I attended the 24th annual British Car Festival over the weekend. This show turned out to be much larger than I expected. British cars are not that common, so I did not expect so many cars. The show took place at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, IL on September 12, 2010. This event, sponsored by the British Car Union, had all of the major manufacturers you would expect. There were many Austins, Triumphs, MGs, Morgans, etc. The full gallery is here.

My favorite car at the show was the red Aston Martin DB9. I love modern Aston Martins, and the red paint really puts this car over the top.

Another car that really stood out to me was this yellow Lotus Espirit. It’s funny that Lotus can get away with such liberaly use of yellow paint. But radical cars like the Elise and conservative ones like the Evora can pull it off.

The funny thing about classic British cars is that they tend to be either really small or really huge. Classic Jaguars and Minis are always crowd-pleasers.

This was a very cool show. It is a nice change of pace because British cars shows are rare. I only left the show early because I was double booked, but I will plan better next year.