Each year I travel to an event called Roadkill Nights in Pontiac, Michigan and it’s truly an event like no other that I attend. It’s kind of a live version of the Roadkill TV show in that it shares its name and pretty much all of the Roadkill personalities attend, including Roadkill, Roadkill Garage, Hot Rod Garage, etc. Being an offshoot of an automotive TV shows means that there needs to be a car show portion, and there is. On top of that, it’s “Powered by Dodge” so Dodge is on hand with Hellcat Thrill Rides and for the last two years, RAM has brought TRX Thrill Rides. It’s also a community event with carnival-type activities, food trucks and more.
But Roadkill Nights’ biggest claim to fame is that they offer drag racing right on Woodward Avenue! This is as close as we’ll get (legally) to the drag racing on Woodward that occurred in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It offers the allure of street racing but in a completely controlled environment and it’s totally legal. The only thing that could make it better would be to see actual Woodward street racers from back in the day pairing up like the Silver Bullet ’67 Plymouth, Gapp & Roush Mustang, Steve Lisk’s Challenger, etc. But I digress.
The first Roadkill Nights event was held in the parking lot of the old Pontiac Silverdome and after that it moved to M1 Concourse, which is a fantastic facility. For 2023 the event was forced to move due to construction on Woodward. The festivities were moved to downtown Pontiac and the organizers made the best of the move. One positive outcome of the move was that Dodge and RAM offered Thrill Rides where you got to be a passenger in a drag race ON Woodward Ave. That was pretty cool.
On Sunday, I didn’t have an official Carlisle Events agenda but I’m a diehard car guy so I had no plans of sitting in a hotel room all day. I had heard about a car show that was being held at an abandoned drag strip about two hours north of where I was staying. It sounded like an awesome opportunity but I decided to head to the “Rockin Rods n’ Rochester” show. Rochester is on the northern edge of the Detroit metro area so there are lots of really cool cars and people at that show as it pulls directly from the Detroit car community. The variety of cars was incredible with literally a little bit of everything at the show and the town of Rochester is very nice and it embraces the car show.
This year I wanted to stay in the area a little longer because I was invited to a very special and private gathering of Chrysler engineers and “race team” members. Just being in the presence of these guys (about 30-40 of them) was one of the most incredible experiences ever. Imagine sitting in a room full of the guys who literally handled the race programs for Chrysler including NASCAR, drag racing, Trans Am and even Team Viper. There were members of the Ramchargers, engineers, dyno operators and many more. The stories flying around were incredible. To most of these guys, it was just a job. But to enthusiasts like me, they are our heroes and THEY made this hobby what it is today. I’m hoping to get some of these guys to come to Carlisle in the near future to share their stories.
Something really cool happened on a personal level during the gathering. When one of the engineers heard I was going to be there, he made it a point to seek me out. His name is David Buchesky. David was a suspension engineer for Chrysler since the early ‘60s where he worked on production cars as well as NASCAR, drag racing and Trans Am programs. David moved around within Chrysler a bit in the early ‘70s but went back to suspension engineering when he worked on the Viper program.
Back to the part that was cool for me. If you look at David’s last name (Buchesky) it’s close to mine (Buczeskie). They might not look identical but they should be pronounced the same because “CZ” is pronounced with the “CH” sound. OK, that’s kind of neat but it gets better. David wanted to meet me because he thinks we might be related. Not only do our names sound alike, but his family name was originally spelled “Buczewski” before they hit Ellis Island. That’s getting really close! Upon doing some of my own research, I found out that David was born in Pottsville, PA which is less than 30 miles from my family’s hometown. It was great meeting you, “Uncle Dave”!
I don’t like to sit around when I travel and when I get an invite to see something cool, you can bet I’m going to be there. Steve Atwell is a pretty well-known collector in the Mopar world for his vintage drag cars. Steve invited me to check out his collection, or at least a portion of it. The four race cars I saw that day were Butch Leal’s ’75 Dart Sport, the Rod Shop ’73 Dart Sport, a Survivor ’67 Coronet (WO23) Super Stock car and Don Prudhomme’s ’70 ‘Cuda funny car (the actual race car and not the Rapid Transit show car). The street cars that I saw that day included a sweet ’68 Charger restomod and a ’68 Hemi GTX convertible that I’ll elaborate on in my coverage of the Woodward Dream Cruise. Besides the cars, there were Hemi engines, blocks and parts just about everywhere you looked.
Steve also owns a company called Erin Industries. Don’t feel bad, I had never heard of it either, but Erin Industries plays a very important role in the auto industry. I had heard stories about Steve’s business and I love manufacturing so I was really excited about this part of the visit. In a nutshell, Erin Industries mostly forms tubing; round, square or just about any shape. They can bend it, twist it, cut it, put holes in it (of pretty much any shape) and so on.
Erin Industries made the frame/chassis for EVERY Viper that Dodge ever built. However, most of their business involves producing smaller parts. On the day I visited, they had several lines running. One of them was forming two short fluid lines that go inside the transmissions that Tremec builds for the C8 Corvettes. I think we all know that the OEMs don’t build all the parts for their cars, but I personally never really thought about the supplier who makes the parts for the vendors (like Tremec) who supply the OEMs. Some other single, “small” parts being produced by Erin include the upper tie bar (radiator support) for most mid-size GM SUVs, AC lines for electric delivery trucks, the main tube for the hitch on a RAM TRX and much more.
This was one amazing trip and I accomplished a lot. I met several Chrysler race team members and engineers I had never met before and I met several for the first time. Hopefully some of them will come to Carlisle to give a presentation as that was my goal for that particular visit. I connected with many current key players in the Mopar hobby at Roadkill Nights. The visit to Erin Industries was icing on the cake but even that resulted in a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll talk about in my Woodward coverage in a future installment of All About Cars.
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