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Dream Cruiser engines roar over the purr of daily commuters on Woodward
Posted by Talbot Payne on August 16, 2025
Ferndale – The sun rose with a roar on Saturday morning.
The sounds of engines slowly filled the air at 6.30 a.m. as a cornucopia of Cruisers came onto Woodward at Eight Mile to begin the Woodward Dream Cruise. The rumble of push-rod Chevy V-8s, the menacing gurgle of Mustang V-8s, the high-pitched wail of Subaru WRX 4-bangers, the snap-crackle-pop of modified exhaust systems layered over the purr of daily commuter traffic.
Lang Ware and his friend Steve Daniels sat on the sidewalk in front of the Magic Bag music venue on the east side of Woodward soaking it all in with their Mustang GTs.
David Guralnick, The Detroit News
“We’ve been coming here every year for about 10 years,” said Ware next to his 2014 Ford Mustang GT with the license plate BDPENNY hung out the back. “We eat breakfast at the Hambol Coney and then watch the sun rise before cruising up Woodward.
BDPENNY is a reference to his unique, “Bad Penny” modified Mustang that debuted at the 2014 SEMA car show in Las Vegas. The unique build was screwed together by CDC in Milford and includes engine, suspension and body mods – including a pair of copper penny medallions aft of each front wheel. “I always liked custom cars and this is my second Mustang,” said Ware who wore a Woodward T-shirt emblazoned with prototype race car.
Not to be outdone, Daniels’ 2018 Mustang GT is as orange as the rising sun.
“I first saw this car at a Mustang Alley Dream Cruise display – flipped sideways,” said Daniels of the Ford display that anchors this end of Woodward every year. “I told myself that I was going to get that car. Now it has 230,000 miles on it.”
The muscle car looks brand new despite its miles of use – including with winter tires thrown on to weather Detroit’s brutal winters.
English beauty returns
Royal Oak — Kevin Livingston of Farmington Hills made sure British autos were also represented at the Dream Cruise.
At a park on the corner of Woodward and 13 Mile — in a sea of angular, mean-looking American classics — sat a comparatively petite 1958 Austin-Healey. The curvaceous coupe was a two-tone: the majority of the body “Florida Green,” with creamy “Old English White” on the sides.
No big fan of car shows, Livingston said the Dream Cruise is the only one he routinely attends.“This show, you get so many different people, it’s fun chatting,” he said.
Kevin Livingston showed off his 1958 Austin-Healey at the Woodward Dream Cruise on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. Owen McCarthy / The Detroit News
As passersby marveled at the machine, Livingston noted it wasn’t always in such pristine shape. When he bought it in 2011, it had been sitting in a garage for 44 years, largely dissembled and stripped of its paint.
He never knew the original owner, but bought it off their son.
His best guess is the original owner was one of a group of World War II veterans who bought “sportier” European cars while stationed overseas after the war, and had them shipped back for “basically free” to the U.S.
Livingston said cars like his were seen as exotic in the U.S., and sought for their smooth handling when the American cars of the era “handled like a brick.”
After finishing a meticulous restoration job in 2014, Livingston debuted his English beauty at the Dream Cruise. He happened to run into the original owner’s son, and took both of them for a cruise on Woodward.
The owner’s son “had never rode in the car,” Livingston said, but was “thrilled” when he got the opportunity more than five decades after the car was built, and an ocean away from its birthplace.
Katy Kildee, The Detroit News
Mustang Alley a feast for the eyes
Ferndale – Three gigantic activations on the Woodard route anchor the Dream Cruise like giant chain stores in a mall: M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Memorial Park at 13 Mile, and Mustang Alley at Como’s Restaurant and Nine Mile. You could just walk these displays all day and get fat on eye candy.
The latter consolidated Ford’s forces from Kruse & Muer at Catalpa Road into one mega-show this year and it. Is. Awesome.
Ferndale – Mustang Super Mach-E Pike Peak attack machine. In Mustang Alley. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Dogleg east on Nine Mile from Woodward and you’d better take a case of water as the display sprawls all the way to Canada. Check out Ford’s array of production and performance vehicles including the gazillion-horsepower Mustang Super Mach-E Pikes Peak assault vehicle that boasts a Formula One-like 6,900 pound pf downforce.
Also notable is the RTR display that shows off some of drifter champ Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s Mustang creations including the first RTR-branded production car. It’s still in camouflage, but we think it’s the next-gen turbo-4 performance model. The RTR badge has enthusiasts buzzing that Gittin is the new Carrol Shelby – a racing genius who will be supercharging Ford cars for years to come.
Speaking of Shelby, the most powerful Shelby ever made – the 760-horsepower GT500 – is represented, and nowhere more spectacularly than Chris Willis’ yellow, carbon-trimmed beat. He trailered it in from Chicago were does track days at Road America and Autobahn race tracks.
“We raise money for the ‘Cruise with a Cause’ charity that RTR helps with also,” he said. His GT500 will fetch classic money someday: it’s the pre-production VIN #1 model for the 2021 production year.
Ferndale – Chris Willis, Chicago, with his 2021 Ford Mustang GT500. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Dodge Hellcat shows Lions pride
Royal Oak – A Dodge Hellcat turned heads for a brief spell on Woodward in Royal Oak in the early afternoon for a couple reasons.
It announced its presence before it was in sight for some with heavy bass pumping out of its speaker. With the car windows down, passerby were treated to a taste of V.I.C’s 2008 club hit “Wobble Baby.”
While the blaring music was attention-grabbing enough, it was the car’s paint job that really stole the show.
A Honolulu blue Detroit Lions logo and graphic of the city’s skyline were emblazoned on the side of a Dodge Hellcat at the Woodward Dream Cruise on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. Owen McCarthy / The Detroit News
A Honolulu blue Detroit Lions logo and graphic of the city’s skyline were emblazoned on its side, offsetting a darker shade of blue covering the rest of the car’s exterior.
Silver rims and cursive flourishes further accented the bold vehicle.
It’s hard to imagine a Detroit Lions Dodge would have rolled down the Woodward Dream Cruise so unabashedly during the majority of years in its three decade history.
Gateway to racing
Royal Oak – Gary Godola brought his 1987 Reynard Formula Ford open-wheel race car to Woodward.
Parked in front of the Superlap SIM racing store just south of the Vinsetta Garage and Catalpa Road, the FF recently competed at the SCCA Nationals on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and was a constant source of conversation for Cruise attendees, especially young fans.
“We use the Dream Cruise to gain awareness for the world of racing,” said the board member of Waterford Hills Raceway. “Not just people looking to get into driving, but also corner workers and mechanics.”
Royal Oak – Gary Godola (left) with Alex Della Torre at the Waterford Hills exhibit on Woodward. Godola races the Reynard Formula Ford (foreground). Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Godola and racer friends Andrew Mallory and Alex Della Torre have worked the Detroit Grand Prix as corner workers, one of many ways entrees into the sprawling motorsports world. Superlap is part of that world as well with Tuesday and Thursday iRacing SIM leagues.
Godola races his car all over Michigan at tracks like Waterford, Gingerman, and Grattan along with fellow Board member Del Torre who is a Waterford Hills instructor.
“We want to show people that they can get into racing affordably with a $20,000 race car,” said Godola, “and Waterford Hills is a great local place to start.”
One of the banners on the Waterford Hills/Superlap display shows off the SCCA Spec Racer Ford class. “You can get a second-generation Spec Race Ford for just $14,000,” said Della Torre who organizes SRF events that will attract as many as 20 cars with drivers like Ford Performance Chief Mark Roshbrook and Hagerty editor Larry Webster. “I’ll invite people out to Waterford Hills and have them drive a Spec Race Ford around the paddock. They love it. Then I’ll sign them up to do a test session n track. Then they are hooked.”
Larry Santavicca the manager for the AAA office in Birmingham, gets into the spirit of the Woodward Dream Cruise, August 16, 2025.David Guralnick, The Detroit News
Dodge Challenger Scat Pack a Cruise staple.
Ferndale – It’s Halloween in August.
One of the Captains of the Cruise is (still) the Dodge Challenger Scat Pack coupe with V-8 engine, 392 cubic inches, 485 horsepower, and wide body fenders. Discontinued in 2023 due to federal regulatory pressure, it is a Cruise staple. One of the best examples on the strip is Rodney Tillman’s 2022 model painted in orange and black Halloween colors.
Tillman comes by his Bengal colors naturally as a Cincinnati resident, but the car was painted in Kalamazoo. The paint treats include scary pumpkins decorating the engine bay and a giant bumblebee (the Scat Pack symbol) wrapping the rear fenders. “Trick or Treat” is stamped across the front bumper.
Ferndale – Rodney Tillman, 2022 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack with Halloween theme and Bumblebee fenders. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Tillman has no interest in the current, 6-cylinder replacement for the Challenger – the Charger coupe – and instead is hoping for the rumored, V-8-powered Dodge Cuda rumored for 2026 now that the feds are backing off.
‘The car in the movie’
Royal Oak – Dan Fletcher, of Metamora Township, brought out an icon of both Detroit’s automotive history and Hollywood’s: a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am.
You know, the car that Burt Reynolds drove in “Smokey and the Bandit.”
Dan Fletcher of Metamora Township with a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am that look like the one Burt Reynolds drove in “Smokey and the Bandit” at the Woodward Dream Cruise on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. Owen McCarthy / The Detroit News
It was the summer of that year, shortly before the blockbuster released when Fletcher’s Dad — a General Motors employee — brought the black and gold beauty home.
One night, Fletcher had a date at the Beltline drive-in theater in Grand Rapids. His dad let him take the impressive new wheels.
At the theater, there were two screens. Fletcher and his companion opted for the one showing “Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope.”
As they watched, Fletcher noticed his car attracting lots of attention. He knew it was a sweet ride, but this was a lot.
“Why is there so much interest in the car?” he recalls asking.
As it turned out, Smokey and the Bandit was playing on the other screen at the theater.
“I turn around and look, and there’s the car in the movie!” Fletcher said.
He and his date kept their attention mostly focused on “Star Wars,” but Fletcher naturally went to see “Smokey and the Bandit” the next day.
Today, it’s among his favorite movies. Fletcher’s wife chimed in that he “can recite every line” in the film, adding that fellow Dream Cruisers will go back and forth with him exchanging quotes from it.
‘Never missed a year’
Royal Oak – For 30 years, former Grosse Pointe North High School mates Rob Binge of Sterling Heights, Alan Srodawa of Grosse Pointe, and Bill Turgeon of Troy have been coming to the Cruise with a variety of cars.
This year they brought, respectively, a 1987 Ford Mustang GT Convertible, 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT, and 2007 Ferrari 599. It’s a microcosm of the eclectic mix of cars that now cruises Woodward.
“We’ve never missed a year,” said Binge who has also brought a 1965 Pontiac GTO, 1966 Chevrolet Nova, and 1967 Nova to Woodward over the years. “The Cruise has really changed. In the beginning it was mostly older cars and Detroit muscle, but now you see newer cars and all kinds of variety. It’s become much more of a show.”
Royal Oak – Grosse Pointe High classmates Bill Turgeon (right) with his Ferrari 599 and Rob Binge with his 1987 Ford Mustang GT. The Pontiac Fiero GT (foreground) is ownd by Alan Srodawa (not pictured).. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Right on cue, a six-door DeLorean limousine – its six gull-wing doors high in the air – cruised by.
“I saw a trailer pulling a truck on Woodward this year,” smiled Turgeon who sometimes brings a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda to the Cruise. “Driving like it was in reverse! Completely backward from what you’re used to.”
Also strange is seeing a mid-engine Pontiac sitting next to a front-engine Ferrari. Usually it’s the other way around. “They only built the Fiero from 1984 to 1988,” said Srodawa. “The GT was the hot rod with a V-6 engine and special body kit.”
David Guralnick, The Detroit News
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.