Cruise Nights Bring Hundreds of Classic Cars to Palatine Every Friday

Friday nights at the parking lot of the old Menard’s on Rand Road have taken on a festival atmosphere. Smiling families walk between the rows of attractions. Others snap pictures with expensive cameras. The attractions aren’t rides or carnival games. They are cars.

Lots of cars.

Palatine Cruise Night began at the old Menard’s parking lot, 1775 N. Rand Road, on May 6 and it will run Fridays through Oct. 14.

Organized by Glenview-based Black Dog Promotions, the cruise nights officially start at 6 p.m., but the lot begins to fill up at 5 p.m. By 7 p.m. on a recent Friday night the lot, which has 284 parking spaces, was more than three-quarters full.

Classic American muscle cars dominated the scene, but the cruise night drew a wide variety, so that an Austin-Healey or Fiat convertible could be found next to a Mustang or a Nash Rambler. Certain makes, like Corvettes, Camaros and jet black Buick Grand Nationals, were parked in clusters of four or more. Most vehicles had their hoods up so that passersby could check out the engines.

“I don’t know where all the cars come from – out of the woodwork or where – because you don’t usually see them on the road,” said Murray DeLamoreaux of Hoffman Estates. DeLamoreaux came in his 1962 Corvette, which he parked next to his friend Carl Hughes’ ice-blue 1976 ’Vette.

“This is nice,” said Hughes, of Long Lake, as he looked at the hundreds of cars filling the lot. “You meet a lot of nice people.”

For the last 10 years DeLamoreaux and Murray participated in cruise nights in Rolling Meadows. Last summer the Rolling Meadow Cruisers Car Club lost its home, a shopping center parking lot on Kirchoff Road, when the shopping center went into foreclosure.

Members of the Rolling Meadows Cruisers were customers at the Palatine , 1765 N. Rand Road, located across the street from the old Menard’s property. When Culver’s owner Zach Steffens heard their story, he suggested they make the Menard’s lot their new home and steered the group toward the Palatine Village Council. The village owns the former Menard’s property, which is also home to on Saturdays and Sundays. The village council voted in March to approve the cruise nights.

“I basically brought the two together, the village and the old Rolling Meadows Cruisers,” Steffens said.

“Zach did a lot of the leg work,” said event co-organizer Phil Krenz of Black Dog Promotions. Krenz has organized car shows and cruise nights for 12 years. Through the summer, Black Dog Promotions puts on cruise events every weeknight in the northwest suburbs. “This is by far the biggest one,” he said. “We’ve got a nice location here.”

The cruisers who bring their cars to the events see it as a social gathering as well as a chance to show off their cars, Krenz said. “It’s a family,” he said. “Everyone has the same interests.”

Car owners and their friends sat around their cars in camp chairs, trading tips on restoring classic vehicles. “You can pick up ideas from other people,” said Rod Newberry of Hoffman Estates, who brought his restored 1972 Camaro. "It saves a lot of trial and error."

Bob Streicher of Palatine, who used to work in District 15’s school bus maintenance garage, is currently restoring a 1939 Oldsmobile 70 series business coupe. “The guy with the Cadillac over there gave a great idea for my Olds,” Streicher said. “That’s why we come here.”

While cruise nights tend to emphasize classic American cars, Krenz said almost any vehicle with a collectible value is allowed. Late model Corvettes and Mustangs sit next to their forebears from the 1960s. The only cars not permitted, Krenz said, are “tuners” – souped-up compacts with front-wheel drive.

Even without tuners, the recent Palatine Cruise Night attracted a colorful array of automotive history. By far the most unique vehicle, and one that attracted many incredulous looks, was Streicher’s Cherry III, a bright red three-wheeler with a 1932 Ford pickup in the back, a Harley-Davidson in the front and the drive train from a 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado uniting them.

Streicher spent nine years constructing the vehicle, which has a handlebar instead of a steering wheel, and he has driven it to South Dakota several times. He used to exhibit Cherry III at the Rolling Meadow cruise nights four or five times a summer, but this was the first time he brought the three-wheeler to Palatine.

“I don’t enter it in car shows, so I don’t get trophies,” Streicher said. “My biggest trophy is the guy coming up to me and saying, ‘Man, this is cool.’”

The cars drew dozens of spectators that night, all listening to the oldies Krenz played from his trailer at the edge of the parking lot. Teenage couples and middle-age couples passed on their way to admire cars of their own era. Families with happy children and frisky dogs walked through the rows of vehicles. A father pointed out his dream car to his son, who promptly took a picture of it with his cell phone.

“It’s good fun,” Krenz said.

Admission to Palatine Cruise Night is free. Cruise nights go from 6 to 9 p.m., and won’t take place if the weather is bad.

Correction: This story has been corrected. The original version of this story stated that spectators could park at Knupper Nursery. That is incorrect. Parking for this event is not allowed at Knupper Nursery.