Behind the Wheel: A one-of-a-kind automobile

METRO DETROIT — While growing up in Detroit, one of the first modes of transportation Roy Lipanski ever made as a kid was his very own motorbike.

Using his engineering skills, the native Detroiter took the engine of a lawn mower and mounted it to a bicycle.

“I designed the slipper clutch to make it go,” Lipanski remembered. “I was always interested in doing things like that. I was always making stuff as a kid.”

The desire to build continued into adulthood. Many years ago, Lipanski — who resides in Warren with his wife, Barbara, of 69 years — decided he wanted to custom build his own car. The couple have five children and several grandchildren.

Lipanski, 89, had the mechanical abilities to take on such an endeavor. After all, he worked as a toolmaker building special automation machines, primarily for the automobile industry.

In 1965, he purchased a 1955 four-door Chevy Bel Air, rolled up his sleeves and got to work in the garage. He started the project by sketching out a design that served as a blueprint.

“It’s an automatic. I made everything you see. Everything is handmade. It was a lot of work,” he said. “All you see is handmade bumpers, hood, fenders, doors, headers and a walnut dashboard. It’s the only one like it in the world.”

For starters, Lipanski made sure he had enough sheet metal and steel for his one-of-a-kind production. Everything on the custom-made vehicle is metal, minus the fenders. Lipanski modeled his automobile after two designs he admired: that of the Duesenberg and the Cord styles of the 1920s and 1930s.

“I always liked them,” the 1951 Denby High School graduate said. “It took me only two days to strip the car down to the bare frame, and then I had the frame sandblasted and primed.”

The two-seater convertible is powered by a Chrysler V-8 engine, which Lipanski installed 2 feet back from the original position. The rear of the car was partially made from a 1946 Hudson hood.

“I found the old headlights in a junkyard,” he said.

Lipanski got down to business when he found tires for the car from a 1955 Ford T-Bird. He spent $150 for four wheels, which came with a bit of a challenge.

“The hole pattern is different. A special adapter had to be made,” he said.

Lipanski even named his tailor-made model. He gave it the moniker “macht schnell,” which he said means “hurry up” in German. It was a phrase his German grandmother said to him “frequently as a child.”

The car also has a hardtop that clips on, and there’s room for a luggage rack on the back. There’s a side horn made of brass, plus other decorative horns attached. Why add horns?

“Because they look nice,” Lipanski said.

When it was time for him to paint the car, Lipanski chose the color maroon. On the morning of June 8, when the car was parked in the driveway at his home, a man passing by in his pickup truck rolled down the window and inquired about the car.

“I like it. What is this?” he asked Lipanski.

It took Lipanski four years to assemble the car from start to finish. He was inspired to build his own set of wheels by a coworker and friend named Tony Palmeri, who had custom built several cars. Lipanski called him “a real genius.”

“He loved it,” Lipanski said of Palmeri’s reaction to his Duesenberg and Cord look-alike.

Palmeri has since died, but Lipanski said he will never forget him.

Lipanski doesn’t take his car “out too much,” but when he does, it’s usually to the Woodward Dream Cruise in Oakland County or Eastpointe Cruisin’ Gratiot.

“My wife, Barbara, and I have been in many Woodward Dream cruises,” he said. “I get a lot of compliments from people. I get a lot of looks. People don’t know what to think. They give me a thumbs-up and say, ‘Nice car.’ People think it’s a real Duesenberg or Cord.”