*81i4ft lez ig i
11144 111411111
Cars are both a career and a hobby for We*st Bloomfield's Kenny Walters.
Kenny Walters with his four refurbished classic cars.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
K
enny Walters spends his working days quieting
car noises brought to his attention by custom-
ers, but he spends much of his hobby time
enhancing sounds in muscle cars he collects.
Walters, owner of Mufflers and More in Walled Lake,
keeps four vintage vehicles that he restored and main-
tains to be easily heard before they can be seen up close.
He revved up the engines by making careful adjust-
ments to the exhaust systems.
All four of Walters' prized autos — a red 1969 Camaro
SS/RS, a light-blue 1963 Nova convertible, a black 2001
Pontiac Trans Am convertible and a green 1991 Mazda
Miata special edition — will be on view at the 13th
annual Woodward Dream Cruise on Saturday, Aug. 18.
Walters and his wife, Gina, each will drive a vehicle,
while the other two will be on display.
"I've always had a love affair with cars and worked
in shops since I've been 15," says Walters, 40, who also
races. "I've been part of every Dream Cruise and love
the speed that can be reached competing at area tracks.
"I also like the old cars because of the satisfaction I
get making them run well again. I just got a black 1969
Ford Falcon, found in a garage by a friend who bought
some property. In about a year, I will have it in working
order — maybe in time for the 2008 cruise?'
The 2007 Dream Cruise, expected to attract more
than 1 million people and 40,000 collected cars, covers
communities from the northern border of Detroit into
Pontiac. As participants watch the motor parade, they
will have lots of opportunities to buy food, experience
musical entertainment, take the kids to activities just for
them and purchase cruise mementoes.
The spirit of the cars of the 1950s and 1960s precedes
and follows the event with all kinds of attractions. New
this year is the Detroit Festival of Speed and Style,
which runs Aug. 24-26 at Campus Martius and Cadillac
Square in downtown Detroit, where art and music
become part of a vehicle exhibition.
Walters, who drives a dark-gray Chevy Suburban as
his base vehicle, looks forward to the summer, when he
rotates driving each of his collected cars. A graduate of
Southfield-Lathrup High School and a former business
student at Wayne State University, he considers himself
very lucky to work with cars every day.
"Part of the attraction of fixing cars is hearing the
sounds:' says Walters, a West Bloomfield resident who
has had his own business for seven years and even
enjoys polishing his four favorites.
The car collection came gradually. He sold a 1969
Chevy Corvette to buy the Chevy Camaro through a
friend. Gina, who drives a Honda Pilot, spotted the Nova
on a rare-car Web site. The Trans Am came through
a relative, while the Miata was obtained from a family
Kenny met during racing events.
Last year, after the Dream Cruise, Walters had his
greatest car adventure. He joined a group traveling the
expanse of Route 66 for an article by Richard Truesdell
for the November/December 2006 edition of the maga-
zine Motor Trend Classic.
Walters was invited because of a connection he
made through a cousin, Arnold Marks, now living in
California and joining the group with his 1970 Mach 1
Ford Mustang.
Each of the four cars on the roadway journey rep-
resented one of America's premiere car companies:
General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and the American
Motors Corp.
"We drove 12-14 hours a day from one Sunday to the
next," recalls Walters, who was behind the wheel of his
Camaro for most of the trip. "Sometimes, we switched
cars.
"I've never experienced the country before, so it was
great to see places where I've never been. We stopped in
little towns, and everybody was so friendly. We raced in
a Texas ghost town that looked like a movie set?"
Truesdell wrote, "(The) 1969 Camaro SS/RS benefited
from some judicious suspension modifications by a
prior owner, a GM engineer, who gave his Camaro the
most contemporary ride and handling characteristics
Dream Cruiser on page 45
August 16 • 2007
39