Chicago Auto Show history

People watch as a Dodge Challenger is taken onto a test track at the Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place on Feb. 11, 2017.

(Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

By Robert Duffer

Chicago Tribune

Feb. 7, 2013 9:30 AM PT

HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO AUTO SHOW: The 2018 Chicago Auto Show, the 110th exhibition of the nation’s largest and longest running auto show, features nearly 1,000 vehicles fro 36 automakers covering over 1 million square feet, three massive indoor test tracks and outdoor test drives at McCormick Place. It will be held Feb. 10-19. View our ongoing coverage here>>>

The Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro is introduced during the 2016 Chicago Auto Show Media Preview at McCormick Place on Feb. 11, 2016, in Chicago. Read the overview>>>

(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Ford presents its 2016 GT sports car during the media preview at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place. Attendees voted it the Best All-New Production Car at the show.

(Bob Chwedyk/AP)

Bugatti shows off its $1.5 million Veyron at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show.

(Scott Olson/Getty)

A Wrangler climbs the Jeep Test Track at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show.

(Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

The Toyota FT-CH compact hybrid, at lower left, was featured at one of many displays highlighting new technology at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show.

(Alex Garcia / Chicago Tribune )

Dozens of cyclists pedal past McCormick Place in 2005 to protest the Chicago Auto Show and the fossil-fuel-dependent cars on display.

(Alex Garcia / Chicago Tribune)

There is more to do at the 2002 Chicago Auto Show than look at cars. There’s snacking, as these teens found out.

(Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune)

Robert Duffer

Robert Duffer is a writer, editor and teacher who has been covering cars at the Chicago Tribune since 2013. Though he’s schooled in butterfly valves and cleaning battery nodes with a toothbrush, his most enduring automotive lesson was imparted by his father, who would speed up to nice cars and say “Don’t look. Don’t give the jerk the satisfaction.” Duffer is an award-winning creative writer and essayist whose work has been broadcast on Chicago Public Radio and published in The New York Times and Canadian Builders Quarterly. An adjunct at Columbia College Chicago, where he earned his MFA, Duffer owns a Subaru Forester. His favorite car was his 2002 Honda Odyssey; his daughter’s favorite car was “the truck,” a 2014 Ram EcoDiesel Crew Cab; his son’s favorite car was the “Tes-a-la” Model S. His dad is the jerk driving the ’68 Ford Mustang.