A car buff’s mecca

FERNDALE, Michigan – Flames emanating from a car exhaust can warm the cockles of any gearhead’s heart. Despite this new age of electric vehicles, I’m still a fan of an internal combustion engine’s distinctive sound and classic coolness.

But creating deliberate external combustion? That seems so … dangerously hot.

What can I say? It was.

An unexpected fireworks show lit up the streets of Woodward Avenue on Saturday afternoon, capping off the 27^th Annual Dream Cruise for this classic car buff and about a million others in attendance.

Leaving our primo parking spot on 9 Mile’s Mustang Alley West (thanks, MOCSEM car club!), we knew our day was coming to an end – and it had nothing to do with those thunderstorms.

Driving home north on Woodward just a few cars ahead of us, we spotted a two-door, 1950-something white and blue sedan with actual flames shooting out of the tailpipes. Exciting, loud, scary even.

The words “Sh-Boom” were painted on the side. We howled.

And, of course, Rebecca took a video with her phone.

Sources tell me they used to call cars that did this “farters.” Seriously.

Farters. I can see my nephews (young and old) busting a gut at this notion of actual human farts being this explosive. All I could say was, “Holy crap!”

Technically, a car spitting flames from its backside is a phenomenon known as “afterfire.” Not to be confused with vehicles that backfire due to fuel igniting at the wrong time.

I don’t know much, but I do know that fire requires oxygen. Perfectly timed, that is.

According to carthrottle.com, in a combustion engine, vaporized fuel and oxygen are mixed together and ignited. These contained explosions drive the engine to rotate and get your wheels spinning.

But sometimes not all of that fuel gets burned up. If the fuel travels into the hot exhaust pipes and by chance meets the oxygen outside, it ignites in a burst of fire when it comes out of the tailpipe.

This isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile.

The other night I heard comedian Jay Leno say on local TV that electric vehicles could be the saving grace of classic cars. I’m not sure what he meant by that, but he should know.

A true car guy, Leno’s own personal Big Dog Garage holds 181 vehicles and 160 motorcycles worth more than $52 million. He was in Detroit for the big event and to promote his latest project involving Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV pickup.

“I love the blue-collar, downhome feel of the Dream Cruise,” the former “Tonight Show” host said. “In car culture, this is mecca.”

This is mecca. Yes, it is.

And yes, I checked to see if Leno had owned a Mustang.

Among his 181 vehicles, he has a 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350. Value: $300,000. Give or take.

Honestly, you never know who you’re going to run into at these events:

• WXYZ-TV Ch. 7 weatherman Dave Rexroth riding down 9 Mile wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
• A familiar-looking guy in a hat who remembers that you let him sit in your classic car last year and knows you by name.
• A veteran photojournalist who emails to see if you’re at the Dream Cruise and would like to “make a picture” with Mustang Sal.

Yes, my old photographer friend, Rebecca Cook, tracked us down among those 40,000-plus classic cars along that 16-mile route from Ferndale to Pontiac.

She took plenty of photos and even shot a video of us driving back to her car parked on the street by a church on Woodward, of which there are, like, 27. We found it.

Life can be a dream. Sh-Boom, Sh-Boom.