Mustang muscle, Detroit metal kick off Friday Woodward Dream Cruise
Ferndale – On an overcast Friday morning at 6:38 a.m., an orange sunrise failed to poke through the clouds over Woodward Avenue.
But a purple Mustang did.
Hoisted 40 feet in the air on a crane, the 2027, Purple Precision Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC Convertible — shrouded in a Ford blue cover — rose over Nine Mile and Woodward for its big debut when the Woodward Dream Cruise officially gets under way later in the day.
The wraps come off the 795-horsepower roadster (it made its Internet debut at 6 AM this morning ) at 4:30 p.m. when it will be lowered from the crane and join the Ferndale Emergency Vehicle Lights & Sirens Cruise Parade on Woodward — the official kick-off of the 31stCruise, the world's largest, one-day car event.
Behind the wheel? Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Herman Moore.
The Mustang Corral (and accompanying Bronco Corral) anchors the Cruise at Como's Restaurant at the south end of a 16 mile stretch of Woodward that reaches all the way to Pontiac. By Saturday morning, the Mustang Corral will be choked with over 700 Mustangs brought by customers running east from Woodward to Paxton Street in Ferndale. Another 130 customer Broncos will fill the Bronco Corral on the other side of Woodward west to Planavon Street.
Woodward was quiet Friday morning except for commuter traffic. Tents and displays set up for Saturday's Cruise dotted the sidewalks of Ferndale, Royal Oak and Birmingham like buds on a tree waiting to bloom.
Beneath the crane, Ford has assembled a row of its top muscle cars including the 815-horsepower Mustang GTD, Mustang Dark Horse SC Coupe, and Mustang RTR.
"It definitely livens things up in the community," said Eric Fuller, 45, a Como's managing partner, of Ford's once-a-year takeover of the restaurant. "The Dream Cruise brings in so many different people from all over the country. I love when the Lights & Sirens parade kicks things off and comes right by here."
James Baggs, 35, of Livonia kicked his weekend off by taking 8 Mile to Woodward then driving north to Royal Oak in his fully-restored (and then some) 1986 GMC Caballero coupe with a bed.
Say what?
The Cruise is a reminder of the enormous variety of cars that the industry used to produce. The Caballero is the GMC cousin of the better-known Chevrolet El Camino which has graced numerous movies, including a 2019 hit with its name in it: "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie."
The lesser-known Caballero is no less dramatic. GM called it a Coupe Utility Pickup — CUP for short — with its big V-8 and cargo bed out back. Baggs' license plate reads "PATIO."
"That's my patio. I put down the tailgate and sit back there watching the cars go by," said Baggs. "I don't need any chairs."
A General Motors fan, he buys and modifies old cars (he screwed on big silver wheels and stuffed a 6.0-liter V-8 into the Caballero). He also owns a 1978, 1980, 1986 Malibus, 1979 Impala, and 1983 Regal.
"I like to show off a car as I build them," said Baggs, who has his own window-tinting business. "I didn't get a chance to show it off last year, I drove my 1980 Malibu. I first showed this car at Autorama last March."
Autorama brings in car owners from all over the United States, and so does the Cruise with an estimated 40,000 cars hitting the streets this weekend for the world's biggest traffic jam.
Justin, 50, and Melissa, 45, Oaks towed their 1923 Ford T Bucket street rod all the way from Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania.
"This is our fifth year at the Cruise," said Justin. "We were attending car shows in Pennsylvania and a friend said we had to come to the big one in Detroit. We're hooked. I'm a car enthusiast and I like the variety of cars here. We've seen a car that drives backwards and a four-wheeled shopping cart."
Their T Bucket is an eyeful, too. A descendant of the 1960s hot rod craze, it began life as a 1923 Ford Model A before it was gutted, stuffed with a 350-cubic inch V-8 and shoed with 15-inch tires out back.
"It doesn't have any doors, either," said Melissa. "You have to climb in using a step above the side exhausts so you don't burn your leg."
By noon Friday, traffic had picked up considerably as classic cars came into Woodward's intersections from all over the Metro Area.
The Cruise boasts some extraordinary intersections between owners and their machines. George Preevino, 87, came to Detroit 63 years ago from Monterrey, Mexico, but he never forgot his first love: a British-made Triumph TR3.
"I fell in love with that car since I was 17 years old," said the Allen Park resident from his perch on Woodward across from the Roseland Park Cemetery. "A friend of mine had one in Mexico."
Years later, his wife and three sons surprised him at Christmas with a 1959 Triumph TR3-A.
It needed a lot of work and he threw himself into the project in his garage, even breaking his wife's sewing machine that he used for seat stitching. Today, the brilliant red, (two).0-liter, inline-4 cylinder Triumph is fully restored and he and his wife drove it to the Cruise.
His passion for British sportscars didn't stop there. He also owns a 1972 Triumph Spitfire and 1972 MGB. "I think I'll bring the Spitfire tomorrow," he smiled.
Just up Woodward from Roseland Cemetery, the epicenter of the Cruise is Memorial Park's sprawling lawn at 13 Mile that houses hundreds of cars from a variety of car clubs and makes.
In the middle of a row of classic Plymouths, Camaros, and Thunderbirds, Andrew Treece, 51, of Houston, Texas, polished his jet black, 1991 Pontiac Grand Prix NASCAR racer.
Treece came a long way for his first Cruise — but he and his race car have deep Detroit roots.
The Franklin native restored the NASCAR that was once owned by Bloomfield Hills-based Penske Racing. In 1991, Penske Racing South (as it was then called, operating out of Charlotte) entered the Pontiac with NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace at the wheel.
After buying and restoring the car to its original state, Treece was determined to make it road legal in Texas.
"I added headlights, turn signals, and street tires so I could put Texas antique plates on it," said Treece who put the racing slicks back on it for the Cruise. "I've been stopped by cops a lot. But never got a ticket."
Look for it on Woodward this weekend.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Mustang muscle, Detroit metal kick off Friday Woodward Dream Cruise
