An All-American tradition: The Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit. A car-nival.

[NinadJoshi]

In a few hours, Woodward Avenue in the Detroit suburbs will be flooded with classic cars. Car enthusiasts from all over will bring their muscle, vintage, rare, sport, extreme sport, hotrod vehicles out on the road to cruise up and down this famous avenue for a whole day or two. A million car lovers like me will line up on the streets, camp on the walkways or lodge in the hotels that line the road, to soak the heavenly procession that flows by for two days and nights.

In its 18th year this year, the annual Woodward Dream Cruise will bring an estimated million guests to Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham and such local suburbs of Detroit. Last year the Cruise drew an estimated 1.5 million car fans (local and guests) on the roads to watch a procession of over 50,000 carefully kept cars of all possible types, ages, shapes and sizes out on the street. This year may be no different. You could chance upon a 1934 H.O. Chevy, a 71 Hemi Cuda and a 2012 Maserati Granturismo sharing lanes side by side.

The pleasure and surprise of seeing many a beautiful vehicle that you once saw in a movie, or even pasted on the wall of your room to ‘buy when I grow up’ when you were a young boy, is something to be experienced. I have been lucky to have participated in this fantastic tradition for the past 14 years, and I’ve never failed to be moved by the experience each year.

[NinadJoshi]

The atmosphere is as festive as it can get. Music blaring from the different Radio-station booths lined up all over, fantastic barbeque food from restaurant stalls set up for the cruise, cars and bikes on display by regular as well as custom manufacturers, artists vending their stuff that would ornament your vehicles, crowd, noise, hustle, claps and whistles to that massive 16 cylinder Cadillac Series 90 that just floated by. How much better can it get than that? And personally for you, the exhilaration that comes from being a part of something surreal is something to take back home for posterity. It is kind of like sitting in a packed Eden Gardens stadium with Tendulkar and Sehwag on the crease against Dale Steyn and company, in Cricketing parlance.


If you are in the Detroit area on the weekend of Saturday, 18th August, do make a detour to Woodward Avenue for the cruise. Your time will be worth spent.
I am attaching a few pictures I've taken from some of the past cruises, to give you a taste of what happens on the Woodward Avenue during these two days of car-nival.



Also, check out the official web site for the WDC and the sub-links thereof:
The Woodward Dream Cruise

[NinadJoshi]

As a side note, chances are that this post may get eliminated after a few days subject to the discretion of the moderators here. One of my previous attempts to make car lovers aware of a similar tradition in the Detroit area was shown the shelf after a few days, citing: ‘the event is over, so no need to advertise it any more’. In my humble view, there is a difference between a tradition and a one time occurrence. Events like the Woodward Dream Cruise are a part of people’s lives and passion year after year, and they deserve better than a 2 day shelf life on a portal like ours whose very theme is a passion for automobiles. It would be like saying ‘Ganeshotsav’ for 2011 is over, please stop discussing about Ganesha until the next year. The reason behind my creating this separate thread is to have a poster to remind people to pay a visit to this unique tradition as and when they can, be it 4 years from now.

To all those who love cars and bikes as much as I do (and I suspect there are many on this forum), I can say for sure that the WDC will not disappoint you, no matter when you get to visit it in the future.

Thanks, all.