A spokesperson for the Downtown Detroit Partnership denies they stole the image. And Alcott later conceded the image on the cars was not his — they were only on the photo on the mock-up that was displayed before the cars went public.
Just do a photo search of Detroit skyline and you’ll find thousands of nearly identical photos taken by thousands of different people.
If I had access to Roger Penske I would have told him that I would take the photo for $500 and signed all further rights over to him.
As far as the cars are concerned, I would have gone with a simple skyline silhouette.