Happy Father's Day It's Time For EYES ON DESIGN 2011

EYES ON DESIGN 2011

Spending Father’s Day With Collector Cars
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Detroit Bureau

Ahhhh, Father’s Day, what a great time for a car show!

A Father’s Day tradition for me over the past 22 years or so has been the fascinating EyesOn Design car show on the beautiful, expansive lawns of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, Jefferson Avenue near 9-Mile Road in Grosse Pointe Shores on the northeast edge of Detroit. EyesOn Design is unique as car shows go in that we see a greater variety of interesting vehicles – not all cars necessarily – than we see at any other show.

EyesOn Design was the first show to feature motorcycles, bicycles, pedal cars, race cars, hot rods, rat rods . . . on and on. You see, the show celebrates the elements of “ vehicular design,” so we may see anything there. That’s why I like this show.

We’re always surprised by the variety of vehicles we’ll find on display at this show. It is, after all, about design, not restoration, rarity or value. We often see unrestored vehicles and odd balls along with the more pristine and recognizable automobiles and other vehicles.

The theme for the 2011 EyesOn Design is “Design for the Future.” Among the featured categories this year are:

Independent’s Day: Beyond the Big Three, offering an up-close retrospective of the innovative design of such major independent manufacturers as Studebaker, Packard, Hudson, Nash and others.

The Forward Look: Changing the Game, which highlights the longer, lower, wider designs debuted by Chrysler in 1957, which caused some manufacturers to scrap their upcoming designs and start over.

Extreme Makeovers: Leaping into the Future, which showcases the automotive designs that went beyond evolutionary styling changes and stepped boldly into the future with a total design makeover.

Stock to Rock returns this year as EyesOn Design’s unique and crowd-pleasing category showing stock versions of a variety of cars right next to their modified and customized cousins.

With over 200 cars on display you’ll also see the classics like Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg along with a bunch of other special vehicles, like:

-A 1928 Murray-bodied Ford sedan fresh from years of storage in a barn, displayed next to a 1928 Ford hot rod for comparison.

-A 1934 Ford Custom known as the “Robert Roeder Custom,” built in 1948 by a metal fabricator in Pennsylvania.

-Three - count them, three - special hand-built Continental (don’t call them Lincoln Continentals) Mark IIs once owned by brothers Benson, William Clay and Henry Ford II.

-A one-of-a-kind 1962 Chevrolet Corvette convertible created as a styling exercise by General Motors

-A national award-winning 1967 Pontiac GTO, Tri-Power four-speed in gleaming Tiger Gold paint.

-A 1969 Shelby “Boss 302” Mustang – one of several Boss Mustangs featured.

-A much-modified 1974 Austin Mini with a large Honda engine, one of many “pocket rockets” on display in the Tuner category.

-The “Black Beauty,” a custom Chrysler Imperial-based car driven by martial arts icon, Bruce Lee, in the 1960s “Green Hornet” TV show, built by legendary customizer Dean Jefferies.

This year’s featured designer is Walter de’Silva, head of Volkswagon design group. As part of the weekend’s events Mr. de’Silva will receive the Lifetime Design Achievement Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the automotive design field.

Also unique about the EyesOn Design show is the charity recipient – the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology. Dr. Philip Hessburg, founder and boss at the DIO, is an “eye guy” who got together with a bunch of “car guys” to create the show nearly a quarter century ago. It has grown and developed into a premier show that supports research and services to help the visually impaired. In fact, a team of visually impaired folks wearing white gloves judges one of the featured classes each year.

Honorary chairman for the 2011 EyesOn Design show is Ken Lingerfelter, builder and purveyor of racing, customizing and performance parts, builder of specialty automobiles and serious collector of exotics, Corvettes and muscle cars. In fact, the famous Lingenfelter Collection of about 150 of these wonderful cars, housed in nearby Brighton, Michigan, will be open to the public 9 AM - 4 PM as part of the show weekend.

The show opens to the public at 10 a.m. on Father’s Day and runs until 4 p.m. Admission in just $20 with children under 12 and active military folks free. What a deal.

Lots of other activities are part of EyesOn Design. For all the details go to www.eyesondesigncarshow.com or call the DIO at 313-824-4710.

If you’re in the area I’ll hope to see you there.

If not, sorry, you’ll be missing one of the best shows of the year. (But you will be able to read all about it right here on The Auto Channel next week.)