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
continued on page 14

