Moved to Pontiac, new outdoor auto show features 'ride-alongs' and test drives of new cars

Bill Laytner
Detroit Free Press

It’s not your father’s auto show.

The scaled-down auto show, dubbed Motor Bella — coming to Pontiac next week in lieu of Detroit’s traditional indoor auto show — will be new to auto fans in more ways than just being outdoors.

A map of all the areas for the public to see and experience at Motor Bella when it starts next week at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac.

Visitors will still ogle acres of new cars. But Motor Bella also will offer the adventuresome a chance to wear a helmet and ride with an expert driver in an off-road pickup or trail-prepped SUV on hilly courses banked with hay bales. Others can get behind the wheel themselves for test drives in sleek new cars on Woodward Avenue — but only “after they get Breathalyzed and sign a waiver,” said a spokeswoman for the show. 

Motor Bella, set to open to the public Thursday and run through the following weekend, has set ticket prices at $15 for adults on weekdays and $20 on weekends, with discounts for kids, seniors and others; see www.MotorBella.com. Instead of being under bright lights in a convention hall, the show is on the tarmac and lawns of the M1 Concourse, an 87-acre private complex where a 1.5-mile speed track is circled by more than 200 condominium garages owned by sports car buffs. Many of the “ride-along” opportunities will take place on an oval track reduced to a 1-mile “hot laps track,” while an additional half-mile loop will be absorbed by displays, organizers said during a tour of the grounds Friday.

Workers build a Jeep stand for people to interact and learn more about the Jeep brand on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 in preparation for next week's Motor Bella at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac.

At the Stellantis area, a bulldozer was pushing dirt into a mini-mountain, surrounded by massive hay bales, to ready one of the car maker’s three “ride-along” tracks: Camp Jeep Experience will have a quarter-mile of twisting terrain to show off the new four-wheel-drive power of the Jeep Wrangler 4xe; the half-mile Ram TRX Experience will have a “high-speed off-roading experience, including hairpin turns, rolling hills and a tabletop jump” for off-road pickup trucks; and Dodge Hot Laps will take place on the M1 Concourse track, available only on Sept. 25, when visitors can sit shotgun with an expert driver of a Dodge Charger or Challenger Hellcat with 807 h.p. engines.

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At the Ford areas, besides showing the 2022 Ford Expedition — to be unveiled to the media on Tuesday — the automaker will show its new Lincoln Navigator and Aviator Shinola Concept vehicles following their recent public debuts. Ride-alongs to show off four-wheel-drive capability will take place on a steel incline called Bronco Mountain.

Two large inflatable theaters that Ford will be using to show various videos and films about their car, truck and SUV lineups to the public are in the process of being built on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 for next week's first-ever Motor Bella at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac.

GM will display its new electric Hummer, along with a GM Defense Infantry Squad Vehicle, as well as numerous Chevrolet high-performance and race vehicles, including an electrified concept drag racer. Toyota will debut the 2022 Tundra pickup, to be unveiled Sunday to reporters at Motor Bella.

Motor Bella, whose name combines a British word for traveling by vehicle with an Italian word for beautiful, will have more than 400 cars on display, said Rod Alberts, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association. The DADA stages metro Detroit's auto shows. 

Referring to the “ride-along” and “drive-yourself” activities, Alberts said, “whether you’re looking to buy a car or just want to experience these opportunities, this is a unique show for you.” The effort to give visitors moving auto moments is sure to be carried into future shows in downtown Detroit, he added.

Rod Alberts, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, speaks with the news media about the progress and construction going on for Motor Bella at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021.

“These are things we can do outside the walls of the convention center, by closing streets and using Hart Plaza,” he said.

The show comes amid a perfect storm for the auto industry, as a potential surge of the COVID-19 virus’ delta strain fills hospitals across metro Detroit and the nation, and as a shortage of computer chips threatens to slash worldwide vehicle production by a much as 50%. Still, the show will go on, said Paul Sabatini, owner of two dealerships: Lincoln of Troy and Mission Ford of Dearborn. Sabatini, a part chairman of the DADA, said the outdoor venue was aimed at helping to prevent COVID-19 virus transmission.

"People do feel more comfortable outside these days," Sabatini said. He said he was "somewhat surprised" to see no masks worn among the 40 visitors at Friday's media tour, nor on the faces of hundreds of workers assembling the exhibits. But visitors are welcome to don masks, he said.

"I'm sure we'll have thousands of people here," he said.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com