Behind the Wheel: Captivated by convertibles

METRO DETROIT — “Not a week goes by that someone doesn’t say, ‘I love your car,’” Seymour Markowitz said about his 2009 Pontiac Solstice convertible.

The West Bloomfield resident feels the same way about his sunshine-colored sports car.

“There’s something special about this car. It’s such a cute car. It’s a fun car,” Markowitz, 86, said. “I put the top down the whole summer. With the top down, it’s gorgeous. It has beautiful lines on it. It’s in great shape. There’s no rust or anything on it.”

The Pontiac Solstice was in production from 2005 to 2010, but in that short period of time it made an impression on Markowitz. Every day, he drives his yellow model to his law office in Bingham Farms, where he has been a divorce lawyer for 60 years.

Markowitz drives the two-seater in style by keeping a collection of baseball caps in the car to wear when driving. While he’s fashionable, there’s also a practical reason for the headwear.

“I have to wear hats because the hair flies in your face,” he said.

Every car Markowitz has owned has been a convertible with the exception of a Lincoln he drove in 1972. His passion for convertibles began as a teenager.

“It’s like a motorcycle. It’s open. I like the idea of the openness,” he said. “When you love something, you love something. We each have our own things that bring us pleasure.”

When he had his bar mitzvah at age 13, the teen received gifts of money he put away for safekeeping. A few years later, he used the savings to buy his first set of wheels. He attended Central High School in Detroit at the time.

“It was a ’47 Pontiac convertible. It was candy-apple red. I bought it at night. It was $265. I was 16, and that was in 1953,” he said. “I drove it home. The first day me and three guys pushed it to school so I could show my car at school. That was my first convertible. How exciting it was.”

With help from family members, he purchased his next convertible two years later with money he earned while working nonstop over the course of approximately two months.

“In ’55, I was 18 years old. I worked for 70 days straight. I earned $10 a day at a gas station. I’d pump gas and check the oil. I took that money, my brother took the same amount, $700, and my dad put $700 and we got a brand-new Ford convertible. It was kind of our car. It was so nice looking. It was black and yellow. It’s not the color I ordered, but it was the only one they had on the lot, and I took it,” he said.

That was the vehicle he drove to the military base in Virginia when he began his stint in the U.S. Army. Stationed in the U.S., Markowitz served from 1956-58. A few years later, he got another convertible.

“I got a Lincoln, the same as the one (President John) Kennedy was in when he was shot. Not the same car, but the same style, the four-door,” he said. “It was huge, gold in color, suicide doors.”

The next convertible that captivated him was a 1966 Excalibur he said he bought from movie star Steve McQueen, known for his films including “Bullitt” and “The Great Escape.” Markowitz, who lived in Southfield at the time of the sale, still has the vehicle title for the car, which he purchased in December 1968.

“I saw an ad for it in the paper,” Markowitz said. “He had two of them.”

He didn’t get a chance to meet McQueen. However, in exchange for her legal fees, a client went to New York to drive the car back to Michigan for Markowitz. McQueen died in 1980.

“The Excalibur looks like a ’29 Mercedes-Benz convertible. I drove the car for the next four years. It had a Corvette engine and pipes coming out the side. It’s a soft top,” Markowitz said. “Some had four seats. Mine had two seats; just a roadster. It was so classic. Wherever you would go, people would be looking at it.”

Other convertibles in his garage over the years included a Chrysler Crossfire, an Audi, a BMW, a 1963 XKE Jaguar, a “big” Buick Wildcat and an MG. He also spent 12 years driving Wrangler Jeeps without doors. Along with the convertibles, Markowitz used other vehicles in which to travel.

“When I went to law school, I had a moped,” the Detroit College of Law graduate said. “It was cheap as far as the fuel goes. I remember gas was 19 cents a gallon. I knew where every gas station was.”

There was a time, too, in which Markowitz flew commercial helicopters just for fun, often to Ann Arbor or Flint. He said he learned how to operate helicopters by using the G.I. Bill he received for his years in the service. But being up in the air wasn’t his forte.

“I was a bad pilot,” he said. “I got lost many times.”

Along with his love for convertibles, Markowitz has traveled all over the world. In his office hangs a photo of him standing in front of the Taj Mahal. Through his travels, Markowitz rode on camels and elephants, climbed Mount Sinai in Egypt and also went on an archeological dig in the Holy Land.