Ever wonder what professional car designers and engineers have tucked away in their home garages? Here’s what the Ford guys in Dearborn bring out for show and shine. 

In the wide world of Ford, PDC is short for Product Development Center, the sprawling campus across Oakwood Boulevard from the Henry Ford Museum and the original Ford Proving Grounds, which once upon a time was Ford Airport. (Click the links for features on these Dearborn institutions.) The PDC, in a nutshell, is the complex where new Fords are conceived and developed.

Anyway, the engineers and assorted technical personnel at the PDC are serious gearheads, just as you would expect, and each year the company hosts an employee car show where they can show off their personal machines. Naturally, the inventory at the show heavily favors Ford products (company loyalty or lunchbox discount?) but there’s a an impressive variety of Brand X vehicles, too. And to round out the display, there are some invitees from outside as well. Ford people have eclectic tastes, it seems. A few MCG favorites from yesterday’s show:

+   Ole Hagen’s  immaculately restored 1930 Chevrolet sedan, which he has owned since 1956 and has been in his family since new.

+   A Honda CB750 cafe racer/street fighter mashup owned by Chris Nichols—this bike looks like a really good time on two wheels.

+   John Teodecki’s beautiful Jaguar XK120 Coupe.

+   Arnold Meissner’s 2007 Saturn Sky with a Mallet LS Chevy V8 conversion.

+  A 1955 Ford phantom Ranchero by Bob Haas—very nicely executed, what a factory job might have looked like had Ford built a passenger-pickup that year.

In looking over the hundreds of cars on display at the PDC show, it’s fascinating to study the machines that inspire and energize career automotive people. Clearly, here are folks who know cars. Gallery below.