2007 Woodward Dream Cruise

Old friends are a lot like old cars. Even if you don’t get to see them every day, spending time together can still be a blast. Take my pal Norm, for example. The two of us spent our teenage years drooling over hot rod magazines and tearing around the Cleveland suburbs in his Mom’s butter-yellow 1968 Impala coupe. And though we haven’t shared the same zip code for decades, our mutual enthusiasm for cool cars still keeps us connected. So when the folks at GM invited me to attend Detroit’s 12th annual Woodward Dream Cruise, Norm was the one guy I had to call.

By Alan Rider

Photo credit: Photographer

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While the Woodward Dream Cruise officially takes place on a single Saturday in August, the build-up to this eagerly awaited event goes on for weeks. Norm and I showed up Friday afternoon, picked up the keys to a Corvette LS2-powered ’55 Chevy coupe from the GM Heritage Collection, and headed out to cruise the 16 miles of Woodward Avenue that play host to the event. Smoking the tires as we pulled away from a stoplight, we were having way more fun than any two car guys should be allowed to have. Only later did we find out that burnouts are a big no-no with the local gendarmes. Oops.

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After we returned the keys to our ’55 Chevy, Norm and I took our place at the curb to watch the Friday night warm-up for Saturday’s Dream Cruise get underway. As we sat there transfixed by the endless stream of pristine muscle cars, customs and classics, we couldn’t escape the feeling that somebody had flung open the doors to the world’s coolest auto museum. Add the occasional old-school hot rod and the event takes on a time-warp quality that transports cruisers and spectators alike back to the time when cruising Woodward Avenue was as much a part of the Motor City as America’s Big Three automakers themselves.

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The Woodward Dream Cruise bills itself as the largest one-day automotive spectacle in the world and, based on our experience, we wouldn’t doubt it for a second. Organizers of the event, which officially runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, say it annually draws more than 40,000 custom and classic cars. Norm and I lost count somewhere around 10,000. What impressed us most however – other than the sheer variety of interesting vehicles rolling by – is that the majority of these cars wore Michigan plates. Now we know where all the cool old cars have gone to live.

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While not every car was a concours d’elegance-quality show-stopper, the 18 hours we spent on our little Royal Oak, Mich., street corner were seldom dull. In fact, at the peak of the event we found it hard to take our eyes off the street for fear we’d miss something really interesting. Like this beat-up old Caddy, for instance. What it lacked in polish it made up for in creativity, having been covered from nose to tailfins in badges lifted from other cars, plus pennies, crowns, and whatever trinkets its owner seemed to take a shine to.

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As Norm and I returned to our street corner Saturday morning, we were surprised by the number of kids we found digging the cruising scene from lawn chairs on the sidewalk or from the comfort of their own back seat, like the Armeni boys shown here in their dad’s 1941 Mercury ragtop. Dream Cruise organizers and local police go to great lengths to help ensure the event stays family-friendly by banning alcohol consumption outside of licensed establishments and cracking down on wild behavior both on the street and off. The result is an annual event that we’re quite certain helps create life-long car nuts.

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If you wonder what possesses custom and classic car owners to cruise Woodward Avenue all day sucking down exhaust fumes while inching along in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the answer is simple – there are few places in the world where they’ll find a more appreciative audience. In fact, all along the route you’ll hear spectators calling out, “Hey, nice car!” or “I used to have one of those!” And when you stop to consider the countless hours and thousands of dollars these folks have tied up in their gorgeous four-wheeled obsessions, we suspect this enthusiastic feedback somehow makes it all seem worth it.

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A full roll cage, blown engine, huge cheater slicks, wheelie bars and a drag chute make it clear this is no ordinary hot rod. This beautiful 1940 Willys coupe, powered by a supercharged 509 cubic inch Chevy V-8, was just one example of the many barely street legal race cars we saw at the Dream Cruise. Though we spotted it parked on the curb, it’s owner told us he’d been out cruising Woodward all day in a car capable of running an 8.4-second quarter-mile. When he fired it up for us, it was like we’d died and gone to horsepower heaven!

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Of course, the quest to wring every last bit of performance out of a vehicle isn’t just limited to cars and trucks. This guy just couldn’t resist giving the assembled crowd a little taste of what he had under the hood of his golf cart. Of course, we feel obliged to note that wheelies, burnouts, and similar demonstrations can land you a costly ticket and add several points to your license. Truly over-the-top displays can get you hauled off in the back of a squad car while your vehicle finishes the cruise route on the back of a tow truck.

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Hate to say we told you so but, well, we did. A simple burnout earned this gentleman a rather expensive souvenir from one of Royal Oak, Michigan’s finest who have a zero-tolerance policy for such shenanigans. And just because you’re walking doesn’t mean you’re safe from the long arm of the law. We saw Royal Oak cops bust several people for jaywalking (not crossing Woodward at a designated crosswalk) and open container alcohol violations. Forewarned is forearmed, eh? Locals tell us officers from other municipalities may cut cruisers and pedestrians a little more slack, but we suggest you don’t push your luck.

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Seeing as how this is the Motor City, it should come as no surprise that most of the cars making their way down Woodward were born in the good ol’ U.S. of A. Most, but not all. This funky BMW Isetta is just one example of an unexpectedly large assortment of foreign brands that ran the gamut from Messerschmitt to Fiat to Rolls Royce. And it’s precisely this seemingly endless variety that gives the Dream Cruise its real appeal. We heard someone compare it to Midwest weather – if you don’t like what you’re looking at, give it a minute and it’ll change.