A cross-country drive along Route 66, stretching from California to Illinois, will kick off the 2026 Detroit Auto Show.

The event will involve car enthusiasts, historians and everyday people who want to experience “The Drive Home” 100th anniversary celebration of the famous highway that American families have traveled for generations.

Organizers are planning to leave Santa Monica on Jan. 3 , arriving in downtown Chicago on Jan. 11. From there, the group will drive over to the Motor City to open the 10-day auto show at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit.

The event, coordinated by America’s Automotive Trust based in Tacoma, Washington, and the National Route 66 Centennial Commission, is designed to celebrate Detroit and its role in connecting all parts of America.

Up to nine vintage cars will make the drive. Afterward, they will be displayed at the Detroit Auto Show, which is scheduled for Jan. 14-25.

“We’re going to focus on 1960s cars and vehicles that can make the long, tough journey in the winter so we don’t have to worry about potential breakdowns,” David Madeira, CEO of America’s Automotive Trust, told me. “We’re going to emphasize the Big Three. There will be Ford, Chevy and Chrysler.”

Madeira, a Rhode Island native who developed strong ties with Detroiters two decades ago — including General Motors executive Bob Lutz and longtime Detroit Auto Show leader Rod Alberts — when he first reached out to create America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, said spotlighting the city is a personal mission.

“It looks like we’re going to include a ‘65 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon,” Madeira said. “I want to remind people that this is the great family vacation. My dad had one and we drove around America and followed Route 66 in 1964, when I was 14.”

Madeira approached Sam Klemet, who just took over as executive director of the Detroit Auto Show, with the idea.

“He got it instantly,” Madeira said. “We’re trying to preserve and honor the past and celebrate the present, to get people out driving their cars and enjoying life. We want to call attention to the importance of Detroit still.”

There’s no better way to spotlight Detroit’s car culture than getting people behind the wheel with stops in towns all across America for two weeks, Klemet said. “It’s only fitting that 'The Drive Home' ends here, the auto capital of the world, where the automotive industry continues to push the boundaries of innovation.”

In the past, Route 66 trips have begun in Tacoma, Boston, Orlando and Houston. But this big one will be spotlighting everything from passion to restoration. Folks usually join for parts of the journey, as events are promoted in advance. Details will be posted on America’s Automotive Trust website, which is not yet active.

Some people will fly out West for the kickoff, including Klemet, and others will make the whole journey.

“People think the Santa Monica Pier is the end point but it’s really Mel’s Diner” about a half-mile inland, Madeira said. “In our very first year, we had a guy drive the whole way with us. But a lot of people will drive for an hour or a day. Anybody can come on the caravan. You get to hang out at all the stops and have fun.”

While Route 66 will forever have a presence in pop culture, the highway was actually decommissioned in 1985, noted Matt Anderson, transportation curator at The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn.

“Still, it lingers in the popular imagination,” Anderson said, because of books and movies and songs and TV shows. “It’s a way to go back in time. Back in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, these were routes to get places. Now the highway is a destination in and of itself.”

Nat King Cole recorded “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” in 1946, after John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” In the film based on the book, Henry Fonda played the patriarch of the Joad family, traveling from Oklahoma seeking a better life after their farm was seized by the bank.

The TV show “Route 66” (1960-64) spotlighted the adventures of two men in a Chevrolet Corvette convertible.

“Detroit was never on Route 66, because it ended in Chicago,” Anderson said. “But the Route 66 celebration does speak to Detroit’s role in popular culture and automotive culture. The connections between Detroit and Chicago are long-standing.”

He added, “It speaks to Route 66’s role as ‘America’s Main Street’ that Tacoma and Detroit are a part of this centennial celebration — even though neither was on the actual highway!”

Sergio Rodriguez, 44, a U.S. Army veteran in Chesapeake, Virginia, who works as a military contractor, loves the idea of taking part in the cross-country celebration next year. If he can get the time off work, he's going.

Rodriguez drove Route 66 from St. Louis to Barstow, California, in 2015 after finishing a project at Fort Leonard Wood. And again in 2024.

“I took seven days cruising Route 66. I would totally do that drive again,” he told me. “The vibe is all about history. You get to see some pretty old buildings and scenes. It’s pretty cool knowing that Route 66 is the road of all roads in the USA. It’s where it all began.”

During the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, Route 66 was the primary route for migrants heading west. Travel continued during World War II because California offered opportunities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation historical page.

Because of the efforts of the U.S. Highway 66 Association, Route 66 was the first highway to be completely paved in 1938. It became a safe route for moving military equipment, too.

By the 1950s and 1960s, Route 66 became a major tourist destination. Small shops and restaurants popped up all along the road catering to adventurers.

Steinbeck referred to Route 66 as “the mother road.”

Historic features along the route were restored after President Bill Clinton signed the National Route 66 Preservation Bill in 1999 that provided for $10 million in matching fund grants. In 2008, the World Monuments Fund listed Route 66 on its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

“It spans the heart of America, symbolizing mobility, freedom and pursuit of the American Dream,” according to the National Park Service website. “Route 66 is of national significance as a symbol of our transportation history and the impact of the automobile.”

Phoebe Wall Howard, who was a Free Press auto reporter for nearly seven years, writes a column on car culture, consumer trends and life that appear periodically on Freep.com and in print. Her Shifting Gears column appears on Substack at https://phoebewallhoward.substack.com. Contact her at [email protected].