BERKLEY, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Woodward Dream Cruise has arrived and it was packed with plenty of cars and car lovers with plenty of stories to be shared.
One weekend every year, one of the most storied roads in America becomes a showcase of classics cars, each representing a chapter in Motor City history with a personal account behind every wheel.
Behind the wheel of a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro is Mike Cutaiar of Northville. But 40 years earlier, he was a passenger with his dad in the front seat.
“This is the first vehicle that I would sit — where your sitting right now — and actually shift for him,” Cutaiar said.
His father Ken bought the car new and drove it every day. Years later instead of selling it, Cutaiar and his dad decided to make it a hot rod.
“We put the car together, then it wasn't fast enough, so we had to put something bigger in it and something bigger in it,” Cutaiar said.
Eventually, Cutaiar moved and life got in the way. The car sat idle for nearly 20 years until last summer. With the help of family and friends, he finished the project in time to give his dad one last ride before he died.
“(It was) awesome, absolutely amazing,” Cutaiar said. “It was a beautiful time.”
Something about cars often leads to father-son connections. Decades ago, Frank Fontaine was at Henry Ford Museum with his dad when he saw an old Buick Riviera, a car his dad knew.
“My dad and my mom wanted to buy one, but they couldn't afford one,” Fontaine said.
Fast forward a few years after his father died, Fontaine was looking for a classic car. He came across this 1964 Buick Riviera. It reminded him of his dad and still does today.
With Cutaiar’s son now the passenger in the Camaro, the father-son connection only grows deeper as generations of cars connect generations of people all with a story to tell.
“When I was out here last year for the first time, I met Jay Leno,” Cutaiar said. “He made the comment that in California, he knows a dozen guys who all own 100 cars and here, it’s hundreds of people who all own one car and every car has a story with it, and that’s my story.”
