2001 Dream Cruise, Day One

By High Gear Media Staff

High Gear Media Staff

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2,083 views Aug 20, 2001

Dream Cruise overhead

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by Jim Kenzie

More from the 2001 Woodward Dream Cruise

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Why does Pebble Beach get more coverage in automotive magazines (yes, and automotive Web sites) than the Woodward Dream Cruise?

Is it a better show? No. Who wants to see Ralph Lauren’s Duesenberg yet again, which he paid fifteen gazillion dollars to someone else to restore, when you can see gorgeous machines of all stripes (see below) which have been (mostly) lovingly restored by the guys you see driving them?

Is it a bigger show? Not close. Pebble is lucky to draw maybe a few hundred cars, maybe 10,000 spectators. Try 40,000 and 1.4 million respectively for Woodward.

So - why? If someone offered you a free all-expenses paid weekend in Monterey, Calif., as car companies do to automotive journalists, or an all-expenses paid weekend in Detroit, which would YOU choose?

Exactly.

Missing in action

It’s a shame the two events have to be on the same weekend. But here’s a small sampling of what those effete snobs in California are missing:

1957 Chevy motorcycle

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2001 Dream Cruise orange man

2001 Dream Cruiser 1955 Citroen Traction Avant

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By the way: Janet, the lovely blonde in the car beside Arnold, asked if I was single. I told her I was that night. She laughed; Arnold drove away. The story of my life.

1962 Sabra

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On corporate involvement

Will corporate involvement ruin the Dream Cruise? This is an event that still has a real grass roots flavor, but increasingly, the event is dominated by carmakers’ displays.

General Motors has no fewer than four sites — Pontiac-GMC is in Pontiac (duh); Chevrolet is at the intersection of Old and New Woodward Avenues in Birmingham; GM Headquarters is at the Athens Coney Island, a couple of blocks south of 14 Mile Road; and GM Corporate has assumed responsibility for the show in Memorial Park on the northeast corner of 13 Mile Road, where Oldsmobile has stood in past years (no more PR budget for the doomed, all-over-but-the-rebates division).

2001 Dream Cruise Prowlers

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