These days, Twitter is all the rage as a means for the digitally inclined to communicate their thoughts in bursts of 140 characters or less. However, that 140 character limit is positively verbose compared to an older and more established means of short messaging. Drivers long ago realized that certain combinations of letters and numbers could be used to send messages in less than seven characters. One of this blogger's all time favorites was a classic Lamborghini Countach with the plate IXLR8.
While that particular Lambo didn't appear at this year's Woodward festivities, there were plenty of other interesting messages sent out. As far as we're concerned, the best plates are the ones that don't take too much brain power to decipher. Sometimes, the license plate phrase reinforces something about the car's behavior – such as the FASSST plate on one Cobra. Other times, drivers use onomatopoeia like the BRMBRUM plate on another Shelby snake. Still others, such as the LVNGLYF plate we saw on a Lotus Elise, are more descriptive of the car's driver.
Someday, many decades from now, after all historical records of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have been extinguished by the great internet crash of 2012, someone will be trying to figure out what happened. As paleontologists are combing through the remainder of scrap yards for clues about what we did here, they may come to the conclusion that the Shelby Cobra was the second most produced car of all time after the VW Beetle.
The reality, of course, is that the real Shelby Cobra is exceedingly rare, but the look may well be the most replicated of all time. There are also plenty of Ferrari and Lamborghini "replicas" that are mutated to fit on existing platforms like the aforementioned Beetle and the Pontiac Fiero, but the vast majority of the faux-Cobras look so much like the real thing, that all but the most dedicated observers cannot tell the difference without close inspection.
In a little corner off Woodward Ave just south of Maple Rd. were at least two dozen "Cobras", and not one appeared to be the real thing. None the less, these are generally blindingly fast cars and usually just as thrilling to drive as one of Carroll's babies.
The Woodward Dream Cruise is generally considered the province of muscle cars and hot rods. However, the event is open to all comers... and come they do. So that means in addition to the usual assortment of classic machines and muscle cars, we get to see an array of exotics and other assorted high performance machinery. Ferrari, Aston Martin, De Tomaso, Lotuse – these were are all designed to traverse motorways and canyon roads at elevated velocities. However, when they hit Woodward Ave., speed is not part of the plan in any way, shape or form. Regardless, it's fun to see these machines moving at a pace that lets you actually take in their visual appeal.
Back in the waning days of the Carter administration, Chrysler was in an all-too-familiar position. The company was on the verge of insolvency with a lineup of products that almost no one wanted. That time, they just managed to avoid bankruptcy court. But as the company got a batch of government-backed loans, they were proclaiming a new line of cars that would pull them out of the gutter. Before long, the K-cars arrived and for the next decade most of the company's lineup was derived from those roots.
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As we strolled down Woodward Ave. this morning shooting all the the wild and wacky machinery idling along, we spotted a little gray Chevy Cobalt on the opposite side of the street. While everyone is welcome to participate in the Woodward Dream Cruise, this was no ordinary Cobalt. It sprouted an absurdly tall rig from its roof that instantly gave it away as a Google Street View machine. It's not clear if the driver was just enjoying the ride or actually collecting data that will appear in Google Maps soon, so we'll be checking frequently in the coming weeks to see if the Woodward Dream Cruise has gotten the Google treatment.
Last year, organizers for the Woodward Dream Cruise teamed up with Motorcities National Heritage Area to bring the classic car festivities all the way from the southern suburbs in Oakland County to Downtown Detroit. Ironically, it was the first year that the longstanding event officially entered the Motor City itself. Next year, the Dream Cruise will retreat back across 8 Mile and out of Detroit. Why? The economy, of course, as it seems the Detroit-specific programs didn't earn enough money to repay the costs associated with promoting and running them. The good news is that the 2009 edition of the Dream Cruise is still on schedule to run on a hot, humid Woodward weekend in August, and Autoblog will be there to bring you live coverage as always.
