[PICS] Cruising the Avenue at the 2023 Woodward Dream Cruise

Aug 24, 2023

2953

[PICS] Cruising the Avenue at the 2023 Woodward Dream Cruise

Photo Credits: Steve Burns

We’ve just closed the hood on Dream Cruise week here at your Detroit Bureau and what a week it was! The month of August here never disappoints, and this year was one of the best yet. We’ve already taken a look back at Wednesday’s Corvettes on Woodward event and Friday’s Woodward Dream Show. Now it’s on to the main event, the Woodward Dream Cruise.

On the 3rd Saturday in August each year, historic Woodward Avenue becomes a moving history book featuring every nook and cranny of the car culture. While the actual cruise is just one day, you’ll find eager cruisers out on the road on just about any Saturday evening with nice weather.

The Dream Cruise began in 1995 as a fundraiser for a Ferndale ball field. It was a way to celebrate the car culture and the city that put the world on wheels. From its humble beginnings, the Dream Cruise quickly morphed into the world’s largest 1-day car event. This year it’s been estimate that upwards of 50,000 collector cars and well over 1 million people attended.

The Woodward Dream Cruise is hard to describe. Picture a 16-mile stretch of road running north and south with 3 or 4 lanes in each direction. Then picture the largest traffic jam you’ve ever seen. But not just any traffic jam. It’s filled with supercars, muscle cars, customs, motorcycles, bikes, side-by-sides, and everything in between. This year we spied a boat turned into a car and a Ford van modified to look like it was driving upside down among other automotive oddities. It doesn’t matter what kind of car gets your blood flowing, you’ll probably see it on the road and there’s also likely a club dedicated to that marque setup nearby for the day. Next, add in thousands of people lining each side just to watch that traffic jam. From there, take a look inside all the local parks and parking lots. They’re filled with cars too.

As is tradition now, we spent our day in the epicenter of the cruise between Royal Oak and Birmingham. We arrived around 9am parking at 13 mile and slowly wandered north to the Triangle at 15 mile where GM was setup again after a couple years of construction there. GM showed off all their latest EV’s as well as the 2024 E-Ray and 2023 Z06. Additionally, their white, early Corvettes were on display again as well. As you’d expect, this area was stuffed full of people all day.

Out on the road Corvettes were everywhere. Of course, we’re biased, but we felt like Corvette was the most prolific marque at the cruise this year. You pick the generation, and we guarantee we spied multiple examples of it last weekend. Even the ZR1 and Grand Sport registries made the trek to Michigan this year. Enough of the words already! You’re probably ready to look at some cars. But before you scroll further, grab your calendar and block off the 3rd Saturday in August next year. You now have plans that day. And now, we proudly present our gallery of images from the 2023 Woodward Dream Cruise. Enjoy!