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What can you say about the Woodward Dream Cruise that is held annually north of Detroit during the third week of every August? It is the largest collection of classic and custom cars in the world. It is officially a one-day event on a Saturday, but over the years it has grown to nearly a full week, with the number of vehicles building up each day as Saturday approaches. Where else can you sit in your lawn chair and see a Kaiser, Henry J, Delorean, Nash, Edsel, Fraser, DeSoto, Packard, Hudson, Tucker and Studebaker pass in front of you in just a two-hour.period? Nowhere! The volume of Classic, hot rod and cuistom cars is enormous, in fact by the official day of Saturday it is gridlocked with such cars.You will see more supercharged, full-race engines that you would at a drag meet, and will likely see one of every car that you have ever owned. In addition to cars that are cruising, there are miles of such cars parked in lots and along the road so that you can inspect them and talk to their owners. It is a carnival atmosphere, with a good time being had by all.
If you are restoring a classic car (any make or model) you are very likely to find the very same make and model restored and cruising around or parked. You can visit with the owner and get valuable advice, contact info and restoration tips. It represents a monstrous gathering of classic car and custom car buffs. Over a 13-mile stretch of Woodward avenue there are perhaps 60,000 people in lawn chairs along the road watching and photographing the cruisers. It goes on each day from mid-morning until about 9 p.m., with the peak time being from 6 pm until 8 pm. Many experienced attendees prefer Thursday or Friday instead of the official Saturday date because there is more cruising and less gridlock then. It can be a great family outing to grab your lawnchairs and a cooler full of soft drinks and sandwiches and go sit next to Woodeard Avenue for 3 or 4 hours. It makes for a fine picnic. If you have never attended and the opportunity arises, you should definitely attend once.
February 18th, 2015 at 6:10 pm
I would like to attend the Woodward dream cruise up in the Detroit area in 2015. What are the dates and where exactly is it? Rich Wentworth
February 18th, 2015 at 6:40 pm
From the Moderator: Good question Rich. Officially the Woodward Dream Cruise is a one-day event each year, and is the Saturday during the third week of August. For 2015 the Cruise will officially be held on Saturday, August 15, 2015. The home-base for the cruise is in Royal Oak, Michigan, which is about 11 miles north of downtown Detroit. However, in real life the Cruise is for many more days, and is also in a few other cities both north and south of Royal Oak, including Ferndale, Birmingham and Pontiac. By the way, Royal Oak is best reached by taking the Woodward Exit north off I-696 (right at the Detroit Zoo water tower, and you will be there. In reality, the Cruise has grown each year over the past 20 years, and now actually comes to life about six days earlier than the official day. Also, the cruise really goes from 9-mile and Woodward until 16-mile Road and Woodward, and even further on August 13, 14 and 15. Starting almost a week earlier, on August 9, there will be cruisers on Woodward from 12-Mile to 14-Mile road, with people in lawn chairs lined up to see them. This will mainly be in the afternoon and early evening. Each subsequent day; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday there will be a couple of more thousand people lined up each day, (unless there is a heavy rain), until by Thursday it will start to be hard to find a place to park your car and get out your lawn chairs. It will be packed almost solid from 11-Mile Road to 16-Mile Road, and even out past 19-mile road to Pontiac. By the official day of Saturday, August 15, it will be total gridlock, looking like a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour. In my opinion the best days to plan to attend are Thursday and/or Friday, August 13 or 14. There will be just about as many classic and custom cars cruising on Thursday and Friday, August 13 and 14, and they are indeed cruising slowly, so that you can see them go by you and you can photograph many of them. On Saturday it is nearly stopped dead, and it takes an hour to move one mile. The same classic car is sitting in front of you for 15 minutes, and many old cars are overheating. Bring a pop cooler, a sun hat, your camera and some comfortable lawn chairs. Don’t plan to drink any cold beer while sitting there, as it is banned and the police are pretty strict about it. Dave Harrington