BIRMINGHAM, MI – These days, “Woodward Avenue” is best known for Detroit’s massive annual Woodward Dream Cruise, where more than a million people and some 45,000 classic and collectible vehicles converge each August on the famed roadway. Woodward’s historic link to Detroit’s automotive industry plays out in real time each summer, as auto buffs come from around the world to celebrate that time from “back in the day” when engineers and designers from the Big Three hung out after-hours on Woodward to cruise-test their latest offerings during the Muscle Car wars of the late-1960’s. You could say that same kind of Woodward car ritual lives on in spirit even today, as some of Detroit’s automotive inner circle are known to participate at the Pasteiner’s get-together along Woodward each Saturday morning through the fair-weather months.
We’ve covered the Cars & Coffee events at Pasteiner’s Auto Zone Hobbies on Woodward Avenue in Birmingham, Michigan, before just because of the eclectic group of cars seen there every weekend. Steve Pasteiner Jr.’s storefront shop is chock full of car magazines, books, models and all sorts of auto memorabilia, and it often draws 100 or more muscle cars, hot rods, classics and exotics from 8:30-10:30 a.m. on Saturdays – as well as a mix of auto execs and engineers with their latest new rides, gearheads with their just-finished creations, and just about every other kind of car nut in-between.
As summer approaches, it seems more and more cruisers are visiting Pasteiner’s Saturday ritual – and that was exactly the case on a recent gathering witnessed by our own photojournalist correspondent, Bill Cook. Cook lives in nearby Rochester, Michigan, and grew up in a Ford family with his dad working at Ford Division Marketing and Sales. Throughout his own long Ford marketing career, Bill was well-known within the company as an active enthusiast and club member who could always be counted upon to show off photos of the many car shows and events that he attends regularly all across the Midwest. In retirement, it is no different. Because Bill is a frequent visitor to this cool “Cars & Coffee” on Woodward, each month he sends us a collection of photos that he snaps of the Ford-powered rides that he finds parked around Pasteiner’s. Here he offers a look at some of the rides that he spotted during a large turnout in May in the gallery below:
FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY BILL COOK
