Words by Matt Willis

Every Friday evening throughout the summer, Grand Avenue in central Escondido becomes a street-side car show called Cruisin’ Grand. What evolved from a small gathering of hot rod enthusiasts in the 70’s has now grown into a core part of the community of Escondido. Local residents as well as people from all over San Diego come to see the vintage, classic, and muscle cars; in addition to the custom hot rod builds.

Tim and I hadn’t attended since last year, so we decided to check things out for the first time in 2013…

Striking black Bel-Air…

Bikers pass through Grand Avenue to check out the cars and get in a nice evening cruise…

Beautiful red Mustang fastback…

Triumph TR2 roadster…

Dodge Challenger…

Duck, duck, duck…goose!

Nice Mustang in one of my favorite color/stripe combinations…

Clean and simple Ford street rod…

Old Cadillac coupe…

Historical vehicles also show up on Grand from time to time, like this 70s-era Jeep.

Chartreuse Cuda…

Pristine Corvette Stingray. I’m not personally a fan of this body style (I prefer the C3), but this one was just so well done…

Seen this Mach 1 rolling around North SD a few times. It was great to see up close.

Mid-50’s era Ford Thunderbird…

Beautiful candy-apple red 427 Cobra…

Late model cars also make themselves known, like this Lamborghini Murcielago.

Mercedes SLS AMG and Nissan GTR…

We left a little on the early side, but it was great to see all the activity and enthusiasm from owners and spectators. As it’s practically in my own backyard, I hope to pay a few more visits before the end of the season…

Thanks for reading!