FERNDALE, MI – We may have quietly reached a tipping point this past summer in the way Ford enthusiasts prefer to experience the annual Woodward Dream Cruise – and it’s something that event regulars have been secretly doing for years. Any enthusiast who loves Detroit Iron knows about the annual Woodward Dream Cruise in suburban Detroit -- the biggest one-day classic car event on the planet. With some 1.5 million people and nearly 40,000 collectible cars, the Woodward Dream Cruise is truly a Bucket List event that you simply must experience to appreciate. But the event has grown so large over the past 30 years that cruise-loving fans from all over the world descend on the Woodward cruise route just north of Detroit beginning on the Monday before the big cruise-day Saturday -- and that increases each day until the Thursday-Friday enthusiast footprint has become a true automotive happening in and of itself.
We previewed that shift recently with our coverage of why and how the Shelby American Automobile Club / Motor City Region (SAAC-MCR) stages a Pre-Woodward Dream Cruise Event each year. It’s because while everyone knows that Detroit’s massive annual Woodward Dream Cruise is technically a one-day event held in the middle of August each summer, experienced dream cruisers will tell you that the best actual cruising experience isn’t on that mega Saturday, but rather on the Tuesday through Friday leading up to the weekend gridlock. While FordRacing.com has always offered exclusive coverage of each and every Ford-centric event before, during, and even after cruise week (yes, including the famed “Mustang Alley” event on cruise day), more and more of the Ford faithful have been telling us that Woodward week’s Thursday-Friday cruising action is truly more enjoyable.
To prove their point, our local roving enthusiast photographers, Mark Storm and Ford retiree Bill Cook, went out to Woodward on the Thursday and Friday before this year’s Dream Cruise, and took hundreds of pictures of the thousands of cars that were already rolling up and down the avenue. While we’ll also show you what we saw during the one-day rolling car mega-show in The Motor City, check out our selections of cool Fords on the move that Mark and Bill sent us from the Woodward cruise route during the days leading up to the official Woodward Dream Cruise. And then check back later for more of our exclusive on-site coverage of this impressive celebration of the American auto industry’s glorious heritage.
FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY BILL COOK & MARK STORM
