{"id":28470,"date":"2019-09-24T19:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T23:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=28470"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:16","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:16","slug":"two-decades-of-rad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/events\/2019\/09\/two-decades-of-rad.html","title":{"rendered":"Two Decades of Rad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t starch my collar, I\u2019m allergic, and\nit would give me a bad neck rash,\u201d Brad Burkhardt joked about real-world 1980s\nproblems! That didn\u2019t stop him from\nrocking sweet sweat bands around his head and wrists at RADwood Detroit, the\ncar show that celebrates the 1980s and 1990s. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"radwood<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Part nostalgic trip down memory lane and part cosplay, RADwood is picking up steam and it\u2019s easy to see why; it\u2019s just good old-fashioned fun. Art Cervantes is RADwood CEO and talked with me about how it came together. \u201cWe (the organizers) are from California,\u201d he said, and obviously the car scene is strong there. And like most good (and bad!) ideas, this one came from friends hanging out talking cars. Art hosts a podcast and the idea sprung from that; they held their first show a couple years ago and have continued the momentum. As rad as this show is, it\u2019s no surprise why Dodge wanted to be a part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1989
1989 Dodge Viper Concept<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first thing we do anytime old stuff is\ninvolved is ring up Brandt Rosenbusch, Historical Manager for FCA North America.  Not only could he help us fill our Dodge\ndisplay with proper \u201980s and \u201990s cars, but he knows the history of them as\nwell. For example, he got us an original\n1984 Dodge Caravan properly painted in tan with fake woodgrain decals (SO\n\u201980s!) But this was the first minivan\nthat started an entire genre! \u201cThis one\nonly has 30,000 miles on it,\u201d says Brandt.\nAnd while it has a 3-speed automatic, he follows up that \u201ca 5-speed manual\nwas a very rare option, along with the BIG engine, a 2.6L HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1984
1984 Dodge Caravan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Under our Dodge tents, we featured other significant cars from the Historical Collection; a 5,000-mile 1985 Dodge Shelby Charger, a 5,800-mile 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z and the original Dodge Viper Concept from the 1989 Detroit Auto Show. All of these are serious time machines and rolled onto the field under their own power; they still run and drive!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man
John Hammer with the 1995 Dodge Shelby Charger. Note the pegged jeans and Adidas Superstars!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But, Brandt brought us one more car, a vehicle\nthat did something I\u2019ve never seen happen in my 13 years with Dodge…they were\nplaced side by side and it showed up the Viper Concept. The car? The 1982 Dodge\nM4S Turbo Interceptor! The WHAT?! M4S stands for Mid engine, 4 cylinder, Sport\nand the car was a technology experiment: it has two turbochargers on the 2.2L 4-cylinder engine, it makes 400 horsepower and was officially clocked at 194.8\nmiles per hour. The car went on to pace\nthe PPG Indycar Series, but was best known as the star of the 1986 Charlie\nSheen movie The Wraith<\/i>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1982
1982 Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charlie and one of the cars from the movie (not this Dodge-built M4S) were recently on an episode of Jay Leno\u2019s Garage<\/a>!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We topped out the Dodge display with proper \u201980s and \u201990s fare; a Connect Four game, Dodge-ified cornhole and lawn darts. We even dug up some original \u201cDodge Boys Have More Fun\u201d satin jackets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man
What\u2019s more vintage than Connect Four?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere you turned, there were totally awesome cars from the era (see what I did there?!). A 1981 Plymouth Reliant station wagon with old-school luggage in the back. A couple of GLHSs.How about a Chrysler TC by Maserati? Even motorcycles like this Top Gun themed tribute!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"vehicle\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"motorcycle\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joel and Jamie Blatchford are car club friends of mine from back in the 1990s and they came in full retro gear: MTV T-shirts, fanny packs, crazy sunglasses. Perfect! Their friend Darko Stojanovski won the award for Raddest Accessory: his car is an old beat up Rolls Royce. The accessory? A Dodge Viper engine and transmission!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
Yes, Joel & Jamie had an old-school instamatic camera … so retro! (photo Joel Blatchford)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"two
Dodge Boys & Girls Have More Fun! (photo Josh Welton)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Half of the folks at the show were barely even born in the era, and it was fun to see them have their take on it. But, I graduated high school in 1987. I lived this for real. I owned parachute pants. I used egg whites to spike my hair. I pegged my jeans. I starched my collars (and wore TWO polo shirts in layers … remember that?!) I had a boom box I got at KMart that played cassettes of Madonna and Bob Seger and The Romantics and Run DMC. Despite cars like Yugo, Fuego and Aztek, I was inspired to be a car guy by the BMW 3 Series, Honda CRX, Saab 900 Turbo, Mazda Miata and Dodge Viper (by the way, I\u2019ve owned all of those cars and models of all of them were at this show!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RADwood\u2019s Cervantes says, \u201cWe have big plans for next year that we\u2019re hoping really expands the event.\u201d As it sits now, RADwood is pure automotive fun and we can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s next!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"people<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"front<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI couldn\u2019t starch my collar, I\u2019m allergic, and it would give me a bad neck rash,\u201d Brad Burkhardt joked about real-world 1980s problems! That didn\u2019t stop him from rocking sweet sweat bands around his head and wrists at RADwood Detroit, the car show that celebrates the 1980s and 1990s.  Part nostalgic trip down memory lane and part cosplay, RADwood is picking up steam and it\u2019s easy to see why; it\u2019s just good old-fashioned fun. Art Cervantes is RADwood CEO and talked with me about how it came together. \u201cWe (the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":28472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[497],"tags":[2946],"class_list":["post-28470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-car-shows"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/feature-29.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28470"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28528,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28470\/revisions\/28528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}