Glenn Rader – Girlfriend To Many Wins Best Foreign Car Award

Words and Pictures: Glenn Rader

Glenn Rader and Karen Bartos live in the Detroit, Michigan area in the US. They own a fully restored, award-winning, Figaro built by The Figaro Shop in Didcot, England. They purchased the car and imported it to the US in 2019. The car’s name is Fanchette, one of the characters in the opera The Marriage of Figaro (Fanchette is described as the “girlfriend to many” in the opera notes).

During the warmer months, there are several car shows in the Detroit area. One of these, The Detroit Dream Cruise, is billed as the largest car show on the planet, with an estimated 40,000 cars and over 1.5 million spectators participating. The Dream Cruise includes a one-day “cruise” of a ten-mile stretch of urban road, Woodward Avenue, where people display their cars to the crowds of enthusiasts. Due to the large number of cars, there is no judging or awards given at The Dream Cruise. Here is an example of one of the more unusual cars that showed up at “The Cruise”.

In addition to the Dream Cruise, there are many smaller car shows in the Detroit area, usually involving 100-300 vehicles, where awards are given. The categories of judging vary from show to show.

Over the past two years, Fanchette has won four awards:
• Best 1981-1994 Stock Vehicle
• Best in Show (ten cars included in this category)
• Best Original Restoration, and
• Best Foreign Car

Most of the awards at these car shows come in the form of a trophy or plaque of a more conventional form. At the car show where Fanchette received the Best Foreign Car award, Glenn and Karen got a nice surprise. The awards were beautifully hand-crafted by a local artist and made from car parts.

Any questions regarding Fanchette, including the Figaro Shop restoration and the process of importing a car to the US, can be directed to Glenn at glenn@noovoo.com

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John Longworth – Figaro Furniture Rosey Matu – Figaro Steals The Show James & Belinda Richardson – RNLI Fundraising Challenge Jörg Nittke – Dashtop Restoration Belinda Wanless – Two Is Better Than One Zoe & Steve Marciniak – Sheffield To Île-de-Ré in a Figaro Gordon Bishton – Southport Merseyside Photo Shoot Graham Foulston – The 007 Figaro