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…