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Payne: Some of my favorite things at the Woodward Dream Cruise
Posted by Talbot Payne on August 21, 2023
Detroit News Auto Critic Henry Payne spent Saturday at the Woodward Dream Cruise. Here are some of the cars, trucks and boats and shirts (no, not kidding about that last one) that caught his eye at Metro Detroit’s 28th annual autopalooza.
F1 on M-1
Just follow the kids. Buzz spread quickly on Woodward Saturday morning that there was a state-of-the-art, 2023 Formula One car on Woodward.
Sure enough, Golling’s Alfa Romeo Fiat auto dealership had brought in the brand’s C43 F1 chassis developed with Sauber Racing for the open-wheel racing series. The world’s premier motorsport, F1 has taken the U.S. by storm in recent years – three Grand Prix are on the 2023 calendar in Miami, Las Vegas, and Austin.
“We got it in the showroom from Aug. 14-26 to promote our new Tonale SUV,” said Golling General Manager James Houfley, 37, of Silver Lake, as families ogled the red racer. “This is the busiest I’ve ever seen it here during the Dream Cruise.”
Like the Tonale, the Alfa F1 car is a hybrid — the race car has a 1.6-liter V-6 engine mated to electric motors. Unlike Tonale, the carbon-fiber F1 car produces up to 1,000 horsepower. The show car, however, was a “roller” — stripped of its drivetrain for easy transport as a demo.
Vega muscle
From 1971-77, Chevrolet made the Vega subcompact to compete against Ford’s Pinto and the VW Beetle. It was praised for its sporty, hatchback styling and won Motor Trend’s 1971 Car of the Year. However, Motor Trend noted that its four-cylinder engine’s “power was meagre at highway speeds.”
So Erik Smith fixed it.
The 56-year old from West Bloomfield Township stuffed a 455-horsepower, 6.2-liter, LT1 eigne from a Corvette under its orange hood. Say hello to Chevy’s new muscle car.
Boats ‘n’ ice cream trucks
The Cruise has it all from muscle cars to off-roaders to ice cream trucks to boats — yes, boats.
The Detroit News couldn’t catch up to the boat on four wheels that cruised past in Birmingham, but we did chase down the Captain Kool 1998 Chevy Step Van that was selling ice cream up-and-down the strip.
Kelley Isaacs, 39, of Sterling Heights, has gotten a permit for Dream Cruise Saturday the last 13 years to drive the strip. The Chevy may not have a high-horsepower V-8 under the hood, but it has some tasty ice-cream treats in the back. The best-sellers? Drumsticks, Bomb Pops and Strawberry Shortcake pops.
Three wheelin’
Not everything was on four wheels at the Cruise. Slingshot three-wheelers have become commonplace, and this year Morgan added to the mix.
Nathan Struck, 22, of Rochester Hills was giving rides in the English brand’s latest three-wheeler, the 2025 Super Three.
Morgan has ben making three-wheelers sine 1911 and the wee Super 3 sports a 1.5-liter, 3-cylinder Ford Dragon engine and luggage racks on the rear — and sides! — to make up for its lack of internal cargo space. Priced from $73,000, the Morgan is marketed exclusively through Birmingham’s Auto Europe in Michigan.
A tee for thee
Birmingham —You could buy the Official 2023 Woodward Dream Cruise T-shirt this weekend. Or you could buy the official Pasteiner’s T-shirt.
The famed Woodward hobby store has been publishing its own Cruise T-shirt since 2000. But where the official Cruise shirt pictured a conventional graphic of a classic Detroit sedan, Pasteiner’s shirt featured a Lancia.
A what? The 1973-75 Lancia Stratos was an Italian-made mid-engine sports car purpose-built for rally racing. Only 500 production versions were made per the homologation requirements for racing. It dominated rally racing of the era, winning the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Good luck trying to find one today.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.