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.