Woodward Dream Cruise unofficially in full swing

By Andrew Stoy, Crain News Service

DETROIT (Aug. 8, 2013) — The 2013 Woodward Dream Cruise officially takes place Aug. 17, but gorgeous summer weather and new legislation in Michigan has classic vehicles rolling down M1 throughout the month.

Enthusiasts in lawn chairs and impromptu car shows line the road on weekend evenings, especially through the communities of Berkley, Royal Oak and Birmingham.

A recent change to Michigan law allows cars registered as historical to be driven without restriction during the month of August. Before the change, historic-plated vehicles were limited to driving to and from club events, in parades and while participating in other sanctioned collector-car activities.

The Woodward Dream Cruise is a much-heralded annual celebration of Detroit's golden age and all things automotive, but the event as we know it today was born in 1995.

According to the event's website, the cruise actually started as a small fundraiser to raise money for a soccer field in Ferndale, Mich. "In August 1995, Nelson House and a group of volunteers looked to relive and recreate the nostalgic heydays of the 50s and 60s, when youth, music and Motor City steel roamed Woodward Avenue, America's first highway. That year, 250,000 people participated—nearly 10 times the number expected. The rest, as they say, is history."

Today, the Woodward Dream Cruise is the world's largest one-day automotive event, the website says, drawing 1.5 million people and 40,000 classic cars each year from around the globe—from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the former Soviet Union. North American cruisers from California, Georgia, Canada and all points in between caravan to Metro Detroit to participate in what has become, for many, an annual rite of summer.

For more views of the Woodward Dream Cruise, check out the cruise section on Autoweek's website.

This report appeared on the website of Autoweek magazine, a Detroit-based sister publication of Tire Business.