Where Packards proved themselves: Shelby Township's automotive shrine

In the 1920s, when Packard was the most prestigious name in American automobiles, the company bought 560 acres of Shelby Township farmland and built the industry’s state of the art: a proving grounds with a high-speed concrete oval where test drivers pushed the great luxury cars to their limits. Architect Albert Kahn — the man who designed Detroit’s auto cathedrals — gave even the garages and gatehouse his touch, and through the 1930s and 40s everything from V-12 Packards to wartime Merlin aircraft engines was put through its paces here.

Packard died; the proving grounds nearly did too. But local volunteers fought to save the Kahn buildings, and today the Packard Proving Grounds Historic Site — on the National Register of Historic Places — hosts car shows, swap meets, weddings, and tours where you can stand on the last surviving stretch of the old test track. Pair it with Stony Creek Metropark’s thousands of acres at the township’s northern edge and the Macomb Orchard Trail rolling out toward apple country, and Shelby Township turns out to be a place where both the car century and the country weekend got preserved.