Around 135 cars were on display during Smokey Hollow Estates fifth annual Car Show on Saturday, June 20, 2026.
Well over 100 residents and out-of-town visitors took the opportunity to check out the different vintage, antique, classic and newer model entries into this year’s show including a 1956 Ford F100, a 1971 AMC Matador, a 1970 Chevelle SS 454, a 1959 Cadillac Sedan Deville and a 1960 Studebaker. There were even a few military-style vehicles like the 1985 Bombardier Iltis.
Given that the show is charity driven, the planning committee chooses a local non-profit to support each year, and the 2026 charity of choice was Nova Vita Brant. The show also helped build awareness about the Smokey Hollow Estates community itself.
During the event, guests entered to win one or more of 45 different prizes, grabbed a bite to eat or supported one of 11 vendors on site.
As visitors perused the lot, many stopped to chat with vehicle owners about the different paint jobs, custom work, upholstery, engines and wheels, while others swapped stories about their own cars, how they acquired them and memories from their youth.
“You could talk to anyone here and they’ll be able to tell you about how a particular car is significant to them,” said Phil Aitken, chair of the car show committee. “You’ll get people saying things like, ‘hey this was my dad’s car’ or ‘my grandfather had one of these when I was a kid.’ There’s all sorts of stories like that at an event like this.”
Noting that the event was self-judged, awards were later given out in a variety of different categories.
“We let the car owners do the judging because, who better to judge than the car people themselves?” said Aitken. “We have six prizes for Best Ford, Best GM, Best Mopar, Best Import, Best Truck and Best Overall. What we’ll do is, pick the best of all those five categories and then we’ll go around and pick the best in show.”
When asked why he thought people enjoyed auto shows so much, Aitken said it was all part of car culture, and that there’s something special about seeing a classic car.
“Cars today, they all look like Jelly Beans on wheels, so to have a car with chrome headlights and all these neat details, it’s just so un-today and that’s appealing,” he said. “For example, there’s a Bricklin here today, at the time it was probably one of the worst cars ever made, but now it’s cool now because of the way it looks. There’s another guy with an old 1959 Cadillac and you just don’t see cars like that today. It’s just a great way to spend the day.”
Overall, Aitken said it was nice to welcome everyone back to the show, and was happy with the turnout.
“Some of the people here have come out to all of our shows so they’ve kind of become part of the family, but there are others here too that have never been here,” he said. “The parking lot is just full of people coming to visit, they walk around, look at all the cars you don’t see anymore, and hopefully they’ll buy a hamburger and a can of Coke, and just enjoy themselves.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
