Special Events

Woodward Dream Cruise BASF annually hosts a special event for customers at the Woodward Dream Cruise, a major happening in Greater Detroit that attracts well over one million car enthusiasts. We usually showcase our fleet of classic cars painted with the company's Variocrom color-variable pigments. These special cars now have the added feature of changing color when viewing or light angles change.

Heritage 2000 Supplier Event BASF hosted a major event at the Automotive Campus in Southfield to introduce Ford Motor Company's Heritage 2000 sustainable manufacturing initiatives to a broad spectrum of industry leaders.The program started with a series of e-commerce discussions and a review of BASF's vision for this technology and its rapidly expanding importance in the automotive industry. This was followed by a keynote speech delivered by noted architect and environmentalist Bill McDonough, who has received broad acclaim for innovative design ideas and business-oriented perspectives based on "sustainable development."McDonough is directing the first commercial project under the Heritage 2000 initiative: the revitalization of Ford's Rouge Complex in Detroit, one of the oldest operating factories in the world. This program will include a new concept of supply chain cooperation to promote eco-effective products to Ford, which has come to be known as the "Rouge Up-Link." BASF plans to work closely with Ford on this initiative. To showcase what BASF can contribute to Ford's Heritage 2000 strategy, the Automotive OEM Coatings group repainted a 1911 Ford Model T Torpedo Roadster completely with an environmentally friendly coating system: lead-free electrocoat, powder slurry primer, waterborne basecoat and a powder slurry clearcoat. The seat was also restored with BASF's "sustainable leather," a dye and chemical system that contains no chrome. The Model T was given to Ford Motor Company.The car was painted in a rich green color to promote our environmental message to Ford. Paraphrasing the famous quote attributed to the company's founder, Henry Ford, about the Model T being available in any color, as long as it's black. With the Heritage 2000 initiative, Ford vehicles will still be available to consumers in any color they want, as long as it's "green."