Anyone do the Woodward Dream Cruise (http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/) before and/or planning to do it this year?

From my understanding, there isn't anything to "register" for really -- you just show up and drive. There are other car shows and such going on -- but as far as the drive itself (16 miles, I think?), you just go. Is that accurate?

They talk about having 16,000 cars show up to participate -- plus over a million visitors to watch. I'm confused/concerned how you can get 16,000 cars to drive a 16-mile strip in any organized fashion without having some sort of registration and/or starting-position and/or staging area... :confused: Can someone fill me in on how this works? My wife and I are thinking of driving her 70 SS this year just for grins...

- John...

It's pretty much like that graemlins/thumbsup.gif

You just show up and drive down/up Woodward with all the other traffic - it's just that, on that day the other traffic happens to be 90% classics/street rods doing the same thing as you graemlins/beers.gif

It's good to have a place in mind to stop for a bit, unless you plan on staying all day and night in the driver's seat, which can get pretty old after the first 6 hours :D :D

If you've never been, go and see what's it's like that way you can make better plans for following years graemlins/hurray.gif graemlins/hurray.gif

Seeya there graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I've went and watched part of it once -- we just weren't sure how the driver's got ready. heh. We were watching on Woodward near the LDS Temple if you happen to know where that is.

My understanding is that it goes for like 16-miles though -- through several suburbs?

- John...

I went back in 1998, lots of really nice cars. The only problem is the street turns into a parking lot. The Saturday night we were there, we drove 3 miles in 3 hours.

I have been to the Woodward Cruise the last 5 years. The best way to enjoy the cruise if you want to actually drive you car is come in town 3 days to a week before. You can cruise up and down Woodward with hundreds of others at night and drive freely. No traffic jams and LOTS of cool cars everywhere! :cool: The Thursday and Friday night before, the traffic starts to get real heavy!You wont believe how many cars and people you will see!!People start hanging out there a week before!! A lot of activities actually start before Saturday.
On Saturday, the actual cruise day,you can cruise up and down Woodward early in the morning. By 11 am, the traffic is very very heavy. If you want a little more breathing room on Saturday and actually be able to drive your car, hang out in Pontiac,MI. Its at the north end of the cruise route. Lots going on up there, lots of bars and restraunts that you can actually get into and get served within an hour.
If you like being jammed like sardines to the point you can barely walk, go down by 13 mile!!
Last year attendance was down because of the power failure. The year before, there were around 1.7 million people out there Saturday!!!and cool cars lined up and down Woodward for 16 miles!!Like I said, you wont believe it! :eek: If your gonna need a hotel, reserve early!! Good luck!! graemlins/beers.gif

jgoggan:

70SS540 gave you some really good advice. I've been to every Dream Cruise since it started back in 1994. (Then again, I live about a whole 1/2 mile from 12 and Woodward - it's impossible to avoid it!) The Cruise runs up and down Woodward (duh) starting at 8 Mile Road in Ferndale (Yes, the same 8 Mile as in the Eminem movie) north through several other suburbs and ends up in Pontiac (roughly 24 Mile road - but it's not called that).


What I would add to his advice is the following:

1) Look at the activity listing for each city and set your home base for the weekend accordingly. Royal Oak (10 - 14 Mile) is what I consider the center of the Cruise and is also the most popular/busy... but if you want to see things like the GM prototype exhibit, or any other "shows" then you might want to hit Birmingham, Pontiac, etc. If you're just going to take it all in, 13 and Woodward is the place to be with Memorial Park on one corner and Northwood Shopping Center on the other. That's the place to be if you don't mind the # of people.

2) If you have a car and want to cruise, come before Saturday! The "unofficial" cruising actually starts weeks before the actualy WDC... week nights, etc. and is the most fun since there is less traffic and less police (although Royal Oak does beef up more than normal). Woodward in Royal Oak will literally have several thousand people lining both sides of the boulevard Thursday and Friday night. Saturday and Sunday after 10am will be stop and go, 0.5 mile/hour. IMO, Sat and Sun are actually LESS fun than the weeknights before. Murray's Auto Parts just south of Catalpa (11 1/2 Mile and Woodward) is a good homebase on the weeknights.. as is Duggan's @ 13 1/2 or Northwood Shopping Center parking lot @ 13.

3) Depending on how "into it" you are, IMO the WDC is a 1/2 - 1 day type of thing for the casual spectator. If you're going to trailer a car here and "show"/"drive" it, then maybe the whole weekend. I love cars, but 4-6 hours total across the two days is typically more than enough for me. Too hot, too many people. I'll reiterate my "get there before Saturday" advice.


I think that's about it. If you want any advice on hotels or anything else, shoot me a reply.

--Brian

WOODWARD NIGHTMARE CRUISE


My wife & I left Milwaukee on Thursday 8/14/03 at about 3:00am, destination, WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE. We fired up the Chevelle & headed out, we dropped our 20 year old son off at Chicago O'Hare at about 4:45am, his flight was scheduled to leave at 6:45am, he was heading to Mexico for a couple of days with a friend. We got back on the freeway, stopped every so often to take a break & got into Van Buren Michigan (just west of Detroit I think) at about 3:00pm local time. We found a Holiday Inn right along the freeway frontage road, checked in & immediately went to bed & fell asleep.

The next thing I knew, my wife was waking me up an hour later to tell me that the bathroom light didn't work. I said, gee that’s funny the air conditioning doesn't work either, they must have blown a fuse. Well they did & it was a really Big FUSE.

We found a local grocery store (Farmer Jacks) that was open & obviously running on a generator, about every 10th light in the store worked & all their check out lanes were also working. We bought two loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter, two 6 packs of bottled water & a few other things, we thought we were going to there for a long time & could not buy anything perishable. The fridge in the third floor Holiday Inn room didn’t work so we were really SOL. Thankfully I had 5 mag lights in the Chevelle, two large ones in the trunk for whatever emergencies & just so happened to have 3 small ones in the center console, two of which I had just put fresh batteries in the day before in anticipation of the long trip. Good thing too, the halls & stairwells in the Holiday Inn were mighty dark an hour after the emergency light batteries in the hallways died. Good thing I had a small toolbox in the trunk too, I had to take the small rubber stops out of the sliding windows in our rooms so they would open up for more than the 4 inches that they did, remember, no air conditioning & it was warm that evening.

Never got to the cruise but we got real close. Went thru 4 tanks of gas there & 4 tanks getting home plus a night in the Holiday Inn at full price for absolutely nothing.

That Thursday evening at about 9:00pm, I'm out in the Chevelle listening to a local radio station announcer telling everyone that power may not be restored till possibly the early to the middle of the following week, & I am thinking oh s***.

I told my wife there is always next year, but that did not comfort her. We only had a 1/2 tank of gas in the Chevelle that translated into about 40 miles if I am lucky.

The next morning (Friday), I got up at 6:00am & went out side the front door to shoot the time with the guys in the lawn chairs outside the lobby front door. My wife comes out at 9:00am & tells me to go up & take a shower, she already had. By the time I got up to the room a half hour later, there was no water at all at the shower head, and barely a trickle out of the sink faucet.

A convention of plumbers happened to be staying at the Holiday Inn that had heard of a gas station that had power & went off in a caravan of rental cars to fill up. I thought I better not, because I may run out of gas. An hour later I decide to go because if they have power & gas, they may not have it for very long. So I go & find the station, stand in line for an hour & a half & fill her up.

By the time I get back, the plumbers had come back with not only their cars filled up, but with a bunch of gas cans, filled up their buddies cars & gave my wife 8 five gallon empty red gas cans at no charge compliments of the Minneapolis plumbers union.

So we now have a full tank of gas (100 mile range) and 8 empty gas cans. We decided to get the heck out of there at about noontime, so we got back on I-94 heading back west towards Chicago, & ultimately to Milwaukee with the empty gas cans. We eventually found gas, filled up the car again & 2 of the gas cans. We were somewhat apprehensive not knowing if we would run out of gas, or if Chicago would go dark by the time we got half way there, but by the grace of the Good Lord, we make it home at 10:15PM on that Friday evening with 8 five gallon gas cans across the back seat with the convertible top down for good ventilation.

By the time we got home, Detroit had their power restored, & we are at home having missed the biggest cruise on the planet.

Moral of the story, never leave home without having a multitude of flashlights in your car, NEVER, NEVER park anywhere out of town unless you just filled up your gas tank, with at least 3 gas cans in your back seat, & 8 if you have a convertible, & if the Minneapolis plumbers union is not staying at the same hotel, do not stop, GO FIND THE PLUMBERS.

My wife would not come to the St Louis Chevelle Regionals in September where I took 1st place for 71 restored driven because she said the car was jinxed. I proved her wrong because the power did N O T go out in St Louis when I rolled into town.

This August, I am bringing my newly purchased enclosed trailer, plenty of gas cans & the plumbers union direct phone number, I may need them again.

We'll try it again I guess.

I love to give home made gifts, which one of the kids would you like?

Jim graemlins/hurray.gif

A.C.E.S. # 4996 ( aces member id kinda matches my 496 stroker )


Frame off red 71 Chevelle SS496 (balanced, blueprinted & decked 454 block, bored .060 from 4.25 to 4.31 & stroked from 4.00 to 4.25, edelbrock aluminum heads, 10.2:1CR, hydraulic roller 550 lift cam, eagle crank, true fulcrum roller rockers, billet double roller chain, airgap intake, demon 850dp with no choke, MSD 6AL, jet coated super comp hookers, flowmaster 40’s, TH400 with extra clutches, shift kit & 3000 stall) Convertible with white stripes, top & interior loaded with factory options: TH400, cowl induction, power windows, locks, cruise, tilt, top, trunk, 12 bolt 373 posi, A/C, AM-FM 8 track, power drivers bucket seat, mirror map light, trunk, hood, glove box lights, on the wheel GM air pressure gauges, Delco Jac Pac 175 (under hood vacuum powered air compressor) with under dash Delco air pressure controller/regulator, complete with Jac Pac 175 air shocks.

http://chevelle.ogleonline.com/jim.htm

1952 Chevrolet 4 door Deluxe Sedan with a 216.5ci in line 6 with the last RAJO (RAcine JOe) Power Cylinder Head that never went to production, designed by grandfather in the 1940's. Joe designed, built & sold all over the world performance heads during the 10’s, 20's, 30's & 40's starting with an OVERHEAD VALVE CONVERSION HEAD for the Model T Ford flathead. Joe drove in the FIRST INDY 500 in 1911 as car # 8 & was known nationally in racing circuits as "The Flying Dutchman".

Watch for my SS496 Chevelle as a pace car at Indy in 2011 (100 years after Grandpa Joe) IF THEY WILL LET ME !