ALEX ROY: A city with incredible history in
engineering, art, science, music, culture, an amazing
night life, loyal population.
I'm talking, of course, about Berlin.
But I have a theory.
I have a theory that there's an American Berlin, a city
with equally amazing architecture, history, music,
culture, nightlife, and a loyal population.
And that city is Detroit.
This is not about the ruins of Detroit, although
we're gonna see them.
This is about my theory that Detroit is an American Berlin,
and Detroit is the best city in America.
Let's find out.
The first treat-- and I knew I was going to see Josh Vietze.
But the first treat was not only to see Josh Vietze, but
to have him arrive in a distinctly, profoundly,
utterly American car, a brand new Buick Regal.
We're here.
And the same way we'd want to drive an Audi in Berlin, we're
driving a Buick in Detroit.
JOSH VIETZE: Appropriate.
Buick in Detroit.
ALEX ROY: This is the kind of vehicle that if a certain
tourist came to America and rented a car, he'd want it to
be powerful and very white, and those
tourists would be Vikings.
JOSH VIETZE: Here are your keys.
There's a surprise for you inside as well.
ALEX ROY: No way.
Devil's lettuce?
JOSH VIETZE: No.
Better.
ALEX ROY: True, it is based on an Opel Insignia, and true, it
is GM of Germany.
But in a way, given that Detroit is, I hope to find, to
be the American Berlin, an Opel Insignia badged as a GM
as a Buick made some kind of sense.
And it was amazing.
Getting into the city, middle afternoon, no traffic,
absolutely no traffic.
It made no sense.
And then I noticed something else.
There is no--
none, none, nowhere at all are there any well-known branded
chain stores.
The Gap, Starbucks, are nowhere to be found.
J Crew, K-Mart, Best Buy.
So far, I saw elements of Reno in terms of the lack of
pedestrians.
I guess I won't have any trouble finding a spot.
Here, this is a good spot right here right?
That's good.
Detroit is a city of many secrets.
One of them is that the Montessori school has been so
successful they have built a lavish KidSpace here in a
replica of the Wayne County building.
It's stone for stone perfect.
The sax player is awesome.
But, you know--
[SAXOPHONE MUSIC]
ALEX ROY: Nice job.
SAXOPHONIST: Thank you.
ALEX ROY: But he reminds me a little bit of General Motors
in that he's doing his best work in a location where no
one's listening. kind of like General Motors marketing.
That's not really fair, because they made some great
cars recently,
Children, like bands, should never be named anything that
could be used later to mock them.
And this, behind me, is the Renaissance Center.
This is the symbol of Detroit in every news story that
you've ever seen or read.
This, of course, is not the real Detroit.
In the same way the Chrysler Building does not represent
New York City.
We're going to find the real Detroit.
Our next stop was a treat.
But before we ended up doing the ruin-porn thing, something
that was very hard to avoid for almost anyone who came
before us, we got a call from out friend Marc Urbano, super
famous car photographer and Detroit local.
Marc gave us an address, an address that led us to exactly
the kind of building I'd really hoped to avoid.
One of these absolutely destroyed warehouses.
But as we approached, we realized it
wasn't really destroyed.
It wasn't even abandoned.
Some windows were smashed.
The exterior was a wreck.
But this was the Russell Shopping Center.
[LAUGHING]
JOSH VIETZE: That's really weird, dude.
ALEX ROY: Dude, I love Detroit so far.
In the back of the building, at the end of the parking lot,
hidden behind a black Honda CRV we saw it, something
unbelievable, something you'd never expect to see anywhere
in the United States, but especially Detroit.
Now we're not here in Detroit to look at ruin porn.
We're here to look at an awesome car using the backdrop
of ruin porn.
And that car will be something unbelievable.
It's that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALEX ROY: The decline of the American automobile industry
in Detroit has led to an unexpected rebirth, a rebirth
of the aftermarket business, specifically, the most
realistic body kits in America, this being the most
impressive we've ever seen.
The absolutely most realistic Aston Martin 177 body
kit I've ever seen.
This is the Fiero uno-siete-siete.
Amazing Amazing.
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
ALEX ROY: Yoaaahhh!
Yaaaahhh!
Yoooaahhh!
Grrrr!
That thing is awesome looking.
Now, that's what a super car's supposed to look like.
Marc's one of those folks who is utterly self-deprecating,
totally humble.
This guy, from Detroit, went to SVA, School of Visual Arts
in New York, worked his balls off as a photo assistant like
anyone else.
But he had a passion for cars.
If you could have any other job in the
world, is there one?
MARC URBANO: Is there one for me?
No, I don't think so.
ALEX ROY: Then you are the luckiest man we've ever met.
Because most men, no matter what they're doing, can think
of at least one other job.
You know what I'm talking about.
MARC URBANO: I think the only other job I probably would
like to have is just being a doctor.
Because I would follow in my father's footsteps.
ALEX ROY: Really?
MARC URBANO: And that would make him very happy.
ALEX ROY: That's really interesting.
MARC URBANO: Other than that, not so much.
ALEX ROY: For $1 million I would not want to be a doctor.
MARC URBANO: I couldn't be, that was my problem.
I couldn't stomach all the things that would be involved.
ALEX ROY: Interesting.
The vendors at the Russell Market--
well, some of the vendors-- were there on their day off,
or on a day when the market's officially closed.
The Russell Market has to really be seen to be
understood.
If you go to Paris--
here at Detroit's Russell market, you have stalls with
literally gates, cages even, well-protected, available for
under $100 a month where people sell stuff.
And this is no flea market.
There are actual people here selling brand-new furniture,
art, and in the case of Mr. J, original fashion design.
And thank goodness I was there.
Because I was freezing and badly dressed,
common in my life.
Think this fits?
Because I will wear it out right now.
Dude.
It's mine.
I'm buying it right now.
Yeah, this is mine.
You have a mirror?
ALEX ROY: JF.
JF MUSIAL: How are you liking Detroit?
ALEX ROY: Dude, so far it is the American Berlin.
It is awesome.
JF MUSIAL: Pretty incredible, right?
ALEX ROY: My whole life I've wanted to say the following,
and I get to say it to you.
Look at the outfit I'm wearing.
Look at this shirt I bought.
Hold this.
You know what this is?
This is my urban safari jacket.
Because we are on an urban safari.
Look, here's the hat.
How'd it get here?
This Buick Regal is basically an Opel Insignia, one of
European GM's designs.
This is a car in the mold of the Audi A4 or the Volvo S60.
And this is an extraordinarily underappreciated car.
Today we're in the Buick Regal GS, the new up-market Regal.
And let me tell you, this is the car that absolutely
changed my mind about American sedans.
Here is a car that has taken a brand that literally was off
my radar my whole life and has put it smack at the top.
OK, maybe not quite the top.
But right next to the Cadillac CTS.
The Buick Regal, I'll say it flat out, is a fantastic car.
What a lot of people don't know about Buick is that David
Buick himself was one of the first and most important
American car designers.
In fact, Buick formed the cornerstone of General Motors.
But the big surprise about Buick is that he sold his
stake in the company long before Buick became a joke
among American car manufacturers and long before
he died at age 74 in obscurity, a teacher.
Today, 35 million cars to his name.
From the instant I got in the car, I began looking for
reasons not to like it.
Well, they were hard to find.
It's great looking from the outside.
It's great looking from the inside.
It has a manual transmission.
The seating position is wonderful.
It would never occur to me that I could pull up to, well,
anywhere in Detroit and get out of my car, see a
good-looking girl approach with her boyfriend.
They looked at this car, and they said, awesome.
And then she's like, really cool.
I mean, I'm not making this up.
I mean, I've never been paid by a manufacture in my life.
OK, not true.
Audi one time.
But Buick?
I mean, people looking at a Buick and liking it?
And they were my age?
And she was good looking?
It makes no sense.
[SIREN]
ALEX ROY: Why in Detroit is there an air raid siren?
Is it because--
Where the [BLEEP]
is that coming from?
What the [BLEEP]
was that?
That was really scary and weird.
This engine, unbelievably, puts out over 270 horsepower.
And for most driving, it handles like a
rear-wheel drive car.
Very strange.
This car is one exhaust and two drive train wheels away
from being--
I mean, I'm going to say something crazy here--
an American M3.
And this is a fantastic car.
And I'd consider buying it.
And I can't believe I just said that.
I know I said we were not going to visit any ruin porn.
But having bought this amazing urban safari jacket at the
Russell Mall from Mr. J's Haberdasher, there was no way
we could avoid coming to at least one location that is
really ruin porn.
So given that it is Motor City, I thought we
should come to this--
The Ford Model-T factory location on Piquette Avenue.
Now, this is important not because this is where Henry
Ford built the first car because he did not
build the first car.
That was Daimler.
Henry Ford invented the assembly line.
And if you've played Civilization, you'll know
that's a very important technology to learn.
And here, this is really where he built the car that became
the 707 of aircraft, the Vivid Video of video.
So it is interesting.
But to be honest with you, I'm not interested in Detroit for
the car history.
I'm not even interested in Detroit for the ruin porn.
I'm interested in everything that was hinted at by what
happened today.
The people we met were absolutely bizarre and
fascinating, like going to New York for the first.
And, of course, like going to Berlin for the first time.
There's no doubt that Detroit is American Berlin and that
there's way more going on here than even Knoxville hinted at
in his documentary a few years ago.
I cannot wait to see more.
And it's not about the buildings.
And it's not even about the cars.
And Ford, I'm sorry brought this GM product here.
In our next episode, we get into the secrets of Detroit.
I can't wait.
GPS: Then turn left immediately onto I-371 North.
ALEX ROY: You must turn left, you must.
[LAUGHS]
You must.
Well, here was the Frederick Douglass/John Brown meeting,
which is amazing if you know anything about John Brown.
[LAUGHS]
And the first Jewish religious services in America, which is
also amazing.
JOSH VIETZE: Please be serious.
Come on.
ALEX ROY: I'm going to go around the corner and look at
those signs.
Because I was serious.
JOSH VIETZE: You had some great stuff as you
drove into the city.
ALEX ROY: Well, back here was the first Jewish religious
meeting in America as well as the location of the Frederick
Douglass/John Brown meeting, which if you know anything
about American history and slavery, you'll find
incredibly ironic.
Because we're pretty far north here.
JOSH VIETZE: What do you know about
American history or slavery?
ALEX ROY: Well, I read a book called Cloudsplitter, which is
about the American abolitionist movement.
JOSH VIETZE: You didn't read that book
ALEX ROY: Yeah I did.
JOSH VIETZE: That book is 1,200 pages.
ALEX ROY: Yeah, I did read it.
Yeah, I did.
And the fact that I could even name the book
proves that I read it.
JOSH VIETZE: No, that doesn't mean anything.
ALEX ROY: You're right.
I didn't read it, actually.
But I'm a very liberal person, and I would have
sided with the Union.
How about you?
Because you're either for or-- slavery, it's like pedophilia.
You're either for it or against it.
I'm against it.
How about you?
JOSH VIETZE: You just said slavery is like pedophilia?
ALEX ROY: You're either for it or against it.
JOSH VIETZE: Ohhhh.
ALEX ROY: Well, I'd like to know your
position on these things.
JOSH VIETZE: We're gonna have to bleep out this entire
conversation.