Woodward Dream Cruise

That's pretty cool.

I'm wondering, what was your inspiration for this kind of an event? How does it scratch an itch that maybe the Woodward Dream Cruise, for instance, doesn't?

And I think you guys know I love Woodward Dream Cruise and, you know, used to help run that for Ford for about five years.

But, you know, one of the things I think about, and I was fortunate enough in 2018 to be part of the team that was at the Ford team after the train station was purchased to help with the programming, especially from the communications side.

And I always knew it was a special place.

Because if I'm doing donuts in my own car, I'm just destroying my tires to entertain strangers.

And I mentioned recently that the Woodward Dream Cruise happened in Detroit just a few weeks ago.

And I went there in my Cobra replica, which looks like the car behind those backstage passes there.

It's blue with white stripes.

And it's like, now these smaller events with social media's getting the buzz out, that people are, you know, skipping those events to go s- to much smaller events.

So it's, you know, that's, like the Relics Ride show, it's r- it, a lot of times, falls right around the, um, Woodward Dream Cruise.

Oh, yes.

And, like, we had a lot of people who were like, "Man, you were in Michigan and you didn't go to the Dream Cruise?" I'm like, "Fuck the Dream Cruise.

... you know.

Um, you know, this was revealed at Road Kill Nights, the Woodward Dream Cruise display.

Um, they've done a, a bunch of things, uh, the Super Bee being the big one.

It's a 600-horsepower Dodge Charger Super Bee Launch Edition, but they also showed things like the Durango R/T 392 Smokescreen concept.

right? That's right.

So we had to make sure that you came along to Mustang Alley, which for us is the anchor of Woodward Dream Cruise.

We've

been doing it every year, like you did Carlisle, right? Every single year we've been at Mustang Alley.

And why is that, Mike? Because everyone has a Mustang story, and we want to thank Art Height for creating this for us.

Yeah, absolutely.

So let's go take a walk at Mustang Alley and see what's happening here at the Woodward Dream Cruise.

Well, Mike, we're one foot inside Mustang Alley, and who do we come across? Bob Aikens, the superstar.

That's a fun event that you could add to your trip.

In August every year, there's the Woodward Dream Cruise.

So that is on Woodward Avenue.

It's known as the spine of Detroit.

So you're leaving downtown Detroit and going into what's known as Metro Detroit.

What I would suggest is getting in your car.

And even if you're not there for the Woodward Dream Cruise, you can still cruise up Woodward.

And that's going to take you out of the city and into the suburbs.

Sha-la-la

... which we were doing the Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise shitshow, and boy, did we have different experiences this weekend.

[laughs]

Look at their wrists.

Man, I've been pulled over by a bicycle before, and that's a tough look.

But foot? Get, like, getting pulled over, like, by Nike Cortezs, like, you're like, "Dude." That's fucking bad.

I, I went to the Woodward Dream Cruise probably 14 years ago, or whenever they first launched the Raptor, the Ford-

Sure

With me riding shotgun this week is Joanne Moeller, transportation correspondent for Axios.

Joanne, in the wake of this month's Woodward Dream Cruise, which had a new model reveal this year, and the Monterey Car Week, which has a lot of them, I asked the good people of AutoTown, If you could attend one auto show-like event in the U.S. next year, which one would it be? Monterey Car Week, Woodward Dream Cruise, Detroit, L.A., New York Auto Show, or something else? Joanne, how would you cast your vote?

Ah, well, you know, honestly, I'm I've never been to the Monterey event before.

Doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

I generally avoid the Woodward Dream Cruise just because it's, you know, it's hard to get around.

auto shows uh i've attended millions of them in my career um but as a journalist and i've always thought that uh you know there's a lot of controversy about auto shows and whether or not they're going to survive and and my thought has always been that these are for consumers not for journalists and so the whining i hear about about auto shows is usually coming from journalists to me there's no better place to see all the cars all at once than an auto show and so if you're actually in the market it's a good place to go and see what's what's for sale what's on uh on tap and honestly i used to love to take my kids when they were smaller to the auto show they just loved being able to get inside a car or play some of the you know the games and other things they had there and collect some of the loot it was it was a fun time and you know the detroit auto show thankfully is back in in january where it belongs because it's a long time uh it's a long dark winter and it's a good place to take your family

Yeah, well, the people have spoken and the people agree with you.

The Quail Golf Course is an absolutely spectacular setting and famous for its caviar tent, so that can be hard to resist.