Cads & LaS hobbiests in SE Michigan.

-- Home Region to Southeastern Michigan and Northwest Ohio --

The Motor City Region is old yet new. Its founding goes back to the very beginnings of the Cadillac & LaSalle Club in 1958. The three founding members of the national club (Ken Baldwin, Ansel Sackett and Norm Uhlir) all lived and worked in the Detroit Metropolitan area. Initially, all effort was extended in soliciting members from across the country. It wasn’t long, however, before those recruited to help with the project began meeting socially in one of either two member’s homes; one home was in Grosse Pointe; the other in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. Mt. Clemens sits at the north end of Lake St. Clair and Gross Pointe is located at the south end of Lake St. Clair. At the time, it seemed perfectly logical to name the local fledgling group the Lake St. Clair Region of the Cadillac & LaSalle Club. It wasn’t long before other regions began to form throughout the country such as the Potomac Region, Southern California Region, and Northern California Region. Cadillac and LaSalle enthusiasts in the Region in southeastern Michigan were all members of the Lake St. Clair Region until September of 2004.

Now, we Michiganders were trained well in school. Not only can we name the five Great Lakes, we know that Lake St. Clair is a rather large puddle, but only a puddle, between the St. Clair River and the Detroit River and that all these bodies of water are part of the Great Lakes system that contains 20% of the world’s fresh water. Club members in other parts of the country, however, could not associate the name of an unknown lake with Cadillac & LaSalle Club members in the Detroit, the Motor City. After many years of discussing this anomaly, local members were asked to submit possible suggestions for a new region name. A ballot was prepared, which included the historical name Lake St. Clair. In October 2004, with the plebiscite complete, the region was officially named the Motor City Region.

This large metropolitan region, with traditionally between 150 and 200 members, has always been a very active region. For most of its history, the region has held monthly meetings at 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month where everything from technical help to planning get-togethers is discussed. In addition to meetings, there has always been a variety of activities planned to suit the taste of our varied membership: picnics, car shows, museum tours, driving tours, and much more.

Back in 1999, serious discussion began about the upcoming Cadillac Centennial in August of 2002. The region applied to the national CLC Board of Directors to host the annual Grand National Meet in 2002 as a centennial celebration. As discussions and plans progressed, the Executive Committee for the event suddenly discovered that they were planning a massive centennial extravaganza for our favorite marques. With financial backing from Cadillac and with untold hours put in by many local members, an eight-day celebration, which featured the Motor City as leading lady, took place, in, of course, August of 2002. The actual event was based at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, the only hotel capable of hosting the nearly 2,000 attendees, but interesting automotive-related activities took place all over, not only the metropolitan area, but a good part of southern Michigan.

This is but a brief look at who we are and what we do. Please be our guest at the next Motor City Region meeting at one of our two bi-monthly locations. (Click on MEMBERSHIP for meeting details.) As Cadillac or LaSalle enthusiasts, we may be exactly what you are looking for.