Chloe Collins pulled out her phone as muscle cars and hot rods rumbled past on Woodward Avenue.
“I’ve got to take another picture, add to my memories,” said the 42-year-old from Detroit.
Collins, who wasn’t referring to the parade in front of her, was showing a reporter the three past-year photos with she and her uncle, Nate Collins, posing in front of the 1989 Buick Grand National they’d brought. They still needed to shoot a picture for this year.
Collins, who was seated in a prime viewing spot just north of 13 Mile Road, was marking her fourth year at the Woodward Dream Cruise on Saturday, Aug. 15.
Her uncle, who lives in Warren but is a Detroiter at heart, had stepped away to check out the smorgasbord of eye candy nearby. This trip, with more cousins on the way to grow the group, has become a tradition.
“I do it for my uncle. He likes the cars, and I want to bond with him more,” she said.
The 31st annual Dream Cruise kicked off as it does each year with the familiar vibes of a family reunion, but it’s still a new experience even for many locals coming to an event expected to draw a million attendees and 30,000 vehicles. Overcast skies early also meant good weather for cruising, despite some light sprinkles in the early part of the afternoon and the potential for more late in the day, based on the forecast.
Elliott Kern, 36, of Troy cradled some rather large corn dogs and hamburgers as he walked with his sons, Robert, 6, and William, 4. It was his first time at the cruise, and the plan was to “see how long we last.”
But the boys, who motioned that they like everything but were a little shy, love cars, old and new, Kern said.
His observation on seeing the Dream Cruise for the first time was that “for as big as it is, it’s spread out” and easy to find a spot to park.
Some regulars, however, plan well ahead.
Mike and Renee Taylor of Sterling Heights claimed their spot south of 13 Mile before 5 a.m.
They each had an array of homemade signs they’d hold up to show their appreciation for the rumbling artwork passing by – “Love your whip,” “Beautiful Mustang,” “Spin your tires. Get Loud,” “Nice Ride” and “Cool.”
“We don’t put anything negative on them,” said Mike, 63. “Nothing discouraging.”
“People spend a lot of time on their cars,” Renee, 54, explained.
Mike used to cruise with his own father in a 1978 Chevrolet Corvette and later in his 1982 Cadillac that he sold last year. He’s a professional passenger now, he said, because of injuries to his feet suffered in a fire.
But just enjoying the show is fine now.
It’s more relaxing, they said.
Mike recalled a 1972 Chevy Chevelle that he had years ago that once blew a clutch and a starter.
“I’d rather just sit and watch them going by,” he said.
Furry friends get in on the fun
The Dream Cruise unites all kinds of people, and gathered under a tent on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodland Street was a gaggle of fuzzy, bright colored, car enthusiasts.
Even the furries love the Dream Cruise.
Miles Trovak of Warren was at work setting up a Dream Cruise watch party for himself and his furry friends. Trovak was partially dressed in a blue, canine “fursona” (furry lingo for alter ego). With blue paws and all, Trovak was eager to discuss the virtues of a nice hot hatchback and described himself as a car guy.
“There is a cross-section between furries and cars here in Detroit,” Trovak said with a blue tail bouncing behind him. Sure enough, while Trovak was speaking with the Free Press and taking photos with a blue Dodge Challenger 392 Scat Pack (which matched the blue of his suit), a brown bear driving a clean, green BMW station wagon pulled up and joined the party.
Trovak said he knows some people may look askance at furries, who have earned a reputation for being silly and weird, but for him, there is a sense of community among those who don fursuits.
“If people are telling you you’re weird, at some point it’s easier to embrace it and be like, ‘Yeah, but I’m having fun!’ ” Trovak said. “I’d ask you: ‘Are you having fun?’ “
And make no mistake, under a white tent on the main drag of the Dream Cruise, Trovak and a handful of other joyous “animals” had a blast watching Detroit’s greatest show on wheels roll by.
Rain comes, cruisers flee
If you ask Herman Griffin about his 1975 Buick LeSabre Custom Convertible, he can answer your questions, but there’s a good chance he’ll refer you to his grandson, 15-year-old Taeshawn Hollins. That’s because, according to Griffin, Hollins knows more about the vehicle than his pops does.
The car, a pristinely maintained root beer-brown machine, belongs to Griffin, but much of the work on it has been done by Hollins. The LeSabre, replete with a wood-grain detailed interior with a modern touchscreen, is in its second set of deeply caring hands.
Griffin said he bought the car at an auction, but had encountered the vehicle years before at a car show and fell in love with it. At the time, he approached the then-owner and offered to buy it, he said. She was flattered but did not sell him the car.
Years later, with his wife, Griffin said he stumbled upon his dream car once more.
“We saw it at an auction, and we both said, ‘That’s the car,’ ” Griffin recalled.
Griffin adores his ride — so much so that he does not dare to even get it wet, with its expensive pearlescent brown paint job, which, according to Hollins, cost thousands of dollars (paid for by the previous owner).
“This car is never in the rain!” Griffin said.
So, during an interview with the Detroit Free Press, when rain began to sprinkle, Griffin and Hollins politely concluded the interview, closed the hood and took the LeSabre across the street and parked under a canopy, where it would no longer get wet.
The smiles are what matter
A family had gathered around a very large red “wagon” facing Woodward, and Rick Fryz asked if they wanted a picture.
Before they could move away, he grabbed a step stool and a boy climbed up and hopped inside, with a smile.
That bright red wagon with “Western Flyer Rocket” written in white on the sides and the giant black handle − the kind a kid might use to pull it if this was the kid-sized variety − draws attention.
“I don’t care if adults like it. If it puts a smile on a kid’s face that’s all that matters,” said Fryz, 59, of Gibraltar, who likes to use the wagon, built on a Chevy S-10 pickup chassis, for charity events.
Fryz and his wife, Tracey, “are just car people,” who’ve have been bringing the wagon to Dream Cruise for three years, after getting a good reception at the Telegraph Cruise that year. Fryz bought it about eight years ago from a man in Florida who was battling pancreatic cancer and wanted someone to continue showing it off.
It’s one of 18 cars in his collection.
“I’ve got some weird stuff,” Fryz said.
Meredith Soleau, 46, and Brittany Gibbons, 44, of Toledo were on their first trek to the Dream Cruise, driving up in a 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 3LT.
It’s one of the “fun perks” of their jobs doing marketing for Les Stanford Chevrolet in Dearborn.
They were on foot, however, when the Free Press caught up with them.
Soleau was looking for Corvettes; Gibbons had her eyes open for any cars she’d “made out in” in high school, including some Saturns and a particular Ford.
“If I see any Ford Probes, I’m going to lose it,” Gibbons said.
Oz Zamora, 69, of Warren, has come to the Dream Cruise “damn near every year except the Covid years.”
He likes the variety, especially the “old school variety” of cars, not the ones you can see at a dealership.
Being almost 70, Zamora “grew up with most of these cars. You like to see them,” he said.
He also added to the array of cars cruising during the day. He’d been out early in his 1960 Buick LeSabre flat top in white and gold (he also carried a photo of his other 1960 LeSabre, a red convertible).
When asked which he preferred, Zamora declined to answer.
“I can’t say. I don’t want either one to get mad at me. Cars are living beings,” he said, noting his choice now to drive Buicks when his dad spent 36 years working for Chrysler at the old Jefferson plant in Detroit.
During his talk with the Free Press, Zamora asked if a reporter had ever had to file for unemployment, noting that he’d retired about 15 years ago from the state office that handles those claims. His voice, he said, was the one used on the voice response system that people would have to call.
The first one was special
The Hugger Orange on Herman Zarkis’ 1956 Chevrolet Corvette gleamed from the grassy spot where it sat parked, a short distance from Woodward.
It was a 1965 junkyard find that cost Zarkis $550 but would now be worth considerably more.
“I built the whole thing myself,” he said, noting the absence of the engine and transmission when he found it.Zarkis, 87, and his wife, Judy, had been out all week on Woodward, and they make it a point to hit cruises and car shows every week.
The Dream Cruise is still the kind of event where everybody helps everybody even if it’s “very commercial” now, Judy Zarkis said.
“The first year was the best,” she said. Everybody “spent their time pushing the cars off the road that had overheated.”
Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press, and he also writes about recreational vehicles, boats and bikes. Send your tips and suggestions to elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
(This story has been updated with new information.)
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Woodward Dream Cruise draws families, car fans and furries in 2026
Reporting by Eric D. Lawrence and Liam Rappleye, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Eric D. Lawrence and Liam Rappleye, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
