ICYMI: Mallory McMorrow Joins ‘JR Afternoon’ Live at the Detroit Auto Show

MICHIGAN — This week, Michigan Senate Majority Whip and candidate for U.S. Senate Mallory McMorrow joined JR Afternoon’s Ryan Ermanni live from the Ford Booth at the Detroit Auto Show to discuss her background in car design, her takeaways from the Auto Show, and more. 

Key Excerpts:

On her love for the Auto Show

[...] McMorrow: So I mean, the Auto Show always brings me back. I started my career as a car designer. My husband used to be editor in chief of Jalopnik for seven years. So they wrote a story about my concept car, which is how we met and fell in love. So this is – it's the happiest place on earth for me.

[...] Ermanni: Take me back to that time when you were designing cars, when you wake up in the morning and you're going to work doing that, what is that work like?

McMorrow: I designed this concept car in 2007. It was a concept car, and we built it live on stage at an auto show. And there was a day where kids came and we handed out modeling clay to this class of kids who were sitting around the booth and explaining that it goes from an idea to a sketch to a thing, and it's just incredible. 

And the reason that I love this show – and the new version of the show is you get to get in the cars. You get to ride the cars. You get to experience – [car screeches in background] – you can hear it in the background! 

On Detroit’s unique prowess in auto design and manufacturing 

[...] McMorrow: What I love about walking around this show, especially after a few years of COVID where people couldn't come out, we couldn't see these things in person, is at every automaker, you feel like they want to have something for everybody.

So if you want an electric vehicle, there are electric vehicles. If you want 1012 horsepower, you can get that in a Dodge, again, that's back on the floor. There are passenger cars. There are SUVs. I know I heard Mayor Sheffield's favorite vehicle is the new electric Escalade that's over there, built in Detroit. It has this color combination. I just learned. The paint finish is inspired by Michigan cherries, and there's this dark blue leather on the inside. And those two colors together. I mean, it's just – 

Ermanni: Who thinks about that stuff?

McMorrow: Interior colors and finish designers! There are people who, their entire life is ‘what does a color look like? How does it look like in the light? How does it look like with a crease in it? How does this leather feel when you touch it?’ You test all of these different leathers. There's so much work that goes into every stitch of these cars. 

Ermanni: And that's why – that's why the excellence in this industry, in this city, in this state, is there. I mean, the birth of the automobile, and it just continues.

McMorrow: And it could only come out of a city like Detroit, where we've got Motown and music and food, and you see all of that brought to life through design.

Listen to the full interview here. 

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