NORTHVILLE, Mich. – We’re sure that enthusiasts in cold-weather climes have pretty much had their fill of winter by now and can’t wait until the sun begins to shine on the upcoming car show season. So we thought getting a taste of a colorful Cars & Coffee event from late last summer might be just the tonic to help you get through the wait until cruise-ins begin to reappear in the spring. Turns out that our top car show photojournalist, Ford-retiree-turned-roving-photographer Bill Cook, had just the kind of photo gallery we were looking for to help lift your automotive spirits.

Cook lives only a few miles from the Detroit suburb of Northville, Michigan, which hosts some popular cruise-in venues in this historic little city’s downtown area. As we’ve reported before, one of them is located at the ZF North America complex in nearby Northville Township, and is known as the “E.C.C. Cars and Coffee.” ECC stands for Exotic Car Connections, the LLC that organizes the bigger monthly events. So Cook headed over to the EEC Cars & Coffee on a nice early September morning for us and filed this report:

“On this particular Saturday, I had four different car events in the area on my calendar. I waited until 7 o’clock that morning to make my decision. I decided on the ECC Cars & Coffee in Northville, which happen monthly in the ZF North America parking lots. I was really in the mood to see a variety of muscle cars, classics, hot rods, exotics, JDMs (Japanese Domestic Market) – and anything with motors and tires. It was a beautiful day. I arrived at 9 a.m. and stayed until 11:30. Good times! Take a look.”

We chose our favorite Fords for you to check out in Bill’s gallery below. Enjoy!

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY BILL COOK