AUGUST 11 • 2022 | 13
Car Guy
ince the first car ran down
Woodward Avenue in
1896, Detroiters have been
obsessed with automobiles.
The metro area is, after all,
known around the world as
the “Motor City.”
This moniker was earned early in the 20th
century when Detroit produced more cars
than any place on Earth. Today, as a global
automobile research and tech-
nology center, Metro Detroit still
deserves its nickname.
As much as the Motor City
represents the manufacturing of
automobiles, however, it is a city
where car culture may be the
ruling culture. A driver’s license
is a right-of-passage in Detroit,
not quite as important as a bar
or bat mitzvah, but not too far behind. Most
of us fondly remember our first car (mine was
a tiny, used 1965 West German-made NSU
Prinz that cost $250). Some of us also spent a
lot of time working on our cars, whether an
antique car in a heated garage, or while lying
on the driveway beneath our heaps, trying to
make them faster or cooler, or just operate for
another week.
Many of us also dreamed of owning a
fast and flashy piece of iron, whether a Ford
Mustang, Pontiac GTO or Dodge Charger, or a
BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar or Porsche. In fact, just a
drive in a really exotic automobile might be a
once-in-a-lifetime event.
Some of us, however, get to live and breathe
automobiles every day, drive all sorts of exot-
ic cars and write about them for our “work.”
Metro Detroiter Eddie Alterman is currently
living this dream, and, yes, many car-lovers
like me are very jealous!
A somewhat typical Detroiter regarding
automobiles, Eddie grew up with cars and
with people who loved them. Born and raised
in Huntington Woods, he is the son of Mickey
and Sharon Alterman. He graduated from
Cranbrook High School and earned a B.A. in
English from the University of Michigan.
Mike Smith
Alene and
Graham Landau
Archivist Chair
Eddie Alterman
loves the glitz of
the auto industry.
PHOTO BY JOHN ROE
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