Photo Essay - Woodward Dream Cruise

Photo Essay

Woodward Dream Cruise

Coffee is overrated, give me premium octane!

Story and PhotograPhy | Peter Hessels

It would have been easy to stay under the covers of my nice warm king-size bed. This was luxury at its finest, the Townsend Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. Breakfast was just a phone call away and I wouldn’t even need to get out from under the sheets to eat it.

Coffee! The thought was mesmerizing. But not on this day, there was so much to see and do that it would be worth forgoing all the luxuries my hotel room could provide.

Today, I was at the epicenter for custom hot rods and rat rods, cruisers, exotic cars, one-off trucks and newly minted Motown metal ready to tear up the tarmac. The aroma of freshly brewed java is nice, but nothing

beats the fragrant wafting of exhaust fumes, nitrous oxide and burned black rubber when it comes to overloading my senses.

This is the annual automobile extravaganza known as the Woodward Dream Cruise- The World’s Biggest Cruise, and this year’s headliners included the original and a brand new edition of the famous Mustang Bullitt. Steve McQueen would never pass up gasoline for coffee and neither would I. Started in August 1995 as fundraiser for a local soccer field in Ferndale, Michigan, it has become the preeminent cruising event for car lovers in North America. Who needs coffee when so much naturallyaspirated caffeine was waiting for me outside. Let the adrenaline rush begin!