One of America’s top classic car shows, the EyesOn Design Automotive Design Exhibition is a Motor City institution. Here’s our report on this year’s event with a big photo gallery.

Back in 1987, one of America’s great collector car events got its start when a handful of volunteers decided to throw a modest little charity car show in the parking lot of the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology. Soon, the Motor City’s community of automotive designers threw their broad shoulders and big hearts behind the project, and the show known as EyesOn Design rapidly became a Detroit institution.

Now hosted each year at the beautiful Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, the show is known around the world for its special emphasis on automotive design. And of course, all of it benefits the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology.

Due in part, no doubt, to its special relationship with the Detroit styling community, EyesOn Design always draws a great selection of factory show cars and concepts, and 2018 was exceptionally strong in that department. Here are a few of the factory specials that came out of their velvet boxes for this year’s show:

+   Courtesy of General Motors, the Corvette Mako Shark and Manta Ray prototypes, fraternal twins in their matching blue fadeaway paint jobs.

+   From the Chrysler historical collection, a staggering display of concepts that included the flamboyant 1954 Chrysler La Comtesse, the Bugatti-esque 1995 Atlantic, and the 2001 Crossfire concept.

+   In a special exhibition titled Jet Age Inspiration, a unique group featuring, among others, the GM Firebird 1 and Firebird 2, a Chrysler Turbine Ghia (one of nine still in existence) and the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone.

And naturally, the show also featured the usual variety of fresh, intriguing vehicle  categories with names like “Classic Era Designs,” “Cross Country Travelling,” and “Traditional Customs.” From the hundreds of cars on display, here’s a small sample. Click on any image to launch a slide show.