Bloomfield Hills – On Friday morning, the Woodward Hills were filled with the sound of music.
To be precise: Ford supercar music.
Twenty beautiful Ford GTs – their thundering V-8s and screaming twin-turbo V-6s at full throttle – left the Kingsley Inn at Long Lake and Woodward at 8:15 a.m. and headed south down Woodward. Destination? The Mothership in Dearborn.
“This is our second time meeting. We have GT owners from Florida, Seattle, Texas – all over the country,” said Rich Brooks, 50, of Monroe. The group is staying together in a block of rooms at the Kingsley, a traditional center of cruising activity.
Inspired by the legendary Ford GT40 that won Le Mans in 1966 – a feat immortalized in the hit movie “Le Mans 66” – Ford Motor Co. built two production versions of the GT from 2005 to 2006 (with a V-8 engine) and from 2017 to 2022 (with a turbocharged V-6 engine). Both versions are included in Brooks’ Ford GT parade, including his own 2005 car.
“We get a lot of shouts from the people on Woodward Street,” said Brooks, who visited Pontiac’s M1 Concourse for a few laps on Thursday. “I’ve been coming to Cruise for years with everything from a ’55 Chevy to a Mustang, but the GT is Ford’s most iconic supercar.”
Charity rides
Birmingham — The occasional raindrops did not deter the DMAN Foundation on Friday afternoon.
The charity offers rides to the disabled on Long Lake and Woodward the day before Dream Cruise Saturday each year. Owners of convertible muscle cars – Camaros, Firebirds, Corvettes and more – volunteer their time and line up to give DMAN members a thrilling ride down Woodward.
Joseph “Big Country” Cadwallader, 36, of Pontiac, who uses a wheelchair because he lost both legs, is taking part in the event for the seventh time and is looking forward to a ride in a Camaro or Mustang convertible.
“The volunteers here are incredible,” said the Pontiac native, whose toned arm is tattooed from shoulder to wrist with a wavy American flag. “Paraplegics are usually transported in the back of a van, strapped in. This experience helps us feel normal.”
DMAN – short for Danny’s Miracle Angel Network – is the brainchild of Ziad Kassab, 41, of Rochester Hills. His brother Danny was paralyzed from the neck down at age 7 and passed away in 2009. Shortly after, Ziad – who always entertained Danny with car rides – founded D-Man in memory of his brother and to bring the thrill to others. In the years that followed, D-Man expanded to include vacation trips, helicopter rides and regular music therapy for people with physical disabilities, brain injuries, cerebral palsy and more.
Members like Big Country are loaded into convertibles by crane. As a grim black fifth-generation Camaro rolled out of the loading tent toward Woodward, Big Country smiled.
“I like the classics,” he said. “The metal, the roar, the horsepower!”
Car engineer Steve Pasteiner shows what a person can achieve when he lets his imagination run wild.
Automotive engineer Steve Pasteiner and his amazing vehicles attract attention on Woodward Avenue in Birmingham, Michigan on August 16, 2024.
Waiting for the wet end
Birmingham – Big slicks mean big problems in wet conditions, so Jim Pranis and his buddies from Pittsburgh waited until the rain stopped on Friday afternoon.
“Vinnie has 18-inch slicks on his Chevy Bel Air, and I have 16-inch tires,” said Pranis, 62, as he stood in the doorway of a Birmingham store as the rain poured down with Vinnie Deluca, 68. Pranis had brought his devilish-looking black 1968 Dodge Charger from the Steel City for the Dream Cruise.
The Charger was heavily modified and featured a 600 cubic inch (9.8 liters!), 1,500 horsepower supercharged Hemi V-8. With Pranis at the wheel, it won the Roadkill Nights Big Tire Dodge Drag Race competition in Pontiac three years in a row from 2018 to 2021 (excluding the COVID year of 2020).
But the big, smooth tires are useless in the rain. Just like those of my friend Deluca, whose ’55 Chevy has huge trunk modifications to make room for the wide rubber on the rear wheels.
“There is nothing like this in the world,” said Deluca.
The Pittsburgh-based couple are regulars at Cruise and Roadkill, but did not attend the Roadkill at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac this year. They have also participated in the popular Beaver Falls Car Cruise north of Pittsburgh, which draws about 3,000 classic cars each year — a fraction of the estimated 40,000 to 60,000 that come to Woodward.
Henry Payne is the auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at [email protected] or @HenryEPayne.
