Love it or loathe it, the Woodward Dream Cruise is back, 30 years since it began.
For 16 miles along Woodward Avenue on Saturday, Aug. 16, supercars, classics, three-wheelers, hot rods, electric vehicles, muscle cars and even some cars fashioned to drive backward rumbled (or hummed) down the road. The longstanding Motor City tradition was expected to draw more than one million automotive enthusiasts to the Woodward corridor from Ferndale to Pontiac, organizers estimated.
Usually on Woodward, fast, loud and shiny cars stand out among a constant stream of everyday commuter cars.
Not so during the Dream Cruise. By 10 a.m., the road was congested with traffic and populated mostly by collector cars, with a few drivers in family cars standing out — for once.
Van lifin’
Jim Braden, 65, sat in a chair on the edge of Woodward watching the cruisers pass.
His white 1994 GMC Vandura 2500 was parked in a spot that he secured about 8 a.m.
He and his wife, Jacque, 63, had driven up from their home in Sharonville, Ohio, north of Cincinnati, but got in late and skipped the planned stay at a hotel, choosing a spot on a nearby street and drawing the blinds.
Luckily, the GMC van is fully loaded for an overnight stay. It’s a Rockwood conversion with glossy wood trim inside and a place to sleep.
Braden said he’s been coming to the Dream Cruise since 2007. He’s had the van for about three years, and it’s got 60,000 miles on it.
An older widower had it in a barn and didn’t want it anymore after his wife passed.
“Hard to believe,” he said, of finding the van so well kept. “This thing had never seen snow or rain (it saw rain for the first time last year). It will never see snow as long as I own it.”
Never missed a Cruise
There are thousands of cruisers along Woodward during the fabled weekend, but some people clear out their schedule months in advance so they don’t miss the show.
Bill and Rita Schultz, of Clinton Township, have attended every single Dream Cruise since its inception in 1995. They brought along their 1979 Pontiac Firebird Formula.
While the pair said they are enjoying the annual car event, their favorite Dream Cruise was 30 years ago.
The best Dream Cruise was the first one, Bill Schultz said, “because it wasn’t this chaotic. You didn’t have this kind of traffic.”
Out of towners
A day before the official cruise, on Friday, Aug. 15, Ford Motor Co.’s Mustang Alley and the Bronco Corral — a Ford-sanctioned gathering of Dream Cruising Mustangs and Broncos — was full of gearheads admiring the new and old Ford vehicles.
Alex Sapiano, who lives in Sarasota, Florida, said he keeps a small house in Royal Oak so that each year he can come visit during the Dream Cruise. He said he is a gearhead who has owned several classic cars.
“I’ve owned about eight or nine antique cars. I have a 1972 antique convertible,” Sapiano said.
But he said his favorite car has been a 1977 Chrysler Cordoba.
“It was a car my dad had. I remember driving it when I was 16 and 17, and I just thought I was the greatest person in the world,” Sapiano said.
A lifetime of Dream Cruises
Omar Kallabat was born in 1995, but he’s clear that at 30, he’s been to every official Dream Cruise. His dad, he said, pushed him in a stroller that first year.
Kallabat, of West Bloomfield, had several cars parked at the entrance to the Shell station. It’s the same location he’s been coming to for years. Later in the day, he expected he’d have about 30 friends and family members joining him.
His 1937 Packard Super Eight in “Lincoln Ivory” attracted some attention from passersby. He’d won it in an auction, but right away it needed a new engine. The body was good, though.
It’s the third car in Kallabat’s fleet of nine. He runs Vintage Luxury Rentals, which specializes in providing classic cars for weddings. It’s a business that he launched during the pandemic after he started to work from home. His first wedding was in July 2021.
The first car in the fleet, which wasn’t at the Dream Cruise, was a 1965 white Rolls-Royce Phantom that cost $50,000 but needed just as much in work. His dad was not happy.
Parked behind the Packard was Kallabat’s pearl white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. It cost $3,000 to buy and eight years to restore. “It’s the only one you’ll see today,” he asserted.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2025 Woodward Dream Cruise brings weird, wicked cool together for 30th anniversary joyride
Reporting by Liam Rappleye, Jamie L. LaReau, Keenan Thompson, Eric D. Lawrence and Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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