The Vinsetta Garage, the historic neon landmark of Detroit's Woodward Avenue cruising scene and the oldest garage east of the Mississippi, has closed after 91 years in business, a victim of the tough choices facing its owner.
Newbies to suburban Detroit's famous Woodward Dream Cruise may think the world's largest single day car event exists only within its officially-sanctioned 24-hour boundaries. Veterans know it's a week-long event and the best cruising days are happening now.
If you visit the 2010 Woodward Dream Cruise, keep your eyes peeled for 20 newly-installed historical markers scattered along the route pointing out old cruising hot spots from Woodward's cruising heyday. This one near 9 Mile, unfortunately, seems ill-worded.
Awesome as the Woodward Dream Cruise is, many businesses on Woodward Avenue harbor a Biblical hate for it in their hearts. The marquee of the Magic Bag theater in fabulous Ferndale is going all Old Testament on us. [DetroitNews]
The difficulty in building a classic-style hot rod comes in knowing the code. The difference between a garden-variety clapped-together rat rod and a "patina'd" hot rod with $50,000 worth of engine parts is about being familiar with what's rare and desirable. We got our first taste of that difference two years ago when…
This car is almost too smooth. An original-series Ford Thunderbird is a fairly common occurrence at car shows, Woodward Dream Cruise or not. So it would be easy to pass right by this one. But the subtle lack of ornamental chrome and flawless pearl paint draw the eye. From the front, gold-painted perforated steel…
Now here's a heaping pile of awesome parked curbside at the Woodward Dream Cruise: One of the original cars from the locally famous Ramchargers Car Club, this one is called the High And Mighty II. We don't know what happened to High And Mighty I, but this one is hairy and full of radical detail. Obviously, those…
Oh baby, can you feel those short hairs on the back of your neck growing? Here's a pristine 1981 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am down at the Woodward Dream Cruise that's so complete it even has the original Monroney sticker in perfect condition. Gaze lovingly upon the flaming chicken on the hood, the mesh inserts on the…
The thing about the Cobra 427 is that you can never take all of your friends along while they're getting drunk. If only there was a longer Cobra with another four seats, each with its own five-point harness, a bottle cooler in the middle with six glass holders (?), and big amps. Then you could be your own Woodward…
Here's something you don't see every day — a 92-year-old four-cylinder Buick engine purring away like a kitten, hanging out just off Woodward Avenue. This Buick truck is in largely unrestored condition and fired up on the very first crank of the hand starter. The truck is equipped with a "Valve-in-Head Engine", with…
The Woodward Dream Cruise can be tough on an old car — stop-and-go traffic for miles, overzealous and crowd-pleasing engine revving, the oft-times brutal heat — so why not a stop to cool down at Micky-D's? The owner tells us he and his wife tore the little truck apart about eight years ago and totally renovated it.…
"1957 Merc Wagon, 368 Engine, PS, PB, new paint, interior, tires, wheels, some new chrome, rebuilt carb, gas tank gas tank cleand and coated, new battery, new spare & wheel. 'Very rare.' Runs Great!! $30,000." Wagons, definitely not cool enough for the Woodward Dream Cruise. Yep, keep 'em at home.
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This Tri-Magnum built around a Kawasaki KZ900 engine and rear suspension (go big green!), a VW Beetle front suspension, and more fiberglass than you can shake a stick at. Strange looking, yes, but 50 MPG ain't bad on a car with a fold-forward canopy top. This baby's one of the real gems you'll find at the 2008…
This is blindingly idiotic. It's a little hat-wearing chihuahua "driving" a Volkswagen Buggy RC car alongside the Woodward Dream Cruise. This fella could be the mascot for the Cruise — an event where you see the best of the best, the worst of the worst and everything in between in car culture. By the way, the dog's…
Here's a very nice, very bone stock 1969 Ford Bronco we stumbled on at the corner of 13 mile and Woodward (the mile roads lie in escalating number the farther north you go from the Detroit River). We're diggin' the flawless orange paint and houndstooth brown interior. The Bronco has always, always been a fantastic…
Unfortunately, the guy on this thing was in a hurry to get on his way, so we only got a little info, but the pictures here speak for themselves. This home-built thingamajig named "The Devil's Joke" was built as a tribute to Vietnam vets and apparently, total insanity. The powertrain here is a 2.8 liter Ford V6…
Traffic ahead of the Woodward Dream Cruise has come to a cruiser-clogged snarl already. Great for us, but woe unto those with business on the Ave, as they will be silently screaming in their air conditioned coffins. Here's a gallery of the escalating madness that is the Dream Cruise. And for Pete's sake, if you don't…
Just a reminder we'll be here all day tomorrow with live 2008 Woodward Dream Cruise coverage as Team Jalopnik does the biggest single-day classic car event in the world. We'll have our troops running up and down Woodward Avenue bringing you the best of the weird, strange and epic — so you'll want to be here too.…
We thought the Corvette Z06 cop car the Royal Oak PD is sporting for the Woodward Dream Cruise was impressive. But now they're rolling out the bigger guns with a Corvette ZR1 police car. The cop driving this 'Vette is exactly 26.3% more bad-ass than the Johnny Law in that weak-sauce Z06. Now you hooligans have to roll…
