Record rainfall and city-wide flooding earlier in the week couldn’t dampen the festivities at the 2014 Woodward Dream Cruise.
On Monday evening, it was looking like there might be no Dream Cruise at all in 2014. A record five inches of rain was dumped over the Detroit metropolitan area, flooding most of the city’s major roads and expressways and filling underpasses with water right up to ground level.
But then, this is Detroit. The Motor City. What might be a federal disaster emergency for other towns is merely a few moments of inconvenience in Detroit. By Tuesday afternoon, life was getting back to normal and the week-long automotive celebration out on Woodward Avenue was right back up to speed. The rest of the week featured mild, sunny, chamber-of-commerce weather—perfect conditions for cruising.
Of course, the marquee event is the gigantic cruise on Woodward Avenue on Saturday, boasting tens of thousands of cars. Here are just a few of the machines in the big show that caught our eye:
+ A 1939 Graham sharknose club coupe done up in 21st century street rod style (lead photo above). We’ve seen this car before, but it looked even finer rolling on the boulevard.
+ Parked along the avenue just north of 13 Mile, a beautifully restored Citroen 2CV in maroon and black.
+ A 1932 Ford Tudor in black lacquer with black wheels, baby moons, and a perfect stance.
+ A perfectly stock and perfectly gorgeous 1949 Ford Custom convertible in lemon yellow.
Check out these four and dozens more great vehicles in the gallery below.
Looks like a great mix of original and slightly custom( not over the top) cars and trucks. We just don’t have anything like that in Wisconsin, that I know of. Re: picture #9. Clearly a home-built off of what looks like a Chevy S-10 chassis. And the Ranchero in #24 is my favorite. The van in #26, not so much.
Every time the page loads, the photos queue up in a different order. I’m not sure which vehicle you refer to with S-10 chassis.
It’s the pickup thing where you say, “you tell us”, with the Diamond Reo, Diamond on the front. I recognize the wheels and the rear leaf spring.
It’s either a Henway or a Rolls-Canardly, not sure.
The pics changing order is weird! Though they are excellent pics!
I like most of these. If we take one month of your Winter, would you send us three of these great car shows that you folks get up North? The South’s idea of a car show is ten Mustangs and Camaros, a ’40 Ford and a 1965 GMC pickup. Six cylinders is tolerable but anything less than that is suspected of being foreign even if it says Ford on the brass radiator.
At the Dream Cruise there are 40,000 enthusiast vehicles of every conceivable description. For the annual features I try to narrow the focus somewhat to suit this website, with a few exceptions.
An interesting mix. Personally the modern Fiat 360, Camaro and Dodge dont belong. Though a few very interesting cars too. As well as a couple of rather dangerous ones too. The T bucket with wire wheels and no front brakes or mudguards and the scooter type thing are both an accident waiting to happen!
The wooden ‘thing’ seems to be a artists creation. On a modern commercial chassis of some sort. Would be a chore to get in and out of with no doors! Very different!