It’s Friday! Earlier in the week I made my way out to the season opener of the Tuesday Night Cruise Night in Plainfield, Illinois. After what felt like an endless stretch of gray skies, bitter cold, and snow-covered streets, it was a welcome sight to see the streets closed and filled with chrome, horsepower, and smiling gearheads once again! Winter may have overstayed its welcome, but it’s finally in the rearview mirror and the automotive faithful are back where they belong.

The turnout was very impressive for the first show of the season, with everything from classic muscle cars and vintage cruisers to modern performance machines on display. Owners were polishing fenders, swapping stories, and soaking up a beautiful summer evening while spectators wandered from car to car checking out the automotive eye candy. If opening night is any indication of what’s ahead, it looks like another great summer of cruise nights and car shows!

As always, I snapped a bunch of photos while wandering through the show and put together a gallery featuring some of my favorite rides from the evening. So scroll down and enjoy a healthy dose of automotive goodness, along with the usual Friday lineup of double babes and double jokes. That’s a pretty solid way to kick off the weekend if you ask me!

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It’s Thursday. Who needs expensive carbon fiber when you have common cardboard? Down in Clearwater Beach, Florida, one local cyclist apparently looked at the multi-million-dollar engineering budgets of professional racing teams and thought, “Nah, I got an Amazon box and a dream.” Armed with nothing more than cardboard, duct tape, and an unwavering belief in backyard science, he transformed his bike into what can only be described as a Tour de France prototype designed by a middle school science fair champion. According to the reader who sent in this photo, the guy said the homemade aerodynamic fairings actually work, proving once again that the line between genius and insanity is only about a strip of duct tape wide!

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It’s Wednesday. Black Sabbath and Queen collide in this epic musical mashup from Bill McClintock. Crank up the volume and prepare for a thunderous sonic assault as the pioneers of heavy metal join forces with the kings of arena rock. As if that weren’t enough, the mix also sneaks in riffs, hooks, and vocals from Def Leppard, Dio, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne’s solo catalog, Pat Benatar, and Helix. The result is a gloriously over-the-top chaotic mashup that’s actually pretty good!

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