LAKE ORION, Mich. – Car-loving people like to spend their summers seeking out every cruise-in, meet-up, club gathering and car show they can find, making up just about any excuse they can for the need to take our prized vehicles out for a drive and show them off. While fast-food restaurants all across the country are popular venues for cruise-ins, one such event we know of in Southeastern Michigan has evolved into a pretty big deal. It’s the weekly Tuesday night show that suburban Detroiters always try to catch – the Cruise-In at Culver’s restaurant in Lake Orion, Michigan.

Starting in the last week of April, the weekly Culver’s cruise-in runs until the temperatures begin to drop in mid-October. Show-goers will typically start arriving around 4 p.m. and the cars don’t start rolling out until 8 p.m. The restaurant provides plenty of parking space for the up to 300 cars that attend each week, and often includes an on-site DJ, a 50/50 raffle, and weekly prizes, including (of course) Culver’s gift cards. Since this has become a regular cruise-in activity for our roving Ford retiree-turned-enthusiast photographer Bill Cook, he again has treated us to a taste of some of the Mustangs and Fords that he spotted at two recent cruise-ins that he attended with his gallery below:

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY BILL COOK