A Woodward Dream Cruise Retrospective

by Paul Eisenstein | August 17, 2024

It’s hard to ignore the guttural roar of a classic muscle car. Now, multiply that by several thousand. That’s what we can expect on Woodward Ave., the main drag bisecting Detroit and its northern suburbs as the annual Woodward Dream Cruise gets underway. Mother Nature isn’t being very kind, heavy storms expected to put a damper on a gathering that, in good years, will bring out as many as 60,000 muscle cars, hot rods, sports cars and other cruisers – with more than 1 million folks lining the 16-mile route. That seems like a good excuse to look back at my favorite shots from the past three decades.

What has become an annual institution that draws muscle car fans to Detroit from as far away as Europe, Japan and Australia began almost by accident.

Back in 1995, Nelson House, a plumber and car collector from the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, decided to organize a gathering of muscle cars. But rather than stage the traditional, static gathering in a park or parking lot, he and friends decided to show off their prized vehicles by cruising them down Woodward Ave., the wide boulevard that effectively slices Detroit into east and west halves.

Organizers expected a turnout of perhaps a few hundred muscle cars and hot rods for the first Cruise. Several thousand showed up, with an estimated 250,000 watching from the sidelines. In recent years, that’s grown to 60,000 or more vehicles – with crowds estimated at over 1 million.

Why Woodward?

Officially known as M-1, Woodward Avenue has a long history, first laid out in 1805 and named to honor Judge Augustus B. Woodward. It was just another route from downtown out to the then sleepy suburbs until the early 1960s when Detroit automakers started out a procession of ever faster and more audacious muscle cars, like the Ford Mustang, the Plymouth Road Runner and the Pontiac GTO.

Woodward had grown into an 8-lane boulevard divided by a wide median. There wasn’t much along the suburban portions, mostly ice cream vendors, hot dog and hamburgers stands. It was the real “American Graffiti,” the 1973 paean to the muscle car era directed by George Lucas. Every night, at least when there wasn’t snow on the ground, motorists from around Motown – many barely old enough to drive – turned out to cruise the strip.

There was plenty of racing action, as well. And that caught the interest of automotive executives like the legendary Pontiac chief John DeLorean who saw a way to test out – and promote – the brand’s latest products.

The death – and rebirth – of muscle cars

The original muscle car era came to a screeching halt when America was hit with the first Mideast oil shock in 1974. The gas-guzzlers were typically first in line waiting for scarce fuel as pumps across America ran dry. The second embargo, five years later, all but ended production of V-8s and performance vehicles, motorists trading in on fuel-efficient “stone ponies,” like the Ford Escort and Chevrolet Citation.

It didn’t help that, as Detroit’s northern suburbs grew and more lights were put in along Woodward Ave., the police began cracking down on cruisers.

The Dream Cruise came along at a time when muscle was beginning an unexpected comeback. There were collectors snapping up old metal that might have been parked and forgotten for years. But automakers also began to figure out how to deliver record levels of power, even while squeezing out more mileage than ever. When the Mustang GT relaunched Ford’s V-8 40 years ago it barely made 185 hp. Today, versions of the pony car can turn out four times as much. More than a handful of models have pushed above the once seemingly impossible 1,000 hp barrier.

Cruising redux

While the original Woodward Dream Cruise was envisioned as a one-time event there was no stopping it. Well, almost nothing.

The event survived the Great Northeast Blackout of 2003 which meant there was no way to pump fuel for the classic gas hogs. Somehow, there was still a solid turnout.

Formally, this is the 29th Woodward Dream Cruise. The event was officially canceled just once: in August 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Even so, thousands of cruisers still took to Woodward Ave., even if there were smaller crowds – many wearing masks – gathered along the 16-mile route.

These days, however, Cruisers have to, well, cruise. There’s a heavy police presence along the length of the event and there are plenty of tickets handed out to drivers who burn rubber or dare try to challenge one another when the light changes. Not that there are many opportunities to do that, traffic generally moving at a crawl.

The stranger the better

You’ll find pretty much anything and everything cruising Woodward Ave. this Saturday, from classic muscle cars to the latest high-performance exotics. But the Dream Cruise also brings out plenty of vehicles that can just be described as, well, strange.

There are the “rat rods” which look like they were just hauled out of a junkyard – or perhaps were driven off the set of the latest Mad Max sequel.

I’ve spotted motorized grocery carts and a perennial favorite, shown in this gallery, is a minivan that’s been converted to drive on its roof. Perhaps the happiest cruiser I’ve seen over the years was a guy being towed in a red clawed bathtub on wheels, sandwiched in-between two women wearing the skimpiest of bikinis. The rig was set up so that as the wheels turned they powered a pump spraying water on the trio from an old-fashioned shower head.

My favorite so far this year? A rat rod pickup with a large metal dragon in the cargo bed spewing five feet of flames. The driver can also blast flames out of the truck’s twin exhaust pipes, as you can see in the image, above.

I’m sure I’ll see even more as the day drags on. That’s the joy of the annual Woodward Dream Cruise.