For car-crazy people, the Woodward Dream Cruise is the world’s biggest candy store. For the 27th time, an estimated 40,000 hot rods, retro mods and just plain odds rumbled along 16 miles of M-1 from Ferndale to Pontiac. Here are some of the coolest rides spotted Saturday at the Dream Cruise.
24-karat magic
Carl Wilson’s 1981 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray was his “prized possession,” says his daughter, Tammy McClain, 55, of Detroit.
Wilson was a regular at the Woodward Dream Cruise. He died last year, and McClain was at the Cruise Saturday in his honor — with his Corvette proudly on display.
“He left it to me,” she said. “What I’m doing now is living out his legacy. Last time was the first time he hadn’t attended the Dream Cruise. So I thought I’d come out and honor him — so I hope he’s looking down on me and proud of me.”
McClain was dressed in red and gold from head to toe — matching the red car with 24-karat gold accents.
“He was inspired by the ‘Little Red Corvette,'” McClain said of her father. And while cars were more his passion than hers, she’s developing an interest in them in honor of her father: “I’m getting used to the attention.”
—Jordyn Grzelewski
Pretty in pink
A 1955 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria with a “Lucille” license plate was on display Saturday on Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak.
The two-tone pink-and-white sedan exemplifies America’s postwar exuberance and prosperity, as Ford and its Detroit rivals in the mid-1950s rolled out flashy, rocket-inspired successors to the stodgy, tub-shaped models that had dominated previous years.
As rock ‘n’ roll was starting to take over juke boxes, radio stations and record stores, you could cruise in style in a ’55 Crown Vic — the top trim of Ford’s full-size sedan — for $2,302, or $25,544 in today’s dollars, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Seems like an especially sweet deal when you consider that the average new car price topped $48,000 last month, according to Cox Automot
—Jordyn Grzelewski
A black beauty
George Arakelian, 73, says he’s attended the Dream Cruise since its beginning nearly 30 years ago. Among the sea of Chevys, Fords and Chryslers on Woodward, Arakelian’s vintage car stands out: it’s a 1937 Cord, a luxury car built in Indiana during the Great Depression by the Auburn Automobile Company.
Arakelian is the fourth owner of the car, which he’s had for 14 years. Arakelian says the Cord is a “dependable automobile and primarily unrestored,” noting that on the car’s exterior, only the fenders have been repainted.
Last year, he put new leather on the seats.
He says he comes to the Dream Cruise so people can see his car, and to check out other classics. “You gotta be a car lover,” he said. “If you’re a car lover, you’re going to come out for this … if you’re not here, you’re not a lover.”
—Myesha Johnson
From workhorse to showhorse
Lou Maire, 42, of Oregon, Ohio, has owned his 1957 Dodge D100 pickup twice.
He bought it the first time in 2008 and drove the truck in its original, unrestored state for 3 1/2 years. “We all grew up in this car,” he said. “It was our everyday vehicle in a family of four — it was all we had.”
He let it go to a friend: “My buddy wanted it more than me and he made me an offer and I sold it to him,” Maire recalled. “Three years later I get it back and I went to fire it up after getting it out of impound and the motor was knocked and I said, ‘I’m going to change the motor and the rear end.'”
That he did: The old Dodge is now powered by a Chevy 6.0 LS small-block V-8 and has other new parts harvested from 17 different vehicles.
For his first Dream Cruise, Maire was joined by Todd Stremmel, 57, of Toledo, who was displaying his 1937 Ford coupe, with an eye-catching paint job: yellow with orange flames climbing the front end onto the hood. Stremmel said he was up late Friday night repairing his car’s engine.
“That’s part of the fun: working on it yourself,” he said.
—Myesha Johnson
A kid-friendly vehicle
Jim Jordan, 69, painted his 1965 Ford Econoline like a Hot Wheels truck for his grandkids, with the truck bed decked out with comfy seating for them to watch the parade of cars on Woodward.
Three generations of Jordan’s family from Hubbard, Ohio, joined him with the truck.
He says the van is such a hit wherever he takes it that he carries around color pages drawn up of the car to give to youngsters.
“So many kids. I mean, I put my one buddy in here to go down the street to get some hot dogs and stuff and he goes, ‘All these people want to take pictures. They like it,” Jordan said.
—Anna Liz Nichols