Fab Shop Smarts and GM Performance Cred Give Adrienne Peters a Story to Tell

Five-year-old Adrienne Peters anxiously waited for dad to come home. Even at that early age, she knew her dad drew cars at work and that he usually came home at night driving something exciting, quite often a shiny new Corvette. But on this day, he pulled up to the family’s home in a big, black GMC crew-cab truck.

“There was something about the truck that I found captivating,” said Adrienne, recalling the beginning of her affair with aggressive black vehicles. “Something special about that truck that I’ve always loved—the presence, the stance,” she added.

It was another aggressive black vehicle that first introduced me to Ms. Peters. Some years ago, at a gathering of car folk on the expansive lawn behind the home of a GM design boss, a matte black Monte Carlo announced its presence with pounding exhaust notes as it came rumbling across the lawn on fat tires, looking like something out of the Mad Max stable.

I was a bit surprised to see Adrienne exit from behind the wheel, but I probably shouldn’t have been, as over many years in Metro Detroit I’ve come to learn that the Motor City car community is a diverse and interesting subculture. Her Monte Carlo was a fascinating work of automotive exuberance, and I’ll get back to that vehicle down the page, but, as I would later learn, the woman behind the wheel was even more interesting.

As I watched, Carolyn Peters—an acquaintance I had previously interviewed for an article about Detroit designers—called out to the Monte Carlo driver, and her words suggested the younger lady was her daughter. Accompanying Carolyn, a designer of automotive interiors and various other works of art, was her husband Tom Peters, a highly esteemed creator of high performance GM sheetmetal. Both Mr. And Mrs. Peters are car buffs who are regularly found behind the wheel of potent domestic hardware.

For a couple of years following that brief encounter, I hoped to learn more about the younger Ms. Peters and her outrageous Monte Carlo. Just recently, I got her to sit still long enough for a telephone interview and a photo shoot.

“It was a lot of fun growing up in a house with parents who were both serious car people and accomplished artists,” Adrienne Peters told me. “My parents’ passion for design extended to the mid-century ranch I grew up in and the art on the walls. But car culture was an integral part of our lives. There was always a cool car in the driveway. On weekends, you would likely find dad in one of his many Ed “Big Daddy” Roth T-shirts, working on intricate scale models of his favorite vehicles. When my parents had their car-designer friends over, I would listen in on their conversations with absolute fascination. I learned about the various eras of car design, design luminaries of the past, form language and much more—all at a very early age.”

Adrienne’s parents encouraged her to follow her passion whatever it might be, and as a young teen, she wanted to follow in their footsteps and design cars. But as much as she liked that role, she claims to have not inherited their artistic ability. So, she set her sights on owning a custom fabricating business, like the Roadster Shop, where she would create cars with steel and aluminum rather than with pencils and clay. She learned basic mechanical skills as she watched, questioned, and assisted her dad as he worked on his ’69 COPO Camaro clone. At 16, she purchased her first car, a ’99 Camaro SS that she equipped with headers, a free flowing (and loud) exhaust, and a cold-air intake system.

She cruised Metro Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, making friends with teens her age who were into muscle cars. She would turn wrenches for anyone who needed a helping hand and she relished problem solving. How many extensions and swivel sockets would it take to fasten the last bolt on that set of headers? She would find a way to do it, working side by side with other enthusiastic young Michiganders. “That was how I got started,” she said. “Working with different personalities and employing various techniques to solve a problem. Skills that translate to any job situation.”

Soon after graduating from high school, she apprenticed at Kustom Creations, an automotive metal fabricating business in Sterling Heights, Michigan. There she learned to form sheetmetal, weld, and create cars with powerful personality.

A car person to the core, Adrienne has owned a number of interesting rides, including a 1978 Silverado with a ten-inch lift, but she had long craved something even more distinctive. She saw an evil-looking ’71 Monte Carlo in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and started looking for a clean example that she could transform.

“I brainstormed the design of a Monte Carlo muscle car with my dad, Adrienne said. We talked about what it should look like inside and out. As we talked, he sketched.”

She bought a clean rolling chassis from first-generation Monte Carlo specialist Leo Konik of Konik’s Klassics and moved it into the shop at Kustom Creations. There, she disassembled the car, sand blasted the frame and coated it with POR15.

“I did as much of the work myself as I could,’ she said, “including welding up a mini-tub frame modification.” Adrienne also put her metal working skills to good use by fabricating an aluminum dashboard. Fitted with Black Autometer gauges backlit with red, the instrument panel is a clean, dramatic piece.

A six-point roll cage was installed by Kustom Creations co-owner Don Roberts, an NHRA-certified welder. Adrienne had at one time hoped to race regularly, and even skipped field day at her high school to attend a road racing training course. While in college, she spent some time at Frank Hawley’s drag racing school, but life has continuously gotten in the way of any serious effort in organized racing.

But with a 462 cubic-inch big-block Chevy, Airflow Research cylinder heads, a Competition Cams bump stick, Edelbrock intake manifold, headers and a 950-cfm double-pumper carb, the Monte Carlo offers plenty of thrills on the street. A turbo 400 with modified gear ratios and a set of 3.73 rear cogs make it a delight to drive, as long as you’re into loud spine-crushing power.

While the Monte Carlo has now been Adrienne’s passion for more than a dozen years, It’s always been secondary to her career goals, and she has relentlessly pursued opportunities in the automotive industry. She started by earning a degree in Business Management at Oakland University.

Though a full-time student at Oakland, Adrienne still found time between classes to help build some very special cars at Kustom Creations. And at age 19, she took time off to attend the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. “I walked every foot of the convention center, and learned as much as I could about the industry.”

Shortly after graduation, she was hired by Jack Morton Worldwide, a marketing agency, to work on the Chevrolet Racing account. She quickly earned the confidence of her boss and was soon managing a brand experience program at a wide variety of pro racing series events. That role evolved into facilitating Chevrolet’s relationships with racers and the various series management teams.

Her hard work for Chevrolet Racing and the numerous industry contacts she made along the way made her a known player among GM performance executives, and one day she got a call from Roger McCormick, GM’s director of Accessories and Performance Parts Marketing.

“When he asked if I was interested in interviewing for a position at GM headquarters, my whole world kind of stopped,” said Adrienne. She was soon named marketing manager for Chevrolet Performance, her role eventually expanding to include performance parts product marketing and even a stint with the government supplier, GM Defense.

She has had many mentors over the years whom she credits as her inspiration and career champions. In addition to her parents, Jim Campbell, a GM VP on the performance side, Jamie Meyer, her predecessor in the Performance Marketing Manager role, and Kara Brotebeck, her boss at Chevrolet Performance all played considerable roles in Peters’ growth.

And of course there was Herb Fishel, former Executive Director of GM Racing, who said, “Adrienne Peters is blessed with a sixth sense to see a bigger picture and path for achievement. Originating with and fueled by her passion for the racing/high-performance industry, she meets every opportunity with this enthusiasm, and doesn’t lift until the objective is met.”

After putting in the work building her own car from the ground up, working for an agency, and then managing multiple departments for a manufacturer, Adrienne decided it was time to create her own automotive consulting business. She founded Ardent Strategies last year, and now specializes in helping others in the industry share their stories. “It was never just about cars … What really drives the $52 billion automotive aftermarket industry are the stories, communities and innovators behind it,” she says. At 35 years of age, Adrienne already has the background of a seasoned veteran, but those who know her best will tell you she’s just getting started.

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