The M1 Concourse is located on 87 acres of land in Pontiac, Michigan, right off of Woodward Avenue. For folks not from around here, Pontiac is a suburb of Detroit and Woodward Avenue is as famous here as Route 66. 
In 1909, Woodward became the first paved road in America. That first one mile stretch was later extended from the center of Detroit to Pontiac in 1916. In 1919, the first three-color traffic light in America was installed on a corner of Woodward Avenue.
Woodward Avenue has always been associated with the automotive industry, since the early days of Henry Ford. For example, Ford created the first moving assembly line in a factory on Woodward Avenue.
After World War II, Hagerty reports Woodward Avenue became known for drag racing. It was also an easy place for automotive companies to test new engineering designs against their competitors. Before social media, word on the street and reaction of young drivers and their fans could impact car sales. Soon, marketing departments learned that cars winning high performance drag races drove up car sales. There’s too much drama and history of drag racing in Detroit to cover it here, the point is street racing improved the performance and options for production cars in that period of time.
Today, the Woodward Dream Cruise is held each summer, advertised as largest single-day automotive event in the world. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, August 17, 2024. Find a spot anywhere along Woodward and watch history drive by.
Back to the M1 Concourse. In 2014, the property was redeveloped around a new, state of the art 1.5-mile racetrack with all kinds of private and public events, such as races, festivals, car shows, fund raisers, and corporate events on their schedule. For those who can afford it, you can buy a car condo on site with views of the track. You’ll also have access to drive on the track.
For those who don’t have a membership or store super cars on site, there are plenty of events open for the public. During the warmer months, they hold monthly Cars and Coffee events.
A friend of mine, Dave, was in town for a week, and suggested we check it out. We attended the first one of the year, which had a focus on Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brand vehicles from past to present. These coffee clutches are advertised as the state’s largest Cars & Coffee events, and I have no reason to doubt it. There were hundreds of cars, some in the infield and the rest parked on the grass along the track.
I imagined the cars on display would be organized, where only the Fords were on the infield or the brands/models would be parked near each other. But it seemed to be more informal, where cars are parked as they drive in. Those deemed to fit the standards for the event may be directed to the infield. But, there were also non-Ford cars on the infield that belonged to car clubs and M1 Concourse members. Here are some photos from the event:
In any case, it was great fun to wander amongst all the steel with a free cup of coffee in hand. It started at 8am and by 10, many of the drivers began to leave, probably to avoid a traffic jam at the end. All in all, I would go back again. And if I hit the lottery, maybe pick up one of those sweet storage spots, too.
