Car lovers soak up Mustang Memories at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan

Dearborn, MI -- 08/21/2016 -- The day after the Woodward Dream Cruise ended, 853 Mustangs and Fords congregated in the north parking lot of the Ford World Headquarters for Mustang Memories 2016.

The event, which attracted car enthusiasts from more than a dozen states and Canada, set records for most Mustang II’s in one place, with 82 during the Mustang II’s reunion, as well as most red Mustangs in one place — 153.

According to Mike Rey, president of the Mustang Owners Club of Southeastern Michigan, it is the second largest event of its kind in the country, and the largest in the Midwest.

“If you’re a Ford guy, this is the show; we are the largest all-Ford show in the Midwest,” Rey said. “We’re spoiled, we’re here in Michigan, we’re all Ford branded and we’re in Dearborn.”

MOCSEM, which hosts the event, has more than 800 members and is one of the largest regional owner’s clubs in the world.

In addition to hosting the first Mustang II national reunion, the event also had special gatherings and awards for “Terminator,” “Roush,” and “Cobra” Mustangs as well as a “Color War” between the Yellow and Red Mustang Registries.

Although the event isn’t directly associated with the Woodward Dream Cruise, a number of the car enthusiasts who drove to the event also went cruising and visited Mustang Alley at Nine Mile and Woodward.

“We had a great time,” said Carol Edwards, a member of the Red Mustang Registry from Maryland. “There’s a lot of us who have decided to come down here for the whole week (of Dream Cruise events) next year.”

Rey said that the event didn’t used to coincide with Dream Cruise weekend, but changed its date at the request of Ford.

“We used to be the week before the Dream Cruise until 2014,” Rey said. “Ford asked us to see if we could make one big and better event for the weekend, so they asked us to move our weekend to the date after, which we happily did.”

Jason Sallada, vice president of the Red Mustang Registry, drove to the event from Pennsylvania.

“Every year, the RMR does one big event,” he said.

MOCSEM donated $850 in proceeds to the Fallen and Wounded Soldiers Fund, an organization that provides aid to Michigan veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and provided a $1,000 college scholarship to one of their younger members.

reprinted from The Detroit News