ann Arbor, seemingly having returned today as if all clocks had stopped between their days and now. Listen closer and distinct engine sounds can be heard; and even the best maintained transmissions insist on standing out.
Not coincidentally, this is the place of The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, too. Because these cars aren’t simply history, they are art. And this show isn’t just an event, as Mr Crispin noted. It brings new commerce to the restaurants and stores that face the many interconnecting thoroughfares on which these cars are shown.
Bill Crispin has been the signature sponsor for Rolling Sculpture for well over a dozen years now. This year the show is once again sold out. If you’re planning to show your own dream ride, however, don’t plan on telling the organizers you’re “a friend of Bill Crispin” in hopes of jockeying for better placement. He doesn’t play favorites here.
Downtown Ann Arbor at South Main and William is located nine miles north-northeast of Saline. See links below for 2019 and future Rolling Sculpture Car Show dates.
References
- “Saline Michigan Is a Place That Gets ‘Car People’ (Year Round, as It Turns Out)” Dell Deaton (April 23, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Trust is the Biggest Obstacle to a Mobility Revolution; Established Players Are Directly Asking You for It, Now” Dell Deaton (June 7, 2018) Saline Journal.
- The Rolling Sculpture Car Show (Facebook Event).
- Bill Crispin Chevrolet (home page).
- Chelsea Lumber (home page).
- “Chevy Cameo Carrier (1955-1958)” Classic Car History.
- “1955-’58 Chevy Cameo: The World’s First Sport Truck?” James Derek Sapienza (November 4, 2017) Autos Cheat Sheet.
- “Remember When There Was a Cadillac Escalade Pickup?” Doug DeMuro (January 2017) Auto Trader.
- Ann Arbor Street Art Fair (home page).
