Well I’m sweaty, sunburnt, and smell like a mix of tire smoke and unburnt fuel. That means it was another successful Dream Cruise. The Dream Cruise is my favorite day of the year — better than my birthday, Christmas, Halloween, and National Spaghetti Day combined. It’s the largest one day automotive gathering on the planet, and in my opinion, the best car show in the world. It’s a celebration of everything with wheels, with over 1.5 million attendees, and well over 40,000 cars stretching 16 miles along historic Woodward Avenue. Every gearhead should have the Dream Cruise on their bucket list. Here’s why:
The History
The Dream Cruise started almost 30 years ago in Ferndale, a neighborhood on Detroit’s northern border. A local handyman named Nelson House organized a one-time fundraising event for a local soccer field. He called it the “Woodward Dream Cruise Car Show” to relive the heyday of 60’s and 70’s Detroit iron battling it out on Woodward Avenue.
He expected several thousand people to attend, but over 250,000 showed up. The show went viral back in 1995 before that was really a thing. Since then it’s been happening pretty much organically the third Saturday every August. The people loved the Dream Cruise and kept showing up to make it happen, which is beautiful in my eyes. At the Dream Cruise, the attendees and their cars are the stars of the show.
There is a non-profit run by uncompensated members of the community who handle things like coordination, merchandise, sponsorships, and charitable donations, but the actual cruise just… happens. This is one reason why it’s so great.
The Variety of Cars is on Another Level
I was trying to think of a way to describe the Woodward Dream Cruise without sounding like Bubba Gump going on for hours about all the ways you can cook shrimp; but I can’t. Picture your favorite car, odds are it will be there. Picture some odd or obscure car you forgot about or didn’t know existed, hard I know, but that will be there too. Think of any brand, foreign, domestic, sold in the US or not; there will be cars rolling around from every era of that brand’s history.
Being at the Dream Cruise is like an ADHD simulator. Look one way and you’ll see a mint BMW 2002 turbo, look the other way and there’s an original 67’ Mustang GT500, look again and you’ll see a purple Lamborghini Diablo or a Citroen 2CV. There’s a clean 90’s Durango 5.7 with a huge inter cooler making a whistling noise, there’s a first gen Plymouth Horizon, theres a JDM Honda CRX, theres 30 Chrysler Crossfires all styled differently driving in a line, theres a Caterpillar yellow hot rod with tractor tires and a 16 liter turbocharged Detroit Diesel engine, theres Jay Leno in a turbine powered Chrysler. Any marginally famous movie car will have a tribute there. Theme cars, joke cars, things that can barely be described as a car, you’ll see it there.
[Ed Note: At my first Woodward dream cruise, which happened right around my 21st birthday, I accidentally walked 15 miles because I simply couldn’t stop. It was a sensory overload! -DT].
You have go in expecting the unexpected, and prepare to have your mind blown constantly. The best part is you see and hear these cars in motion. It’s one thing to see a vintage Auburn or a 59’ Cadillac Eldorado under lights in a museum. It’s a totally different thing to see it gliding down the road in the sunlight, like they did when they were new. You can feel the uneven thumps in your chest when some high strung gasser lopes down the street before violently breaking its tires, hear the howl of a Ferrari Testarossa, or the quiet put-putting of a Scout Scarab as it floats down the road like some kind of alien craft; all on the same day. Car clubs meet up and cruise together, so you’ll suddenly see dozens of Vipers or rally cars and whatnot taking up a chunk of traffic. It’s a real-life parade of automotive greatest hits that you can’t find anywhere else.
The reason for the variety is that it’s all open to everyone, and the people of Detroit have deep roots in the car world. Woodward Avenue is just a 45mph, 4-lane highway that stretches northwest from Detroit to Pontiac. If you want to bring your car, just go; there is no gatekeeper. You’ll see any type of vehicle and all sorts of crazy projects, some finished, some not. This openness is what makes it great. You don’t need a traditionally “cool” car or something that’s finished to concourse quality. Maybe you painted your Camaro with a roller, or your car is covered in pennies or Hello Kitty stickers. Your can bring it anyways and you’ll find someone there who appreciates it.
It’s Free
People are struggling these days and prices for everything keep going up. The Detroit Electronic Music Festival used to be free, now it’s almost $300. It costs a family of five $126 to go to the Detroit Zoo, and that’s before you spend $15 on a hamburger and $9 for a peanut butter sandwich and fries for your kid. At the Dream Cruise you just show up. You can walk around, sit on the grass or some bleachers, or set up a canopy with a grill and some lawn chairs. The major auto manufacturers have areas with bands and other entertainment. You can find free food too. I walked with my kid to Pasteiners Auto Zone where we got free hot dogs, chips, and a drink. Where else can you get this much entertainment for your whole family for free? That brings me to my next point.
It’s Family Friendly
We all know “kids are the future,” doubly so for the survival of car culture. You will be heartened by all the enthusiasm kids show for this rolling parade of cars. Drivers will show off for crowds of young’uns; an Impala may deploy its hydraulics hitting some three wheel motion, or do a burnout. You see plenty of kids holding signs egging people on to spin their tires. It’s a great feeling watching a child point and take a picture of your car, then call you a wimp for not doing a burnout. The Dream Cruise will have you thinking the kids are alright.
It’s an event for all generations. You’ll see entire extended families tailgating and giving each other rides. Kids hanging out in lawn chairs in the back of their Dad’s pickup truck. My son’s been going since he was a nugget in my wife’s belly. We had a blast this year, and I plan on continuing the tradition as long as I can.
The People are Awesome
I know I said “the best part about Dream Cruise” several times now, but the people of the Dream Cruise are really the best part. It brings out the camaraderie and egalitarian spirit that are the best parts of car culture. Everyone is so friendly, appreciative, and approachable. “It’s a whole ass vibe” as the kids would say.
As you cruise up Woodward at a walking pace, surrounded by a smorgasbord of awesome cars, the crowd on the side of the road are cheering you on. The people in the cars are complimenting each other’s rides and giving props. You’ll hear folks swapping stories and asking each other questions. The haters all seem to stay home and people show each other plenty of love.
If you look at the traffic situation there objectively, miles of traffic crawling at a walking speed, you’d imagine anarchy as road rage spreads like a plague. The cruise is the opposite. Everyone is relaxed and enjoying themselves. People yield, let each other in, stop traffic to help people back in and out of parking spaces. When parking, random passersby will spot you and let you know how much room you have. If your car dies, you’ll have a small crowd helping push your car to safety. Last year I saw a guy’s vintage Corvette start on fire. About a dozen people ran to the car with their water bottles or popped their trunks to grab fire extinguishers and put it out. Everyone there knows how precious someone’s ride is to them, so they look out for each other.
There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about car culture being a bit of a sausage fest, weisswurst in particular. The Dream Cruise is quite the opposite. The crowd is super diverse in age, sex, race, income — whatever. This big slice of humanity all loves cars, which is an awesome sight to see. City folk will be laughing and swapping stories with country folk. You’ll see guy in a McLaren complimenting a factory worker’s Foxbody Mustang. Families of all colors and nationalities tailgating together and having a great time.
Detroit is a diverse city, and the Dream Cruise is one of the few events that reflects that. With the country divided in so many ways, it’s heartwarming to see us coming together, even if it’s just to geek out about cars.
It’s Still a Little Lawless
Old timers will grumble about all the hijinks they were able to pull back in the day and how the cops ruined the Cruise. While they may have a point, there is still plenty of silliness going on. It’s over a million people with tens of thousands of cars on an open road, there aren’t enough cops in Michigan to ticket everyone. So there are tons of burnouts going on, a sure way to get cheers from the crowd. A good number of the cars aren’t street legal. You see full-blown race cars, cars that are just a bare chassis with an engine and a seat strapped in it, random motorized objects that are somehow being driven.
People ride in the back of pickup trucks, hang out of sunroofs, and cruise in the “way back” seats of their station wagon with the rear hatch open. Tons of scooters, dirt bikes, ATVs, unicycles, swerving through traffic. There are plenty of impromptu races going on (in a semi-safe manner), random doughnuts and other shenanigans. In the after-hours, Pontiac turns into a shit show, the streets painted with rubber lines in all directions. Serious racers head to the local Mexico to have more fun.
There are still a ton of people getting tickets, but to the cops’ credit they let a lot of stuff go in the spirit of the event. That or they’re outnumbered and can’t stop us all.
Counterpoint
There are plenty of Dream Cruise haters out there. One group doesn’t like the noise, or the crowds, or the congestion, or fun. The other group doesn’t like the cops or all the “normie” cars that clog up the road. People from the suburbs who don’t even go to the show complain that it’s not in Detroit proper; they probably just don’t want the noise in their neighborhood. Traffic can get really slow, which can be frustrating if you have somewhere to go and you forgot about every other road in the region, or if your cooling system isn’t up to snuff. There may be some valid points in there somewhere, but the haters need to relax: This is the Motor City’s day to have fun.
Conclusion
If you’ve never been to the Woodward Dream Cruise, I hope this convinces you to go. It’s a celebration of all facets of car culture. Bring some sunscreen and lawn chairs and call up some friends in the area. Or if you don’t have any friends to join you, the Dream Cruise is the easiest day to make some new ones. I’ve been going every year since i moved to Detroit, and intend to keep that streak going as long as I can.
Anyways, here are some more photos!
That’s my friend Spencer’s Grand Am! He just got it. I’m staying with him and attending Radwood Detroit with him in mid-September with my 1990 Pontiac Sunbird. The 7-hour drive there in a 96-horsepower J-Body with no cruise control will be interesting to say the least.
Awesome! I’m hoping to bring my bonneville to that show. I’ll see you there!
This is so awesome! Everything looks so good but I’m drooling over the AMC Eagle- my brother used to have 2 of them
Yes, the ELR has always looked really nice. It was just too expensive for what it was, when it was new.
This is on my bucket list of events to attend. For slow cruising, the land yacht will do perfectly.
I love it – to me it’s one of the best things about living in Southeast Michigan.
This year we had just enough rain that the crowds were smaller and we had less gridlock.
I have to try and make it to this sometime – I’m only about 10 hours away. The closest thing we have around these parts is the Heartland Nationals GoodGuys show at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. I think there were over 5,000 cars there this year. It’s almost overwhelming, and yet a far cry from the scene you’re describing at Woodward.
It’s also not free, and the mix of cars was decidedly only traditional Americana for awhile. Part of that was having a cut-off at 1964 way back in the early years. That was then moved to ’72 for awhile, and now I think it’s a rolling 20-some-year from present with anything-goes on the last day. I’ve heard a few purists gripe, but it was the right move to bring more young people into it. This year I parked “Biscuits and Gravy” (my slightly leaky ’66 6-cyl Biscayne) in between an early 90’s SL Benz and rickety old early 80’s Datsun truck that some kid was trying to fix up, neither of which would’ve been there a few years back. It was perfect.
Not sure the Biscayne is cut out for 20+ hours of driving, but from the looks of things my Moby-white ’94 Fleetwood with its fresh Vogues would blend right in!
Your Fleetwood would be perfect!
I went last year for the first time and met Jay Leno and got a picture with him. I went again this year, took my 84 year old uncle. We had a blast, cruised the whole route in my 21 Challenger SXT. Plan on doing it again next year.
I went last year for the first time in years and had a great time, as expected. Even some my friends in Detroit, none of whom are car people, go every year. I enjoy most all of those qualities that the author describes, especially the variety of cars and the laid-back vibe. This year I missed it, so I’ll make sure to go again next year. But there’s something about it that leaves me thinking it’s missing…just a little bit of…I don’t know what? Maybe it’s so diffuse and I need something more concentrated to get 100% out of it. Maybe it’s all the normie cars. I remember my last visit to Stockholm, about ten years ago, I was out at Mikkeller and happened to be facing out a window and kept noticing American cars periodically driving by for over an hour. When I was done I walked in the direction they were going and discovered Cruising Sveavegen, which is like a (only relatively) smaller Swedish WDC every Saturday night all summer. I was ecstatic and spent the rest of the evening sketching and looking at cars. It’s a standout memory. I think it’s something of that that’s missing for me.
This is the content I was looking for. I was lucky enough to drive in the first one. Another way to look at the Dream Cruise is that it is a 15 mile long car show. There are so many stories to tell. We need to hear more.
I participated from the first year thru 2012., but was in town this last week so was able to hit it up for a while. Ferndale had Mustang alley, you’d think just about every Mustang in the greater Detroit area was there. There is quite variety of cars, even seen that group of Crossfires. Could do without the groups with the political signs.
We were starting to wonder on the Detroit Discord if we’d see an article about the Cruise, and now we need not wonder any longer. Thank you for the excellent article!
Been to every single one thus far – and the week leading up to it is a blast (it’s long, but worth it). Any Friday or Saturday from basically May (or earlier, if it’s randomly warm) to October is a fun night out there to hang out and watch the cars.
This was a great article.
Detroit car culture is just different. More homegrown and less judgy/showy than some other places, in my experience. Long live Detroit!
This describes it perfectly! If you think you’ve seen it all from an automotive standpoint, just go the The Dream Cruise. It does not disappoint.
Thank you! I’ve been waiting for this.
Ok, the picture of a McLaren next to a Cadillac kinda sealed the deal: I do want to attend now. I’m all for an event that e’rebody just shows up for driving whatever they have.
I’ll be over talkin to that guy still driving his Pacer after all these years.
The variety is what makes it worthwhile. I felt it was more diverse than ever this year, especially with the types of cars that the car weirdos like us would like. I have a pic of a Reliant wagon that looks like it literally just drove off of the dealer lot next to a 2CV.
I like variety in cars & a wide diversity in crowds. Families, kids & dogs running around, several languages spoken, unfamiliar-but fascinating smells from food-all make for a good event.
This is every bit as awesome as the author describes. I went waaayyy back circa 1996-97 with the “world’s ugliest car,” my daily’d 4-door 1962 Dodge Dart in sparkling metal flake poop brown. I ended up parked next to Phil Freakin’ Hill and his Model T Ford. He very politely asked to use the hood of my Dart to sign autographs all day. What an amazing gentleman.
http://itisgood.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/62-Dart-Woodward-Phil-Hill.jpg
Definitely on my list of things to do, and frankly I’m surprised there is so much diverse import representation there, which makes me want to go even more. I’m not usually a fan of shows that are all just one type of vehicle.
I have always wanted to go the Woodward Dream Cruise. I grew up with Monterey Car Week in my backyard but it’s different. We used to have a more classic muscle event but covid killed it unfortunately. There is something about going to Detroit for the cruise.