Inside the Detroit Auto Show’s $250 per ticket Exotic Car Showcase

High-end automakers’ participation in auto shows is dwindling as they direct resources to smaller, more targeted marketing events. It’s a sad trend, particularly given how local auto shows are many folks’ opportunities to see the fastest, most opulent, and most extreme cars in the world up close.

Yet dwindling doesn’t equal gone completely. In Detroit this year, a swank, $250-per-ticket annual cocktail soiree called The Gallery, usually held at a hotel just before the North American International Auto Show, moved into the auto-show hall itself and became the show’s official kickoff event. Flush with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Jaguars, Range Rovers, Porsches, Maseratis, and even a Bugatti Chiron, The Gallery remained in place for a few extra days during the Detroit show’s media preview. (A few cars, such as the Acura NSX and the Chevy Corvette ZR1, snuck away to their respective manufacturers’ show displays.) Only a few of the cars stuck around for public days, so we snapped photos of the collection for you to enjoy before they disappeared.