The Flemington, NJ, cruise night was previously held on Main St. in downtown Flemington on alternating Saturdays. I last attended this event in 2023, and a few things have changed since then. First, the show has been relocated to Stangl Road, a supposedly quieter street for local traffic (more about that below). The second change is that it’s now held only once a month. What has not changed is the selection of a different “featured class or brand” for each cruise night. On Saturday, June 13, import vehicles were featured, and I made a late-day decision to hop into the Alfa Romeo and drive over (it’s only fifteen minutes away).
The cruise night was advertised as running from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and I planned my arrival to coincide with the start time. I was taken aback with how crowded the show was at 5 p.m. As I slowly motored down Stangl Road, I was directed to the “featured cars lot,” where I managed to secure the final available parking spot. Backing in between a Triumph TR-6 and a tricked-out Hyundai Veloster, I correctly surmised that the evening’s “import cars” would include a wide variety of automobiles.
No sooner had I exited my Alfa when two fellow NJ-AACA members, John P. and Jerry P. (no relation) sauntered over. John had his beautiful ’57 Chevy Bel Air parked down the street, and Jerry placed his ’64 Pontiac Bonneville next to John’s Chevy. The three of us proceeded to amble along Stangl Road together, admiring the machinery, when we ran into Dave, another NJ-AACA member (who didn’t have a car there). It was a nice mini reunion, with lots to talk about, surrounded as we were by classic cars.
Stangl Road is lined with restaurants and retail stores, which brings its own share of traffic, but you would not refer to it as a primary thoroughfare, the way you would Main St., the cruise nights’ previous location. During my visit, Stangl Road was so crowded with pedestrians that many of us (wrongly) presumed that the road was closed to through traffic. It was not. Most drivers had the courtesy to keep their speeds low, but several wise guys wanted to show off their muscle cars. The worst offender of the night was the driver of a FedEx truck, which was attempting to speed through the area until traffic slowed him down. At that point, Jerry, a Navy veteran, leaned into the truck and gave the driver an earful, scolding him for his carelessness while there were children in the road.
I eventually made my way back to my Alfa, where several spectators engaged me in conversation about my car. The cruise night is run by Fred Beans, a large multi-franchise series of dealers throughout NJ and PA, and around 7:30, they announced that if your windshield placard was missing from your car, that meant you won a trophy. Mine was missing, and a short while later, I was presented with my trophy! What was confusing, though, is that about one-quarter of the import cars won trophies, and no explanation was forthcoming regarding how or why certain cars were chosen. Oh well, it was an honor to win. Once that part of the evening was concluded, I headed home. The Flemington Cruise Night offers a very large number of vehicles, covering the spectrum of collectability: old, new, and everything in between. It was crowded, noisy (there were TWO live rock bands playing all evening), and I’ve concluded that I prefer Somerville’s cruise night. Still, I might pay Flemington another visit (without the Alfa) later this summer.
The local Jaguar Club arrived and parked together. Below is a sample of what they had on display.
Entire blog post content copyright © 2026 Richard A. Reina. Text and photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.
