Gatekeeping has become increasingly common among car enthusiasts, leading some car shows to take an exclusionary approach and only allowing in vehicles of a certain make or condition. But the Woodward Dream Cruise is open to all. So, while many cars driving down the avenue are pristine, garage-kept beauties, the show also attracts all sorts of strange, homemade creations. Some are meticulously crafted one-offs, while others are Frankensteinian projects held together by hopes and dreams. While the McLaren Sennas and immaculate 1970s Dodge Challengers are always cool to see, it's the oddball cars that reveal the true passion of Detroit's gearheads. Here are some of our favorite unusual cars we saw at the 2025 event.
SEE OUR COLLECTION OF THE COOLEST CARS AT THE DREAM CRUISE
This full-size Western Flyer Rocket wagon brought more smiles to faces than any Lamborghini or Ferrari, with its comically large handle mounted on the front, vibrant red paint, and iconic script along the side. We're not sure what powertrain is hiding underneath the custom bodywork, but we bet this thing is fun to drive at any speed, although it probably can't match the breakneck pace Calvin and Hobbes reach in their downhill adventures.
The Sea-Burban is a Woodward Dream Cruise regular, and it's always a joy to see it surfing the heat waves emanating off the old-school muscle cars trundling along the boulevard.
The BMW Isetta is already a funky machine, with its single front-mounted door, as this owner is showing off here. This example expresses the uniqueness even more by its wacky paint job, with a series of flames down its side and a terrifying monster face painted on the front that will haunt our nightmares for the next week.
But it keeps getting crazier, because when this Isetta drives past, you then notice the massive V-8 engine hanging off the rear end. The Isetta obviously didn't originally feature a V-8—they were typically powered by one- or two-cylinder engines—but the mad scientist who owns this example decided to hook up a supercharged 4.6-liter V-8 from a Rover 75, mated with the four-speed transaxle from a Chevy Corvair. With the insane weight distribution brought by that engine placement, this thing must be as scary to drive as that demon face emblazoned on the front.
Sticking with city cars, the Fiat dealership in Birmingham brought out a Topolino, a minuscule EV offered in Europe. It's a rebadged version of the similarly small Citroën Ami and is motivated by a single electric motor producing just eight horsepower. With a 5.5-kWh battery, it has a range of 47 miles, and the Topolino is classified as a quadricycle in many European countries, meaning it can be driven without a license. You can take off the doors, just like a Jeep Wrangler.
This vintage fire truck, which we think is a 1920s American LaFrance, makes an appearance every year at Woodward. It's always neat to see it in motion and think about just how far the automotive world has progressed in 100 years as it drives past the modern emergency vehicles lined up for the event.
Dodge briefly sold a small unibody truck called the Rampage in the 1980s, and this owner repurposed that name for a custom pickup based on a 2006 Charger R/T. The conversion to the ute body style was done by a company called Smyth Performance, which builds pickup truck kits for a variety of vehicles, from the Volkswagen Beetle to the Subaru Impreza. The build quality on this particular example, which also wears a custom front end that emulates the 1969 Dodge Charger, was impressive, and we particularly liked the painted engine cover for the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8.
This 1956 Ford C800 was originally a fire truck, but its current owner repainted it with a patriotic red-white-and-blue scheme and decked it out with a space-age theme, complete with a mini rocket mounted in the bed. The owner, a Vietnam veteran who is a high-school robotics teacher, completely overhauled this cab-over truck over seven years, building many of the parts himself, and we tracked down a video of the owner talking about the build process. One cool detail: The lights on the roof stick out of 30-mm bullets used by attack helicopters.
Woodward also brings out cars that were once normal but now stand out as survivors. This mint-condition Dodge Shadow is a perfect example. The Shadow was a compact sedan that lasted from 1987 to 1994, and while it wouldn't have turned heads in the 1990s, seeing one in this shape in 2025 is truly special.
Think of the Vanderhall Venice as a classier Polaris Slingshot. Both are three-wheeled motorcycles, but instead of the garish, angular styling of the Slingshot, the Venice has smoother, classic lines reminiscent of 1960s sports cars. The Venice is powered by a four-cylinder engine with a six-speed automatic. It served as a nice contrast at Woodward to the Slingshots with aftermarket LED lights and bone-shaking subwoofers.
This Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe has a certain uncanniness, with its familiar Cadillac front and rear ends and unusual two-door body. It was originally a four-door Seville sedan, and a company called Grandeur created coupe conversions for a handful of examples back in the 1980s, creating exaggerated proportions with a mile-long hood and a spare tire sticking out of the side. This one isn't in the greatest condition, but it was still a cool, niche find.
We've featured a couple of Steve Pasteiner's creations on a past Woodward Dream Cruise list, but we hadn't spotted this one until this year. Pasteiner, a former designer for General Motors, opened his own shop to build his own wild vehicles. (He and his family also sell automotive memorabilia out of a well-known storefront on Woodward Avenue.) This off-roader, based on a Jeep Wrangler, looks like it came out of a Halo video game and packs a Hemi V-8.
Woodward is a reminder that there are enthusiasts for basically every car out there, as evidenced by this group of Chrysler Crossfires. The Crossfire is a largely forgotten sports car built in the early 2000s that took advantage of the merger known as DaimlerChrysler to use the platform and many parts from the Mercedes-Benz SLK-class. While Chrysler's two-seater wasn't exactly a hit when it was new, this herd of Crossfires shows there are clearly still plenty of fans, with another dozen Crossfires sitting out of frame.
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