Hundreds of Mustangs hit downtown Ferndale for Woodward Dream Cruise

FERNDALE — Amid the threat of rainfall, thousands of people still made their way to downtown Ferndale for the city’s annual Woodward Dream Cruise celebrations.

Ferndale kicked off its Dream Cruise events on Aug. 16 with its Emergency Vehicle Show and the Lights & Sirens Cruise Parade, and came back Aug. 17 with its annual Mustang Alley.

Mustang Alley filled both sides of Nine Mile Road with hundreds of Ford Mustangs from the car’s early days to what’s being released today.

Dave Kemp, of Unionville, brought his 2007 Roush Stage 3 Ford Mustang that he’s owned since 2017 to the cruise.

Kemp said he loved how the Roush looked and how it handled, but what stood out was how few Stage 3 Roushs were made.

“They’ve made 28 of these cars in ’07 that were blue with white stripes, and like 30 that were black with white stripes,” he said. “There’s only 100 cars exactly like this that were made in ’07 and ’08, and I’ve only seen one that’s the same as what these cars are at all car shows I’ve ever been to. And so, it’s pretty rare.”

“The real deal with this is there’s three different aluminum placards, a sticker, the numbers that come out of Roush. Roush is kind of different. There’s a million Shelbys, but there’s not that many Roushs,” he continued.

Joe Cloutier, of Berkley, came to Mustang Alley with his 1972 dark green Mustang. He’s owned the muscle car for three years.

Cloutier got the Mustang with 18,000 miles on it in an unrestored state with its original paint, top, seats and engine, something that’s uncommon for cars of this age.

“At this point, it’s 52 years old, people already have been tearing them apart, modifying them, but this one (had) two owners before me and it sat in the garage,” he said. “It feels like it just came out of the showroom. I mean, it was that clean and that well kept.”

Cloutier, a Ford person his entire life and a retiree from the company, recently moved back to Berkley from Connecticut but was able to attend many of the Dream Cruises in the past.

Cloutier said he does get a bit of satisfaction in getting to share his Mustang with fellow car nuts.

“It's a camaraderie of people who appreciate the car,” he said. “They’ll talk about when they had this car back when they were young. You're talking to some of the older baby boomers coming through, and they’re like, ‘This was my first car when I graduated high school.’”

Outside of the Mustang owners, Ferndale, the original home of the Dream Cruise, was packed with attendees on the median and sidewalks along Woodward taking in the passing vehicles.

ShaVonne Atkins, of Southfield, has attended every Dream Cruise for the last 20 years. She attended her first event in 2004 and called it “a piece of history.”

“I actually came with my boyfriend at the time. He was just helping with one of the booths that was set up. I had never been before. I was just like, ‘OK, I’ll come with you.' Because it was like, 'OK, I have nothing to do.’ It was on a Saturday, and when I came I was just like, ‘Where has this been all my life?’ Just the cars and the people and it’s just, literally, a piece of history, and I was hooked. We are not together anymore and I still come every single year,” she said.

As Atkins watched the cars drive by on Woodward and heard the sounds of a hot rod fill the air, she remarked on how you don’t get to see something like that every day.

“From the youngest to the oldest, everybody becomes a gearhead,” she said. “All week long, they’re having different events and people start cruising on Monday and just all week long. I work, so I can only be here on Saturday, but it’s just amazing, and it’s when everybody can come together, no matter what race, what age, what sex, everybody’s equal today and everybody’s having a good time, which is something we don’t see often in our world.”