Mal Forys ready to show off his breathtaking customized Challenger at Autorama once again!

Every year, the best custom builds in the country roll into Cobo Hall hoping to turn heads at the Detroit Autorama — a show that’s been crowning showstoppers since the Eisenhower administration. Mal Forys built his customized Challenger without a professional shop behind him, and it’s earned him a spot in the conversation more than once. Here’s why breaking into that class at one of the oldest custom shows in America is such a big deal.

Mal Forys never thought he would one day participate in a muscle car show like Autorama. To have a car worthy of being recognized at nearly the top of a class seemed even further out of reach.
However, that all changed a few years ago.

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Detroit Autorama: Where Customs Have Competed Since the Eisenhower Era

The show Mal is chasing a class win at isn’t some regional weekend event — the Detroit Autorama traces back to 1953, when the Michigan Hot Rod Association put on the first one at the University of Detroit with just 40 cars. By 1961 the show had outgrown that venue and moved into Cobo Hall, where it broke attendance records and started drawing legends like George Barris, Darryl Starbird, and “Big Daddy” Ed Roth. Decades later, it’s still one of the most respected custom car shows in the country, home to the famous Ridler Award for Best in Show.

Why a Personal Build Like This Stands Out

Getting a car built in a home garage anywhere near the top of a class at a show with that kind of pedigree is genuinely hard. Professional shop builds with unlimited budgets and full-time fabricators dominate the top awards most years, which makes an owner-built customized Challenger that keeps showing up and keeps getting noticed worth paying attention to. That’s the kind of underdog story enthusiasts root for at every show — a labor of love holding its own against six-figure builds.

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