Escondido Cruisin Grand Cruise

Cruisin' Grand
This Street Scene Is Filled With Rods

Written by Roger Rohrdanz

Every Friday evening along a four-block stretch of Grand Avenue in "Historic Downtown" Escondido, Calif., hundreds of pre-'74 Street Rods and Classic Cars gather. Approximately 400 cars park along the streets and in the parking lots along Grand. Between 5-9 p.m. the cars begin "Cruisin' Grand". D.J.s and live bands keep the '50s and '60s music coming all night, booming from a super sound system that has been placed permanently in the median strip down the middle of Grand.

Additional activities such as music trivia or car trivia contests are announced by the D.J.s, contributing to Cruisin' Grand's reputation as a family event. There are lots of shops to explore along this very attractive stretch of Grand Avenue, especially the restaurants that look . . . and smell . . . great!

The heart of the event is the intersection of Grand and Broadway. The award-winning cars for that evening are staged on Broadway, along with car clubs and special events. On this night (when the police estimated the crowd at 20,000!), the special event was a "Cacklefest". Bill Pitts expertly presented the event, which was simultaneously shown on a 12 x 12 foot screen. Historic film footage was also being shown on the screen. Twelve front-engine Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragsters and two Nostalgia Top Fuel Funny Cars running on nitromethane fired up, two at a time, and drove to a simulated "Starting Line" where they stopped and let their engines "Cackle". Two to three-foot flames were shooting out of the headers, and the nitro in the air made eyes water. The dragsters' cackling sound made people hold their ears. Some of the front-engine Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragsters participating in the event were Magicar, Kuhl & Olson, Bankamericar, Mastercar, Poison Ivy, The Frantic Four, Stellings & Hamshire, Vagabond, Trevor Larkin, The "Chizler", Poachers, and Shubert/Herbert. The Nostalgia Top Fuel Funny Cars were Randy Walls' Super Nova, and John Robert's LA Challenger.

"Cruisin' Grand" is free to the hundreds of cruisers and free to the thousands of spectators! The event is produced by The Downtown Business Association of Escondido (contact Sue Dusharme at (760) 745-8877 or www.downtownescondido.com), and presented by Harrah's Rincon Casino & Resort. Future "Cruisin' Grand" event themes include Nitro Dragster Night, A/FX Race Car Night, Sprint & Midget Car Night, Packard Night, Fire Truck Night, Woody Night, Lakes Racers Night, "Suede" Night, Vintage Indy Car Night and "American Thunder" Night, just to name a few!

Steve Waldron of Top End Tees is the fantastic event organizer-contact him at (760) 746-8461 for future event info. Many other event and award sponsors, and the City of Escondido, make this amazing event one of the best weekly cruises in the country!!

Thanks for the show!

Street Rods were lining up along Escondido's Grand Avenue as early as 1 p.m., all jockeying for a good position.

An 8-71 Blown, 602-inch Chevy Big Block! You'll find this in Ken Fisher's '69 Ford Bronco from Hemet.

This looks like a very cool way to see the show.

There are lots of shops to explore along this very attractive stretch of Grand Avenue, with interesting restaurants that fill the air with attractive scents.	They will let almost anything cruise Grand on Friday night-even this piece of commercial truckin' history!	Poachers (on the far side) and Mastercar cackle together. This is what the fans came to see.
The Mike Kuhl dragster (on the far side) cackles with the Ewald Bros. dragster. It's not only the sight of these dragsters cackling . . . but the sound is awesome!	In this shot, you can see that the Nostalgia Top Fuel Funny Cars are staged and cackling. Randy Walls' Super Nova is nearest to us, and John Robert's LA Challenger is on the far side.	These are the two guys to thank for this very special night: Steve Waldron of Top End Tees (left) is the fantastic event organizer for Escondido, and Bill Pitts expertly presented the Cacklefest.
With 400 cars on Grand, there had to be a '55 Chevy Bel Air-and there was! This nice one belongs to Joss Evarist of Escondido.	This very clean '70 SS 396 Chevelle belongs to Russ Collins from Valley Center.	The Cackle-fest cars were started, then driven from a block away to this area. Here, they would sit and cackle at idle. You can bet this is a BIG deal!