“Race day” for many hot rodders is the local street cruise, where proud owners get a chance to show off the time and energy spent on their pride-and-joy vehicles. All across the country, car guys and gals gather on warm weekends to cruise, share stories and enjoy the experience.

 

Michael Mason had the idea to start a cruise for hot rods and vintage cars in Golden, Colo., back in 2004. He says there were two reasons behind it.

 

One was that many people who are now in their 50s and 60s like to remember when they were young, cruising around in their cars—and a summer cruise night definitely brings back those memories. The second reason was to help attract a few extra customers to local businesses.

 

Mason, who owns a yellow 1929 Highboy, told a few people about his idea, who told a few of their friends and that Saturday evening about 60 cars showed up to cruise around town, hang out and trade stories. They parked at the Sonic Drive-In, the McDonald’s and the KFC and had a great time.

 

“I thought if it ever got up to 100, I’d be overjoyed,” Mason says.

 

Imagine Mason’s joy index when more than 2,000 cars showed up to cruise through town last August.

 

You Can Hear the Cars

 

Other cruises dwarf the Golden Super Cruise. There’s Hot August Nights in Reno, the Blue Suede Cruise (actually two Blue Suede Cruises: one in Tupelo, Miss., and one in Norwalk, Ohio, but not affiliated with each other) and the most famous, Michigan’s Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise that’s 16 miles long, attracts 40,000 cars and 1.5 million visitors.

 

Golden is not geographically laid out to hold 40,000 cars or 1.5 million visitors, so this cruise is self-limited. Still, it’s the largest event of its kind along the Front Range of the Rockies.

 

And, it’s been growing steadily. Mason believes that at this point, fewer than a thousand cars participating would be unusual. The cruise is held the first Saturday of the month, May through October.

 

Another difference from those mega-cruises is that the Golden Super Cruise doesn’t accept sponsors, there are no registration fees and there are no tickets needed to get in.

 

But that doesn’t mean it’s completely free. Mason has found ways to raise a few dollars here and there, including a fundraising cruise called “Roddin’ the Rockies,” which has helped offset some of the costs of hiring a DJ, and placing trash cans and recycling bins and a few signs around town during the cruise.

 

But Mason insists it’s not about the cruise making money. It’s about celebrating hot rod culture, helping the business people in town and having a good time doing it. And, since it happens on city streets, anyone can participate.

 

And everyone does participate, including yours truly, driving our 1964 Dodge Dart with its original rust and beat-up seats. (How to let Mother Nature build a Rat Rod: just wait 45 years!) Aside from a few people who pointed at us and laughed, everyone seemed to relate to it and how proud we were of our first car when we were 16, even with bumpers and mirrors half falling off.

 

“Our philosophy about old beater cars is hey, if we don’t have to push you out of the way because it won’t run, it’s good enough. Just bring it,” Mason says.

 

Joe Azhderian, who owns Weld County Custom, a hot rod shop in nearby Wheat Ridge, has been to every cruise since the beginning. He says when he heard about the first one, he and some friends were looking for a cool place to hang out and talk to other car people.

 

“It’s unlike a car show,” says Azhderian. “You can hear the cars, you can cruise around, see the people—and you don’t have to pay to have your car there.”

 

Mason makes a point of saying, “This is the cruisers’ cruise, not my cruise. Some people think they have to have a hot rod in order to participate in the cruise. But some of our most loyal participants are a soccer mom and a van full of kids who just love the cruise. It’s for anyone who loves to ride. We have some nostalgic bicycles, motorcycles, military vehicles—anything you can imagine.”

 

City Streets

 

There are definite logistical challenges to staging an event like this. Since it happens on city streets as well as on private property, a large degree of cooperation is necessary.

 

Mason says in addition to the concerns business people and citizens have, the City of Golden has its own list of issues.

 

“The politics of it has to do with listening to the city and what they need and what they will allow and not making them uncomfortable—not poking them in the eye,” says Mason. “The police are walking a fine line. They get complaints from people who moved downtown and object to the noise. City Council gets a letter or two. But most just want to be assured that people who come to the cruise are sensitive to the people who live here. What we hear back from the police is that they take it seriously, but nothing of real consequence has happened. There were two minor citations in six years. They enforce the law, and we really don’t have people who come out here and go nuts. All in all, it’s a very respectful group.”

 

Ron Wright owns Daredevil Apparel in nearby Denver and is also an enthusiastic supporter of the cruise. He sets up a booth in the Pizza Hut parking lot and sells a few hot rod rockabilly-style vintage clothing items, including the “official” Golden Super Cruise T-shirts.

 

A lot of Wright’s involvement with the cruise is voluntary.

 

“I just promote it at my shop,” he says, “trying to help the cause. It’s a good show. So many people show up. Nobody pays anything; it’s all word of mouth, like an old-school cruise.”

 

Business Interests

 

With all the talk of volunteering and community and this being all about having a good time and being good for the drive-ins, is the cruise beneficial to local engine builders, speed shops and other performance outlets?

 

Azhderian believes so. Besides getting a lot of different ideas and seeing everything from Volkswagens to Lamborghinis, it’s a way to get in front of potential new customers as well as connect with old customers and friends.

 

“People like to see my car and truck go up and down the road,” he says. “I get a lot of business from Golden Super Cruise—from owners of cars who want work done. They see my car or my truck perform and they’re like, ‘I need you to do some stuff to mine.’”

 

And while some, like Azhderian, have been at every cruise since the beginning, other shop owners have just recently discovered it. Dave Crouse, for example, owns Custom Auto, a hot rod shop 60 miles up the road in Loveland, Colo.

 

He came down for the last cruise of 2009 in October, ostensibly to road test a customer’s ’32 five-window. It was the first Golden Super Cruise he’d been to. “We were down there more or less having a good time,” Crouse says.

 

To car guys like Crouse, the cruise represents a combination of things—but it’s a social event first and foremost.

 

“In order for my business to be successful, I need to be out there socially in these car events,” he says. “But also, I get to see what’s going on, see the latest trends. Then you get to see old friends and the old cars you sometimes haven’t seen for a while. You never know who you’re going to bump into when you’re down there. It may turn into a job and it may not, but when you’re having fun, what the heck?”

 

Will Crouse go again?

 

“Absolutely. I’m waiting for it to happen.”