Detroit — The RADwood show, presented by Hagerty and Mobil 1, returned to Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit! “A Celebration of the 80’s and 90’s” is the theme for the show. RADwood started in June 2017 at a marina in South San Francisco with 150 cars and 400 people. It has expanded throughout the country over the years. RAD is short for Radical and in the 80’s it stood for change: different but still cool. RADwood Royalty represents the ultimate top-notch cars of the era. So let’s get started.
I talked to Paul Reinert from Hershey, Penn. about his 1991 Mazda Miata. “This vehicle has a three-inch suspension lift, headers and full exhaust. It also has BMW bottlecap wheels. It goes 100 mph and gets 18 mpg. It is an off-road vehicle which I drive on gravel and dirt roads. It has 503 actual miles and I store it at my house. I added a cargo rack and roll bar, also off-road lights with all LED lighting, says Reinert. “I included a RC-10 remote control car from the era and people seem to get a kick out of it,” added Reinert.
My husband strolled the show and spoke with Cameron Rapotec from Rochester, Mich. regarding his beautiful blue 1998 Ferrari 456 GTA which he purchased in 2017. If you ask me, I’d say he is one lucky guy. “This car came from San Diego area and had four owners. I heard one of the owners was Andre Agassi, the former number one tennis player, but I don’t know if that’s true. I bought this car for $38,000 and now it is worth $60,000. I seem to have bought it at the right time,” he chuckled.
Rapotec says it was the most expensive car in 1998 at $240,000. “They made 402 of this particular model due to the price being so expensive. It has a front engine, V-12, with 436 horsepower. Right now it has 73,000 miles on it. It has a top speed of 194 mph and at the time it was the fastest four-passenger car in the world,” says Rapotec.
“It has two fuel pumps, two coil packs, two ECU computers. The Ferrari uses premium gas with a 29 gallon gas tank and gets 6.6 mpg. I drive it quite a bit in the summer. This is also the last model Ferrari for flip-up lights. The engine is in the front with the transmission in the rear of the vehicle,” added Rapotec.
I also found an interesting vehicle, the red 1999 Daihatsu Midget II which is owned by Brian Mentley from Windsor, Ont. Actually I never heard of the Daihatsu, but he told me the company merged with Toyota and is still around. “I bought this car in Japan and brought it over myself. I paid $890 but the shipping cost was very expensive: $3,000. I still drive this two-seater to work everyday, and it goes up to 50 mph and has 140,000 miles on it. The payload is 260 pounds in the back bed which is equivalent to two people.” (I thought that was funny.)
The special event also featured live music, a fashion contest, awards program and ride-and-drive opportunities in a Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R and Autozam AZ-1.
I really enjoyed the RADwood show at Hart Plaza overlooking the Detroit River. It was a perfect day with beautiful blue skies with temps in the low to mid 80’s. The next RADwood show will be held in southern California on Saturday, November 9 at the Port of L.A.
For more info about upcoming RADwood events, go to: https://www.radwood.com/
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