Classic and custom cars rolled back into Berwyn on Saturday, filling Ogden Avenue with hundreds of vehicles as the city's signature Route 66 Car Show returned after a one-year hiatus. The show, which typically draws more than 30,000 visitors and between 500 and 800 classic, custom, vintage, and specialty vehicles, stretched along the corridor between Oak Park Avenue and Ridgeland Avenue for its 33rd annual edition.
The event's return comes a year after it was called off entirely, a gap explained by a $14 million City of Berwyn infrastructure project that tore up water mains and sewer lines along the Ogden Avenue corridor, according to a statement from the Berwyn Rt. 66 Car Show Commission. The heavy excavation made it unsafe to host large vehicle displays in 2025, forcing organizers to sit out a year that would otherwise have kept the show's annual streak intact. As CBS News Chicago reported Saturday, the show's comeback meant classic and custom cars were once again rolling into town along the historic highway.
This year's show is organized by the Berwyn Development Corporation in partnership with the City of Berwyn, cementing its status as a cornerstone summer event for the suburb. Saturday's gathering also carried extra weight: it's part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the historic road, per CBS News Chicago's report, tying Berwyn's local tradition to a national milestone.
A Double Centennial on Ogden Avenue
U.S. Route 66 received its official numerical designation on April 30, 1926. It was commissioned that November, a milestone that led Congress to pass the Route 66 Centennial Commission Act in 2020 to coordinate 100th-anniversary programming across all eight Route 66 states this year, according to the Route 66 Centennial Commission. Berwyn's celebration doubled down on the anniversary theme by also honoring 100 years of the Pontiac automobile brand, which was founded the same year as the highway, according to Ramble 66.
Within Illinois, the Berwyn show ranks as the second-largest Route 66 car show in the state, trailing only the International Route 66 Mother Road Festival in Springfield in attendance and vehicle volume, per the Berwyn Rt. 66 Car Show's own accounting. That standing has made Ogden Avenue something of a proving ground for the suburb's identity as the primary gateway onto Route 66 as it leaves Chicago.
Roadside Landmarks Along the Route
Car show spectators walking the closed-off stretch of Ogden Avenue pass some of Berwyn's quirkier claims to Route 66 fame. Outside Paisans Pizzeria at 6226 Ogden Avenue stands the Mini Spindle, a 23-foot go-kart sculpture installed in 2022 as a tribute to Dustin Shuler's original 50-foot Spindle sculpture, the car-topped landmark that appeared in the 1992 movie Wayne's World before its 2008 demolition, according to Route 66 News.
Further down the corridor, a 15-foot fiberglass Muffler Man statue perched atop Cigars & Stripes BBQ Lounge holds a cigar, a chicken wing, and a bottle of hot sauce, built with the help of Illinois Route 66 tourism grant funds, per Enjoy Illinois. Both landmarks underscore how local businesses have leaned on Route 66 nostalgia and state tourism dollars to keep Berwyn's stretch of the highway a destination even in years when the car show itself couldn't happen.
Cruise Nites Kept the Momentum Going
To keep community enthusiasm alive during the hiatus, Berwyn officials hosted bi-weekly Cruise Nites in the city's Depot District on the first and third Mondays of the summer, serving as informal warm-up gatherings ahead of Saturday's main event, according to the City of Berwyn. The low-key cruise-ins gave car owners a reason to keep showing up even without the full-scale August show to look forward to last year.
Organizers set this year's day-of vehicle registration fee at $66, a thematic nod to the highway's name, and required registered vehicles to stay parked on Ogden Avenue from 10 a.m. through the 3 p.m. awards ceremony for spectator safety, per the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. The fees, organizers note, help fund local business promotional efforts tied to the show.
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