Woodward Dream Cruise

After The Milford Proving Grounds, The Camaro Assembly Plant and The Lingenfelter Collection I’d had a pretty good week.
The next day I was to report at The Woodward Dream Cruise at Woodward & Old Woodward at 7:30am.
It was gonna be a good day.
I was gonna get to spend the whole day with Camaros.
And not just any Camaros…
But some very special Camaros I’d come to find out.
I was to be assigned to the 50^th Anniversary Camaro convertible in its Nightfall Grey Metallic.
Giddy-up!!
I’d had such a good week that I neglected to get pictures of the 2017 ZL1 Camaro and the 2017 50^th Anniversary Edition Camaro.
Doh!!
I was enamored with the first Camaro ever: Serial #100001

Built in May of 1966 – it was to be added into the National Historical Registry.
Parked just down from the first Camaro ever, Al Oppenheiser brought out his super clean ’67 convertible.

And it was just down from a 2012 COPO Camaro convertible.

…Number 68 of 69 made that year.
It’s purely a racing machine.
I was so single focused that I almost missed The Sleeper.
I’d walked past it more than a dozen times…
It was just a super clean Cortez Silver ’69 RS.
Or was it???

What the heck is this thing doing here?!?
It turns out this thing is a 1969 ZL1 Camaro.
One of only two Rally Sports built.
The only ZL1 with factory stripes.
And number 68 of 69 made that year!!
It still had it’s original keys.

And a M-22 Rock-Crusher 4-speed with Rally Pack Gauges.
The handlers were more than happy to pop the hood for me to see the all-aluminum monster that lay within.

427 cubic inches of all-aluminum Chevrolet glory.
If you look closely you can see the snow-flake on the engine block.
Soooooooo cool.
And these were only some of the cars we had in our display.
The Dream Cruise hadn’t even officially started yet and here I am surrounded by some serious heavy metal.
Oh yeah – did ya notice the silver 2017 ZL1 convertible hiding next to it in plain sight?
Once the Woodward Dream Cruise started it was non-stop mayhem.
But mayhem in a good way.
It was non-stop cars of every make and model going four to five lanes wide in both directions.
I saw more new Hellcats that day that I have in my entire life combined.
It was nuts.
Then when the sun went down…
The music went up.
Not even rain could thin the crowd at the Woodward Dream Cruise.
It’s a pretty awesome experience to behold.
After Woodward I went in for Chevy product specialist training.
They bring in some of their engineers to tell us about what’s new for the model year.
And every so often one of those engineers brings out Chevy’s latest & greatest.
In this instance I first spied the 2017 Corvette Grand Sport convertible in all of it’s “Creamsicle” glory.
It’s white with orange hash-marks – come on – it’s a Creamsicle.

It was hiding in plain sight just sitting in the hotel parking lot next to a sinister all black ZL1 with the clear coated carbon fiber hood insert that I almost didn’t even see.

First off, this bad boy was a Capture Fleet Vehicle which means it’s one of the first couple hundred off of the assembly line and it’s equipped with sensors and stuff to see how it does in the real world.
All that data is then given back to Chevrolet to see if and where they need to improve things before the cars is rolled out to the general public.
It’s a good way to work out all the kinks.
Second, this ZL1 is equipped with the 10-speed automatic transmission… the 10R90.
Third, this is Al’s personal car.
It’s good to see Todd Christensen, the Corvette & Camaro Marketing Manager and Al Oppenheiser, the Chief Vehicle Engineer for the Camaro both representing the bow-tie.
Some people just talk the talk…
It’s cool that these guys are the real deal and not only talk the talk and walk the walk, but they drive the cars.
One of the many reasons I dig Chevrolet…
The passion.
My buddy JD always tells me: “The one thing you can’t teach in life is passion.”
He’s right.
Now I can’t wait to get home and take the 55 out for a spin.
Until next time.
#idrivea55