• Pit+Paddock’s first USDM Grid Icons car show paid homage to the Ford Mustang’s 60-year history at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan.
• The Thursday event strategically coincided with the Woodward Dream Cruise where over 1,000,000 people and 40,000 classic cars parade Woodward Avenue all weekend.
• Recognized Mustang owners like Autumn Schwalbe, Brian Reid, Lauren Stoney, Andrew Schenk, Ross Wallen, and more made the event shine.
• Support from Vibrant Performance, Weld Wheels, MBRP, Hawk Performance, and MAHLE Original helped make this pivotal Grid Icons chapter possible.

At one point in time, Detroit was the hub of our nation’s car culture. Quite literally, it was “the town that put the world on wheels” and the who’s who of auto manufacturers—Ford, GM, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Buick, Cadillac, and more—made this Midwest city its home. That automotive renaissance eventually cooled, but anyone who’s visited the Motor City knows that there’s a lingering spirit of what once was underneath its pavement.

Showing up for the city was a big reason why we wanted to eventually bring Grid Icons here. The Woodward Dream Cruise—where over 1,000,000 people and 40,000 classic cars parade for miles on Woodward Avenue all weekend—and the 60th anniversary of the Mustang were perfect excuses to finally make the trek and show Detroit what Pit+Paddock’s car shows were all about.

FRONT ROW SEATS

M1 Concourse ended up being a fitting host for the event since it’s positioned on Woodward Avenue. Although we didn’t have the track—this was saved for a weekend-long event already—we made the most of the space available to curate a 50-deep roster of badass Mustangs from every generation. As each of them rumbled into M1 Concourse’s footprint and were directed into their strategic parking spaces, everyone’s excitement started to build for what this Thursday night event was going to bring to the local car community. Frankly, nobody had thought to do a “prelude” to Woodward Dream Cruise before, and while that did bring a bit of uncertainty to our efforts, we had all the right support on board—especially from Vibrant Performance, Weld Wheels, MBRP, Hawk Performance, and MAHLE Original—to ensure what we did went off with a bang. But we’d have to wait a few hours until the event started to know for sure.

THE GRID

At the beginning of Pit+Paddock, we were admittedly very intentional about integrating displays that looked like starting grids; it helped us drive the point home about where our brand intersected. Since then, we can admit that it just looks incredibly cool. We lined the Mustangs up by generation—old to new—so that when spectators rolled through the gates, it’d be their first impression.

After walking through this array, a left into M1 Concourse’s ballroom would treat you to a small collection of well-recognized Mustang builds from Autumn Schwalbe, Andrew Schenk, Lauren Stoney, and more. Front and center sat Chris Holbrook’s 1,500hp S650-bodied Factory X Mustang, which was bound to draw eyes all day long.

GATES OPEN

By the time the event officially opened to the public, I’d walked the show a few times, picking out new cars to admire or notice different mods I’d managed to miss on a previous pass. It felt like I found a new favorite on every lap; there was, quite literally, a Mustang for everyone here—old school, show, drag, race, resto-mods, and factory specials—all clustered into the Grid Icons layout. As the crowd flooded into M1 Concourse, it seemed like they felt the same way I did. Job done, right? I’d say that the impressions here were even more significant than you’d think.

In our foundational years, Pit+Paddock was immediately recognized as an online magazine that lived and breathed Sport Compact and Euro content. Although admittedly, lots of us own cars in these categories, our interests extend well beyond those realms. I’ll share a little secret: I’ve always wanted to own something Domestic. One of my uncles worked for Ford when I was a kid; fittingly, he had an old 1965 Dynasty Green Mustang in the garage. I remember escaping from family parties to admire it, to sit in it and take in the smell of vintage Americana. I was still too young to drive before he sold the car, but it left an impression I still haven’t shaken. I imagine that most people who came to the show had a similar experience in one way or another and this was Pit+Paddock’s official announcement that we weren’t just two-trick ponies.

The word must’ve spread across the city, too. A group of Mustangs—including a generous sampling of Shelby GT500s—showed up together and created a display car area of their own outside of the main show. The Signature Edition and Super Snake get my vote as the coolest of the bunch. Does anyone want to lend a hundred thousand dollars my way?

Anyway, our Grid Icons: Mustang lifestyle collection was also in high demand as people funneled into the show. Visual artist Harris Lue did an amazing job reimagining Schenk’s Mustang in his signature style and Leen Customs did their thing as usual to turn his car into a sought-after pin.

FACTORY UPGRADES

Ford Performance has been fun to watch over the last handful of years. It picked up a lot of cues from the aftermarket and developed a rather tasty menu of upgrades that Mustang owners can buy without spoiling the factory warranty. The FP800S Concept was parked next to a Shelby GT500—its benchmark for performance—and showed how enthusiasts could modify their Mustangs directly from the Ford Performance catalog. This car had everything Ford Performance had to offer: a Gen-6 Whipple supercharger, 92mm throttle body, oil separator, beefier half-shafts, R1 19” wheels, and a bunch of aero upgrades.

The rear spoiler was killer and lifted directly from the Dark Horse. Conveniently enough, there was one parked on the other side of the GT500 so that we could compare and contrast each model with a fine-toothed comb. It was the first time I’d actually seen one of these in person. The matte accents on the bumper and hood coordinate well with the matte aero add-ons, but I was most intrigued by the two-tone carbon fiber/blue Kevlar wheels—it was cool to see the latest iteration here after Ford debuted carbon wheels on the “old” GT350R. Thank you, Ford Performance, for coming out so strong for us. It meant so much to have the marque support an enthusiast-driven show and see an OE who fully understands the modern enthusiast.

CROSS-TOWN RIVALRY

Not to be overshadowed, Roush also made its presence felt. As a major player in the Mustang aftermarket space, its fingerprints extended beyond the car it brought, but I’ll concede that it was awesome to see its Phase 2 supercharger in the flesh. The red plenum is its giveaway compared to the rest of Roush’s forced induction offerings and it promises to deliver a mind-boggling 810hp to 2024 Mustang GT and Dark Horse owners. Supercars, you’re on notice.

VERY IMPORTANT

Mahle Original’ VIP Lounge helped bring a special experience to the event as well. Several showgoers who’d opted out of the VIP section returned to the Pit+Paddock booth to figure out how to get in almost immediately. Attendees could kick back in front of the fire pits with a drink and lively music from our DJ while enjoying a perfect, unobstructed view of the Mustang grid. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday afternoon if I don’t say so myself.

VENDOR ROW

In contrast to other shows where vendors are set on a remote island, Vibrant Performance, Weld Racing, and MBRP were all part of the main drag. This allowed every spectator to interact organically with each brand, its products, and the super cool cars that each brought to the show. Ross Wallen’s Gloss Rock Grey turbocharged Fox Body in front of the Vibrant Performance booth was easily one of my favorites. The Weld Racing Ventura S104s were perfectly spec’d with that mirror-polished lip. Hard to beat a five-spoke on the Fox Body chassis.

For anyone interested in touching and interacting with the products that helped build the cars, Vibrant Performance and MBRP brought plenty to sample.

CHERRY ON TOP

After all that walking around, Grid Icons guests found themselves drawn to the two food trucks on-site. Sucrée (French for sweet) made sure Justin and I could cool off from shooting. As someone who misses the Portillos chocolate cake shake, I highly recommend Sucrée’s “Bumpy Cake” as the closest alternative. With our blood sugar replenished, we headed back inside the M1 Concourse ballroom for the hero car walkthroughs.

I loved this part of the show because there’s always a great story behind the builds. Although we’d given Andrew Schenk’s Mustang a lot of love on the Pit+Paddock site, it was cool to hear from him about what made the project special. Our own Sam Du and his friend KJ Jones made sure we hit all the right talking points.

By the end of the night, I’d gone full Mustang fanboy mode and dawned my newly acquired Shelby Team Shirt from Lunar Replicas who happened to be in town. They assisted in producing all Shelby team uniforms for Ford vs Ferrari and became licensed by Carroll Shelby Licensing and Ford Motor Company to bring these “exactingly reproduced team uniforms” to the public.

PERSONAL FAVORITE

As I’ve been saying throughout this article, there was a lot to like about this event. But I confess that my favorite was one of the first cars to arrive: this 1967 Mustang racecar. Over the extremely deafening exhaust, I yelled “I LOVE YOUR CAR” to the owner, to which I received an affirming thumbs up. After he got out, he revealed that he helped build this exact car when he was 16 years old and was tasked with repainting the black exhaust pipes after each race (where they’d get chipped to hell).

He’d purchased the car from the ninth owner in 2019 and confessed that he hadn’t seen the car since 1972, but was, by happenstance of his involvement in building it, the caretaker of the car’s painstaking record-keeping. To prove it, he pulled out a leather briefcase and a 700-page binder. Page by page, he took us through some of the car’s history, including service records, hotel receipts, suspension settings, communication with Carroll Shelby, and more. There isn’t a word in the dictionary to describe this level of detail, but it made the car even more special than it already was. The car rumbled to life after Grid Icons: Mustang’s hours drew to a close and I shouted: “THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR STORY. I’M GLAD IT ENDED UP IN THE RIGHT HANDS.” He responded humbly by acknowledging that he was “just the caretaker” and sped off into the distance—the exhaust tips perfectly painted black as they were in 1967. If he were running for President, I’d vote for him.

Thank you to Vibrant Performance, Weld Wheels, MBRP, Hawk Performance, and MAHLE Original for helping turn our Grid Icons: Mustang concept into reality and to all the display cars and guests for coming out to the event. It was a fantastic way to announce our arrival into the Domestic space as our car show series evolves.

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