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.

Are "mini pocket rocket" pocket bikes street legal? | Pocket Bikes ...

I’m sure it depends on the state, however I know for a fact they’re illegal for street riding in Colorado. The cops were out here this past summer stopping the kids and escorting them home.

Think about it. The low profile on these things can get you killed easily. People can barely see full sized, multi-light, motorcycles with riders in green neon. There’s no way they’re going to see a pocket bike that, with rider, is probably no higher than 3′.

The super pocket bikes may be street legal if there is turn signals, headlights and other stuff. To make it street legal the headlights have to be a certain height off the ground. And you must wear a helmet and be at least 15 to get a moped liscense. In michigan if you have all that stuff and it under 50cc then it could possibly be street legal. I still would’nt recommend riding on the street because it would be very dangerous because you cant see them very well. I would recommend a moped if anything because there bigger and there a little easier to see.

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