PORT HURON, MI – About 90 minutes north of Detroit is the city of Port Huron, Michigan, where the Bluewater Bridge provides a major U.S. border crossing into Canada. It’s far enough from The Motor City to provide a vacation gateway to the Lake Huron shoreline, but close enough to share a love for all things automotive. That’s why local enthusiasts and major merchants have been hosting a big car show every summer called “Mainstreet Memories” that took over most of Downtown Port Huron. As you might expect, Ford owners have attended this show for years.
But success had a price, and once the show surpassed 600 cars and trucks of all makes and models a few years ago, it was relocated to a once-industrial repurposed 20-acre tract behind the downtown storefronts along the St. Clair River known as the Acheson Ventures Waterfront to accommodate even more vehicles and vendors. The show name was subsequently changed to “Mainstreet Memories – Wheels On The Waterfront” to reflect the venue shift. But now that waterfront property has since been sold to developer and – you guessed it – the 2025 show had to move back to lining both sides of the main drag downtown. No, there were not as many cars as before, but that cool, streetside show vibe was like it had never left.
That’s precisely why Ford Performance Club Connect supported this summer’s Mainstreet Memories show by setting up our Meet & Greet display tent, right across from the registration area (and quite close to a row of food trucks – genius on our part for foot traffic, we must admit). A cloudy morning with a bit of drizzle gave way to spotty sunshine as the cars kept rolling in. Yes, they again comprised just about every make and model imaginable, but after all, this is a community based, non-judged charity car show where the goal is to build community, not to sponsor a brand competition.
Although with less room to spread out, the show was still geared for family fun with full schedule of events to keep the thousands of show-goers entertained throughout the day. One of our favorites is the kids’ Power Wheels racing – intended to offer some EV driving fun for the little ones. We provided our Free Mustang Poster Giveaway all day while the show offered a DJ, plenty of Downtown eateries, door-prize drawings, a 50/50, raffle drawings, a Kid’s Zone filled with face-painting and activities for the younger ones, and even a few nice sponsor awards at the end. One of the best features of this show is that it gives back to their charity of choice -- The Council on Aging, Inc.
We snuck away from our poster-slinging tent duty for a few minutes to take photos of some of the Fords we found on display at the show to share with you in the gallery below:
FORDRACING.COM PHOTOS / JOHN CLOR
