"TwelveAir" faced some stiff competition at the Detroit Autorama, but the double-bubble-coupe-roof 'Vette came out on top
Author of the article:
Jil McIntosh
Published Mar 05, 2024 • Last updated 3days ago • 3 minute read
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A 1953 Chevrolet Corvette has won the coveted Ridler Award for 2024, one of the most coveted trophies for customized cars. The Corvette was selected from a group of eight finalists at the Detroit Autorama car show in Michigan in early March. The car was built by Dave Kindig and his Kindig-It Design shop, located in Utah and made famous by the television show Bitchin’ Rides.
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Hand-built V12-powered 1953 Corvette takes 2024 Ridler Back to video
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The car, owned by Pennsylvania-based Dave and Tracy Maxwell, took almost five years to create. Should any purists bemoan the idea that someone took a real 1953 Corvette – the first year for the iconic two-seater – and chopped it up, they can relax. The car, dubbed TwelveAir, is completely hand-built, including its aluminum body, which takes the place of the fiberglass that Chevrolet used to make the Corvette right from the beginning.
The 9.2L engine contains twelve cylinders and is also one-off and hand-built, by Race Cast Engineering of Australia, which bases the engine on Chevrolet LS architecture and tunes it to an estimated 800 horsepower. The suspension and wheels are also a custom design, as is the interior, much of which was 3-D printed.
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We can only guess at what it cost to build the car, but we’re also guessing that the $10,000 cheque that comes with the trophy probably wouldn’t have paid for the steering wheel. Nobody builds or commissions a Ridler contender to make money on it, after all — it’s all about the bragging rights.
The eight finalists – known as the “Great 8” – are determined at the show, as is the winner. The seven cars that bowed before the Corvette were a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, shortened by a couple of feet or so; a 1951 Henry J, a model built by the defunct Kaiser Corporation and turned into a “ute” truck in the style of a Chevrolet El Camino or Ford Ranchero; a 1963 Chevrolet Impala; a 1968 Mercury Cougar built by JF Launier, based in British Columbia (his 1964 Buick won the Ridler in 2014); a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette; a 1959 Chrysler 300E; and a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air.
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The award is named for Don Ridler, who produced grandstand shows at the Michigan State Fair in the 1950s. The Detroit Autorama had been a small car show starting in 1953, and the organizers hired Ridler to turn it into a major event. After Ridler died in 1963, the show organizers honoured him with the award, which was first presented in 1964.
To be eligible for the award, a vehicle must be making its public debut at Autorama, and it has to be its first showing anywhere — no outings at the local cruise night, no “here’s the car halfway through its build” magazine stories, not even any public social media posts. The car also has to be driveable, and has to get to its spot on the show floor under its own power.
The Ridler is a highlight of the show, but only part of it. The event covers two floors at Detroit’s Huntington Place, formerly known as Cobo Hall. The show pulled in some 800 show cars, including customs and hot rods, antique cars, trucks and more. While the upper floor is more of a traditional show, and where the Great 8 are displayed, car fans also flock to the basem*nt, a fun spot that’s always packed with hot rods ranging from fully finished to ratty-but-regularly-driven.
Jil McIntosh
Jil McIntosh specializes in new-car reviews, auto technology and antique cars, including the two 1940s vehicles in her garage. She is currently a freelance Writer at Driving.ca since 2016
Summary
· Professional writer for more than 35 years, appearing in some of the top publications in Canada and the U.S.
· Specialties include new-vehicle reviews, old cars and automotive history, automotive news, and “How It Works” columns that explain vehicle features and technology
· Member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) since 2003; voting member for AJAC Canadian Car of the Year Awards; juror on the Women’s World Car of the Year Awards
Education
Jil McIntosh graduated from East York Collegiate in Toronto, and then continued her education at the School of Hard Knocks. Her early jobs including driving a taxi in Toronto; and warranty administration in a new-vehicle dealership, where she also held information classes for customers, explaining the inner mechanical workings of vehicles and their features.
Experience
Jil McIntosh is a freelance writer who has been writing for Driving.ca since 2016, but she’s been a professional writer starting when most cars still had carburetors. At the age of eleven, she had a story published in the defunct Toronto Telegram newspaper, for which she was paid $25; given the short length of the story and the dollar’s buying power at the time, that might have been the relatively best-paid piece she’s ever written.
An old-car enthusiast who owns a 1947 Cadillac and 1949 Studebaker truck, she began her writing career crafting stories for antique-car and hot-rod car club magazines. When the Ontario-based newspaper Old Autos started up in 1987, dedicated to the antique-car hobby, she became a columnist starting with its second issue; the newspaper is still around and she still writes for it. Not long after the Toronto Star launched its Wheels section in 1986 – the first Canadian newspaper to include an auto section – she became one of its regular writers. She started out writing feature stories, and then added “new-vehicle reviewer” to her resume in 1999. She stayed with Wheels, in print and later digital as well, until the publication made a cost-cutting decision to shed its freelance writers. She joined Driving.ca the very next day.
In addition to Driving.ca, she writes for industry-focused publications, including Automotive News Canada and Autosphere. Over the years, her automotive work also appeared in such publications as Cars & Parts, Street Rodder, Canadian Hot Rods, AutoTrader, Sharp, Taxi News, Maclean’s, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes Wheels, Canadian Driver, Sympatico Autos, and Reader’s Digest. Her non-automotive work, covering such topics as travel, food and drink, rural living, fountain pen collecting, and celebrity interviews, has appeared in publications including Harrowsmith, Where New Orleans, Pen World, The Book for Men, Rural Delivery, and Gambit.
Major awards won by the author
2016 AJAC Journalist of the Year; Car Care Canada / CAA Safety Journalism award winner in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013, runner-up in 2021; Pirelli Photography Award 2015; Environmental Journalism Award 2019; Technical Writing Award 2020; Vehicle Testing Review award 2020, runner-up in 2022; Feature Story award winner 2020; inducted into the Street Rodding Hall of Fame in 1994.
Contact info
Email: jil@ca.inter.net
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jilmcintosh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JilMcIntosh
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