Video: 2016 Woodward Dream Cruise is Magic for Car Lovers

Craig Cole
by Craig Cole

Mark your calendars! Every third Saturday in August, the annual Dream Cruise thunders down Woodward Avenue in Metro Detroit. If you love classic cars or just want to attend a kick-ass event, you’ve got to check this out!

The Dream Cruise is all about vintage iron, from impeccably restored vehicles to unmolested survivors, modified muscle-machines to high-dollar imports, practically every kind of car and truck can be seen running up and down this multi-lane thoroughfare in a monumental display of automotive awesomeness. Just grab a cooler of refreshments (preferable of the non-alcoholic variety, as the local constabulary doesn’t take kindly to public drunkenness) and a bag chair, then plop yourself down along the shoulder of this historic highway and watch the magic roll past.

The Dream Cruise as we know it today started back in 1995 as a small fundraiser to help support a local soccer field. Since then, it’s blossomed into the largest single-day automotive event in the world, attracting some 1.5 million people and a claimed 40,000 classic cars.

SEE ALSO: Celebrating the Chevy Camaro’s 50th Birthday on Woodward Ave.

But the roots of the cruise reach back to the middle of the last century. During the 1950s and ‘60s it was a hotbed of street racing, when big-block performance ruled the road.

The venue for this automotive spectacle is historic Woodward Avenue, the first paved mile of roadway in the United States. A well-traveled thoroughfare, it runs from downtown Detroit all the way up to Pontiac, an arrow-straight 20-odd miles. It’s an angled slice across the map, cutting through numerous communities including Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge and Royal Oak, to name a few.

To get a small taste of what the Woodward Dream Cruise has to offer, make sure to watch the video posted above. It’ll give you but a glimpse of what this record-setting classic-car event is all about.

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Craig Cole
Craig Cole

Born and raised in metro Detroit, Craig was steeped in mechanics from childhood. He feels as much at home with a wrench or welding gun in his hand as he does behind the wheel or in front of a camera. Putting his Bachelor's Degree in Journalism to good use, he's always pumping out videos, reviews, and features for AutoGuide.com. When the workday is over, he can be found out driving his fully restored 1936 Ford V8 sedan. Craig has covered the automotive industry full time for more than 10 years and is a member of the Automotive Press Association (APA) and Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA).

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