BUICKS ON THE BRICKS
Saturday AUGUST 15th, 2026
Factory One 303 W Water St, Flint MI
Gate opens at 6 a.m., at the corner of Water and N. Grand Traverse Streets.
Featuring Buick Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars
Your Show Experience
Buicks on the Bricks 2026, hosted by the Buicktown Chapter of the BCA, will feature a special display of original Buick Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars displayed inside Factory One.
The Historic Carriage Town Plaza will feature parade, festival and replica Buick Pace Cars. Each year the Indy pace car provider would build about 50 look-alike cars to be used for parades and promotion. Many of these, and additional replica cars, are owned by collectors and we urge all to attend.
Of course, ALL vintage or collectible Buicks are invited to attend.
Other Activity On-Site
At 1:00 p.m., a panel of engineers who developed these cars, will take center stage inside Factory One to talk about cars, engines, and their experiences with the interested spectators and collectors. This is sure to be an interactive session not only between the engineers, but also with enthusiasts who attend.
You will also be able to visit the Durant Dort Office Building for periodic tours throughout the day.
Food and Beverages
The Arrowhead Vets Club will provide hot breakfast starting at 7 am until they sell out. Then they have a great cookout with burgers, brats and hot dogs for lunch. Their bar is open all day for guests, and offers a nice respite if it is hot or rainy. Ice cream is a car show favorite, and we feature Cops and Robbers (Flushing, MI) onsite. Get yummy Country Dairy Ice Cream made from happy cows in western Michigan.
Gates open at 6:00 am for Buick show cars. With few exceptions, parking on Water Street is first-come, first-served. No entry before 6 am. There is no admission fee, no pre-registration required, and no judging. Bring your own chairs for lounging.
Spectators can find on-street parking along Grand Traverse Street.
Join us at the birthplace of General Motors. Buicks on the Bricks is only a block away from Saginaw Street and Back to the Bricks. Our hospitality team will show you how easy it is to get there.
Make Buicks on the Bricks part of your Back to the Bricks and Woodward Dream Cruise activities in August! There is cruising and lots of activity Wednesday through Saturday.
Have fun, and take a selfie with statues of Billy Durant and J. Dallas Dort. This statue, created by Derek Werner of Metamora, MI, is of the two men that started the Flint Road Cart Company in 1885 with a loan from Citizen’s Bank and were millionaires within 10 years. Billy used his knowledge of the carriage industry to form the General Motors Corporation in 1908. Dallas maintained the operation of the Carriage Company until its demise in 1917, when he began to manufacture the Dort Automobile in the Carriage Company plants.
Factory One
Factory One will be open so that guests may see the beautiful restoration of the first carriage factory in Flint and the Scharchburg Archives from Kettering University.
People also like the nice restrooms. Restrooms are also available at Arrowhead Vets Club and a Porta John is also onsite.
How to get to the show
Ignore Google! It will try to take you through the Back to the Bricks show.
Gates open at 8:00 am for show cars. With few exceptions, parking on Water Street is first-come, first-served. There is no admission fee, no pre-registration required, and no judging. Bring your own chairs for lounging.
From I-75 in Flint, go east on I69 to Exit 136. At the top of the exit ramp, turn left (North) on Grand Traverse Street (very first traffic light). Go .9 mile (cross the Flint River) and Water Street will be 2nd Street on your right (east).
If you are westbound on I-69, take Exit 136. Follow the access road across Saginaw Street to Grand Traverse Street (3 traffic lights). Turn right (north) and go .9 mile to Water Street.
If you are trailering your car, registration and car parkers will direct you to nearby parking.
Historic Sites
You will also see the Durant Dort Office Building, which is the site of the Durant-Dort headquarters, now a National Landmark. Billy Durant and his partner, J. Dallas Dort began manufacturing the carriages that made Flint “The Vehicle City,” and center of the automotive industry. As the market for carriages declined, Factory One was converted to manufacture automobiles.
In 1904, Manager David Buick brought Billy Durant on board, and the first 37 production Buicks were built in Flint. It was Durant’s involvement with the fledgling Buick Motor Company that made it one of the most successful in the country, and Buick’s success became the launching pad for the creation of General Motors in 1908. In the more than 100 years since Durant and Dort set up shop at Factory One, the building has housed countless other businesses, and eventually fell into disrepair.
GM re-purchased Factory One in 2013 and renovated it with the goal of preserving and showcasing the original architecture. Today Factory One houses the archives related to the founding of General Motors, and the building now serves as a conference center. Visitors who make the short walk to the “other bricks” on Water Street from Back to the Bricks on Saginaw Street, can see for themselves the virtual birthplace of General Motors, listen to the stories of GM’s founding fathers, and be amazed by the cars that made Flint famous – Buicks.
More Information
Contact David Pettengill, 810-280-9504 (text or phone) or Becky Pettengill rpetteng@umich.edu.
