We started our day with breakfast at Bob Evans, where we got to make fun of Pop for the fact that his shirt, unbenknownst to him, had skulls on it. But the hilarity was brief, because we were traveling with a purpose this time.

From here on in, our stops would be only when needed, and the weather was unrelenting throughout our entire trip back. At one point we got a rain just outside of Ohio which when it evaporated left a residue on the windshied. Ewww… I can only imagine what was in that rain.

The miles rolled on without much fuss, but that was until we neared Pennsylvania and a problem arose. We needed to stop for gas, but the GPS was unable to locate any Mobil gas stations, which was the brand that a certain octogenarian demanded. We ended up stopping at service plaza on the Thruway, where the gas station was not only not a Mobil but only had 87 octane. We didn’t have much choice so Dave started adding gas. Pop was fuming: he did not want 87 in his Buick!! He actually got worked up enough about it for Dave to stop, so he only pumped enough gas to make it to the next station. Thankfully, the next one a few miles down the highway was a Mobil with 93, and we breathed a sigh of relief.

It was then my turn to drive the Buick, and Dave and Pop’s insistence, and I was surprised to find she handled and drove pretty much like a modern car. After about 100 miles it was time to stop for some mediocre road food at McDonald’s, after which Pop insisted over Dave’s objections that it was his turn to take the wheel.

Despite the fact that it had started to pour, Pop was on a mission and drove way too fast for the road conditions. Dave and I were pretty uneasy with the Buick speeding through the torrential downpour at between 80 and 85 mph, but it seemed the Pop thought it necessary to drive his age. Dave spent most of the ride as his second set of eyes while slipping in the occasional suggestion to slow down.

Regardless, the Buick ran like a watch no matter what the speed, and luckily the spray-wax Dave used allowed the rain to sheet off and kept the windshield mostly clear. Down the New York State Thruway we were still flying until suddenly traffic came to a grinding halt! It appeared as though it was backed up for miles and miles and MILES, but we saw no flashing lights, but assumed it was an accident. (Perhaps someone driving MUCH too fast for the road conditions??)

After what seemed like an eternity, we discovered the reason for the halt: there was actually a foot of water crossing the roadway like a river! The Buick carefully waded through and we were once again on our way. We made it home safe at around 8:00pm, putting our total driving time for that final day somewhere around 10 hours. Which beat our drive out time by 2 whole hours–yep, we were driving too fast.

What a trip!

We continued to faithfully follow the GPS, which of course doesn’t let you know when it’s leading you over to the wrong side of the tracks. I lived in NYC for years and I know a bad neighborhood when I see one, and the familiar landscape of broken signs, boarded-up businesses, graffiti and crazed locals led me to hope that there wouldn’t be any red lights to stop us. But the next neighborhood we crossed into was completely the opposite–we even got turned away from a small park we pulled into to snap some pics, which was apparently “private” and reserved for snooty residents and closed to riff-raff like us, according to the gate attendant. Oh well: good thing that we met at least four good people for every jerk we encountered. I really was impressed by the natural friendliness of Michigan folks.

By the time we got finished with breakfast, it was raining pretty steadily, and as we headed towards Pontiac I was afraid the cruise might not be quite what I hoped it would be. But I was once again pleasantly surprised when we neared Pontiac and the number of sweet classic rides were multiplying. It was still raining lightly as we arrived at “The Loop” in Pontiac, which is what the locals call the top of Woodward Ave. We stopped there to gas up the old Buick.

The further down Woodward Ave we got, the more gorgeous gems we spotted, and the heavier the crowds became. I for one was really feeling the excitement, and so was Pop as he waved and made small talk with people in other hot rods as we cruised traffic light to traffic light amongst fellow enthusiasts. We actually met quite a few interesting people, including a man with a Grand National from Long Island! Imagine running into another New Yorker this far from home. Pop was in his glory, yelling out the window to just about every car we passed, and every person sitting along the sidewalk.

Just then, the poor old Buick started to overheat. We’d noticed the belt that runs the alternator and water pump had loosened up a bit during the highway driving, and the situation was starting to take its toll. With nowhere to pull over, we found that cruising in neutral and revving the engine a bit would get the pump spinning fast enough to cool the engine down some, but obviously that was just a temporary solution.

At first possible opportunity, we pulled over to grab some souvenirs, take a bathroom break, and let the Buick cool down. Pop and I left Dave with the car in the Mobil parking lot, but we hadn’t been gone long before I got a call from Dave saying he’d been asked to move. Nothing but hassle! With the belt slipping again and the overheating light coming back on, we gave in and decide it’s time to get the hood up and do some tinkering.

After we pulled over on a residential street off Woodward, we discovered that what Dave thought was the tool bag is in fact just a bag of spare parts. OOPS. Pop had no sooner taken off for the parts store we passed a few blocks back when a friendly resident strolls by with his family, offering help and tools. Though he was joining the cruise himself shortly in his tricked out ’66 Mustang, he stopped by on the way out to loan Dave the 9/16″ and 1/2″ wrench he needed to go with the breaker bar he found in the trunk, and within 5 minutes, the belt was tightened and the Buick was ready to go. We thanked the kind stranger before he went on his way.

Pop returned with a friend and some tools borrowed from another enthusiast only to find the car fixed, and we doubled back to return the tools.  The guy who loaned them to us had a sweet ’67 Lemans, and we had a nice chat with him while we idled the Buick to ensure it was cooling properly again. Confident the problem was fixed, we set out for more cruisin’.

We had traveled quite a ways down Woodward at this point and the classics and hotrods were starting to thin out, along with the crowds, so we decided it must be time to turn around and cruise back. We figured a McDonald’s up ahead would be a suitable location for lunch after elaborate breakfast we’d enjoyed. Who was parked in McDonald’s lot? Tow Mater! Strikingly well done and by what must have been an amazing welder.

After lunch, Pop and I decided to do a little more “official merchandise shopping” while Dave snapped some more pics in the rain.

From there we hopped back onto Woodward and got back to some good old fashioned cruising.

Before long we noticed that the sun was trying to come out, so we decided it was a good time to pull over and shine up the Buick. By the time we were finished, the sun was shining most triumphantly! Dave and I were so happy at this point–this was more like the way we’d pictured the Woodward Dream Cruise!

Unfortunately this was also the point where Pop decided to start acting his age and had enough, deciding he wanted to go back to the hotel. The gridlocked traffic wouldn’t let us U-turn, so we switched off the GPS and reverted to the map as guidance. We slowly but surely made our way out of the Woodward area and headed back toward Pontiac, albeit with a slightly grumpier grandpa than we had when we arrived.

As the day came to a close, Dave and I promised each other we’d definitely have to do it again, since we’d had to bail right when it seemed like it was about to get really fun. All things considered, the Dream Cruise was AWESOME. We’ll give it another try in a few years with a different car… likely a certain ’84 Caprice if Dave has anything to say about it.

BJ: ’70 Buick GSX Stage 1

Joining me on this journey would be my girlfriend Stephanie and my grandfather “Pop”. To make the trip more exciting, I decided that we would also take another long time family member: Our 1970 Buick LeSabre (The Bu-Hog). This car has been in my family since 1976 and served its duty as the family vacation car; it even once took my grandparents from Albany, NY to Morgan City, LA in 1982! It had since been retired to show car duty… until now. With 129,761 on the clock we were still more than confident that the ole Bu-Hog had a few more road trip miles left in her.

After packing the trunk the night before, all we had to do the morning of August 19th was get dressed, grab some coffee, and hit the road, setting out at 7am to avoid any major rush hours on our way through Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit. We piled into the car and set off with me driving the first leg of what would be a 12-hour trip to the Motor City.Taking I-90 west from Albany is a pretty long monotonous route, mostly filled with farm country and the occasional large industrial factory like Beech-nut or Lockheed Martin. Although the day started out absolutely beautiful, we did hit some dense fog outside of Amsterdam, NY, that engulfed the road and slowed us down for a bit. But it wasn’t long before we were able to resume our cruising speed of 75 mph.

By mid-morning it was time to top off the tank and take a quick stretch. We had only done 116 miles at this point, but being that we wanted our next stop to be lunch in Buffalo we decided now was a good time.

The miles were clicking off at a decent pace when we arrived in Orchard Park (home of the Buffalo Bills) at around 11:50am. We had covered 315 miles in roughly 5 hours, not a blistering pace, but we still decided we were permitted a lunch stop at Tim Horton’s a Canadian-borderlands donut chain. We pulled off the highway a stone’s throw from Ralph Wilson Stadium where the Bills play.

After lunch, a quick fill up and photo op, we hopped back into the Bu-Hog with Pop behind the wheel at about 1:00pm and continued west on I-90 with our sights set on Cleveland.

The road was under heavy construction during this leg of the trip. At several points I-90 actually split into the oncoming lane and a severe shoulder lane. It made for some hairy driving as we were sharing the road with some crazy Ohio drivers and double trailer big rigs. Even at the ripe ole’ age of 82, Pop used his 55 years of truck-driving experience to get through it all quickly and safely. At one point we even picked up a friend in a 1968 Chevelle who also could have possibly been in route to the Dream Cruise. We passed him before the road split, touching on 80mph and he promptly put the hammer down to tag along as cars in the fast lane scurried out of our path. But once the road split, he made the wiser lane choice and we eventually lost him as we were stuck behind slow truck traffic.

Eventually we broke free from the construction and thought it was a good time to take a break. As anyone with a big-boat classic knows, these cars draw a lot of attention whenever you’re stopped. People came over and stared as we rummaged through the trunk cooler for drinks and snacks.

We were just outside of Cleveland, and I took over driving while Steph stretched out on the couch-like back seat and listened to some tunes. By the time we reached Cleveland it was mid afternoon and we were approaching the 500-mile mark. Cleveland by far offered us the best scenic view of the trip as we came up on Lake Erie and glimpsed the city skyline.

Cleveland also gave us the biggest WTF moment–after slowing down to snail-pace traffic and creeping along for about 10 minutes, we realized it was because the four-lane I-90 makes a 35 mph curve to go around the city. The engineer who designed this shouldn’t have been allowed to build a sandwich let alone a road!

But we got through it, and we were back to vacant highway doing 75 mph, with the Bu-Hog was singing its sweet song the whole way. We made our way through the lesser populated patches of Ohio, enjoying the rolling farmland. Along one desolate stretch, traffic began to build again and we slowed to a crawl, and when we came up to the wreck it looked as if someone had jack-knifed a camper trailer, and there was someone scooping up the scattered contents with a small front-end loader. I wasn’t about to snap a photo of someone else’s heartache, but that was definitely a summer vacation ruined.

Eventually we rounded the bend into Toledo and saw one of the coolest bridges I’ve seen in a long time. The name however, the ” Craig Memorial Bridge ” had me wondering: who was Craig? What did he do to be memorialized with a bridge? The kinds of things you think about when road delirium starts setting in. With about a quarter tank left and 45 miles to our destination, we decided now was a good time to refill one last time before heading to the hotel.

It was about the time we crossed the Michigan line that Pop, unbeknownst to myself, wanted to take his turn with the GPS to look for a restaurant for dinner. Being the 82 year old man he is, he settled on Red Lobster. So while I’m driving I begin hearing directions to leave the highway soon. I’m thinking, great! we’re almost to the hotel. Once off the highway I instantly get nervous as I’ve seen our hotel on Google Street View and know the hotel sign can be seen from the off ramp. Panicking a little, and figuring I must’ve wrote the address down for the wrong hotel, I nonetheless took the GPS on faith and followed its directions. I pulled into a parking lot and saw a Red Lobster: “DING–you have arrived at your destination.”  I glared over at Pop as it all suddenly made sense–he’d figured out how to re-select our destination to bypass any consensus about dinner. Clever old man. And as it turned out, we were only a few exits from the hotel so we decided to swing by there first before getting Pops his Red Lobster.

By the time we pull into the hotel it was 10 minutes after 7. We’d been on the road for 12 hours, driven 650 miles, stopped a total of 5 times, 3 of which were for gas, and the Buick and never skipped a beat the entire way.

After dinner, Pop urged me to head into Detroit, and I obliged even though I knew it was pushing 11 pm. We ventured into the city to ooh and aah at the flashy buildings and newly refurbished infrastructure. By literally just looking straight up, I used the glaring GM logo as a beacon to lead me to the front steps of the Rennissance Center, a massively impressive building to someone who lives in a middle-class town like myself. Looking around, you’d never know that Detroit was in the midst of an economic apocalypse. And, like a sign from above that we belonged here, there in the glass showroom overlooking the street sat two brand new Buicks–as if to say, Welcome home, Bu-Hog. Stay tuned for more installments on our Woodward Dream Cruise road trip.

Buick had planned on making 1,700 of these cars – but it is rumored (although not proven) they built less than 400 of them. Model name … Century Custom Series Body Style … 2-Door Colonnade Coupe … Model Year … 1975 Engine …. 350ci Carburator 4bbl … Compression Ratio 7.9:1 … Horsepower 175bhp … Transmission … TurboHydramatic 350 (Automatic) … Rear Axle Ratio 3.08 Exhaust …. Single pipe … Seats …. Sport Bucket … console… Exterior Color Graphics … White with Red/Blue Placards, Indy 500 logo above rear quarter, Lettering alongside doors, Blue “BUICK” logo with eagle on hood and trunk lid, Blue “BUICK” logo at far end of either side, White eagle on front fenders,”Free Spirit” white lettering on front fenders, “BUICK” and “Free Spirit” blue lettering on trunk lid … Interior color Glacier Blue … Removable Roof Panels … Hurst Hatches Interior seat material … White Naugahyde .. Stock Tire Size GR70×15 Grille GS Blackout Trim Tail light GS Blackout … Suspension … Higher rate springs, larger stabilizer bars … Wheelbase 112 inches … Overall Length… 209.5 inches … Height 53.3 inches …RUNS AND DRIVES LIKE NEW.

The rumors are true! Someone did put a modified Buick Regal GNX motor in a Lotus Esprit and here it is! If you know anything about the 1987 Buick Regal GNX, then you just begin to understand what kind of power and reliability this exotic car has.

Start with a stock 3460 lb. 1987 Buick GNX with an automatic transmission running 0-60 in 4.7 seconds and the ¼ mile in 13.5 seconds (verified at howstuffworks.com) and delete everything but the motor. Then add many performance upgrades, a 5 speed upgraded manual transmission, and put it in a 2500 lb. exotic car (documented curb weight with the GNX motor). When you mash the accelerator, you either spill out uncontrollable expletives or think of the movie “Gladiator” just after Russell Crowe commands, “UNLEASH HELL”.

This is a low-mid 11-second ¼-mile rocket only limited by your level of fear and driving skill. Also thrilling is getting waves of admiration and thumbs up from other drivers. In addition to mind-blowing power and looks, another benefit of this car and its very light weight is the fuel-injected motor exceeds an average of 24 MPG when driven with respect. For the truly insane, only $1200 in modern performance Buick parts would add another 110 HP…

This car is a one of a kind work of art that absolutely embarrasses other Turbo Esprits from the period and costs substantially less to maintain. Everything works, right down to the clock, and not one component appears aged. Masterfully redone in 1987 and every detail both cosmetic and mechanical addressed, this vehicle is in exceptional condition.

The prior (original) owner spent over $75K in upgrades, with me adding more than $9K of my own. Professionally built and tuned by Buick racing legend Ken Duttweiler, the motor is stout to say the least. I have tons of receipts, the car’s registration was just renewed, and it is smogged and ready to go.

Read more and see all the pics at eBay.

Massachusetts has these wacky laws that require the car that you take your license test in to actually be road legal. This state…well apparently not.