ROADKILL NIGHTS

Woodward Avenue is a 30 mile road that stretches from downtown Detroit heading north through several suburban communities and eventually loops around the city of Pontiac. During the heyday of American Graffiti style cruising the streets (1950s - 1970s) in automobiles, Woodward dotted with drive-in diners, that had names like Maverick's, Susie Q and Totem Pole, and often the scene of drag races was the place to be. There isn't much cruising and street racing going on along Woodward these days, except for in mid-August each year when a series of events celebrating Detroit car culture take place along this stretch of roadway.

This year's festivities led off with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Dodge brand sponsored ROADKILL NIGHTS and will culminate with the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE which has thousands of automobile enthusiasts parading classic cars and hotrods around the thoroughfare for a day. Dodge's ROADKILL NIGHTS event turned a portion of Woodward in Pontiac, Michigan and the adjacent M1 Concourse Race Track into a car lovers' amusement park.  From 10 am through 10 pm they hosted drag racing actually on the avenue as well as provided thrilling vehicle rides on the M1 Concourse's skid pad and race track. Check out my ROADKILL NIGHTS experience in the video below:

DRAG RACING ON WOODWARD AVE

Yes! They actually shut down a portion of the street and let people sign up to drag race on it.  There were all sorts of cars doing it too, not just hotrods. One of the races I saw pitted a 1970s era station wagon versus a mustang from the '80s.  Another had a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee duel a '70s muscle car. A classic roadster took on a muscle car .. and so on.  Later in the evening some professional drivers jumped in on the action, including Mopar Dodge Top Fuel driver Leah Pritchett and Mopar Dodge Charger Funny Car driver Matt Hagan, and there was also some heats featuring car celebrities like Richard Ray Rawlings from Discovery Channels' FAST N LOUD and Bill Goldberg from History Channel's FORGED IN FIRE: KNIFE OR DEATH. Oops! Rawlings actually crashed his Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat into the wall taking off from the line giving Goldberg the Roadkill Nights Celebrity Shootout title. With amateur, celebrity and professional drivers there was a whole lot of interesting racing to see.

RACING SIMULATORS

For those of us who couldn't get behind the wheel to do some street racing on Woodward Ave. there were some impressive race simulators to try out. You could participate in a head-to-head competition against fellow car enthusiasts in the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon simulators, which offer the latest state-of-art motion technology to deliver incredibly realistic special effects and virtual head-to-head drag racing. Wow! It almost felt like you were behind the wheel of a real Dodge Challenger SRT Demon – which with 840-horsepower is one of the most powerful muscle cars ever built. I won 2 out of my 3 races on the Demon Simulator reaching virtual reality speeds exceeding 135 miles per hour. That was fun!

DRIFT DRIVING EXPERIENCE

On the M1 Concourse's skid pad, people could get inside a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and be taken literally for a spin. Talk about burning rubber! Take Disney World's Tea Cup sensation but amped up with the horsepower of a muscle car to give yourself one hell of an amusing ride. I was all smiles spinning around the course. Oh yeah!

RACE TRACK THRILL RIDE

Hang on as you ride along with a professional driver at breakneck speeds around a loop of the M1 Concourse Race Track. Speeding through straight aways and skidding around corners is an adrenaline inducing thrill ride. I had an amazing time racing around the track! Just a little bit slower than driving along I-696 and no worries about getting a ticket. AWESOME!

I had a great time and appreciate Dodge inviting me out for the day to experience the event firsthand. Hopefully they will be back again sponsoring ROADKILL NIGHTS again next year.  For more information about Dodge's lineup of hot rods or news about special events and other interesting things the brand may be up to, head over to dodgegarage.com

Veils, 'Vettes & Vows at the Woodward Dream Cruise

The Woodward Dream Cruise is an annual affair that brings together classic car enthusiasts with the vehicles they love is taking place on Saturday, August 20, 2016. Thousands of classic cars will be displayed alongside and driving up and down one of Metro Detroit's iconic avenues throughout the day.  Are you taking your true love to the Woodward Dream Cruise?  No not your classic car but rather your spouse.  HAGERTY, the world's leading insurance provider for classic cars, is hosting vow renewals where you can enjoy a special moment with your husband or wife along with the classic car in your life during the Woodward Dream Cruise.

HAGERTY is recognizing the important role classic cars have played in their owners' lives by performing FREE drive-thru vow renewals from 9am to 5pm at the Central Medical Imaging parking lot (26454 Woodward Avenue  Royal Oak, MI 48067).  Show up with your significant other in your classic car during the Woodward Dream Cruise for your own special ceremony and photo-op.  Participants will receive veils and bowties, cupcakes and apple cider, and a renewal certificate to mark the occasion.

Would you say 'I do' again at the Woodward Dream Cruise?  For more information,  CLICK HERE to check out the HAGERTY Drive-Thru Vow Renewal at Woodward Dream Cruise Facebook page.

Going Car Watching: Our Roadtrip to the Woodward Dream Cruise

This year is the 20th anniversary of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE, an annual event in Metro Detroit that is like a combining a parade, block party and carnival together to celebrate classic cars and the area's automotive heritage.  This Saturday event gets to be very congested with more than a million people clustering along Woodward Avenue for the day and we normally feel it is a little to hectic to take our young children to, but this year I decided to take the twins over to see the cars the Friday morning before the official event to check out what was going on before all the crowds arrived.  So we took a road trip just a few blocks down the street from our house to go car watching.

I have to say taking a wander along Woodward Avenue the morning before the event was great...we saw lots of classic cars without all of the crowds.  While many of the exhibitor displays were still being setup and not all of the cars were cruising around yet we still saw a lot of cool stuff and had some great experiences.  For example, Chevrolet had just unloaded a few of the cars that were used to portray the Autobots in the movie Transformers: Age of Extinction from a tractor trailer but hadn't set up the exhibit display for them yet.  The Chevy staffers let my son jump in the original car that had been used as the stunt vehicle in the movie to portray my son's favorite Transformer, BUMBLEBEE, and pretend to take it for a spin.

Chevy did have one of its exhibits all set up where we could look at some of their different race car engines and an Indy car.  While walking around this display my kids snagged some really nice car themed color books and Crayola crayons while I got my hands on a t-shirt compliments of Chevrolet.

We also saw a Monster Truck, a few dragsters on display, and some cars drag racing down the strip.

 

You don't always need to drive far away to have a fun and exciting road trip with your kids...sometimes the adventure can just be a few blocks away.  For more information about the Woodward Dream Cruise visit www.woodwarddreamcruise.com