Check out some real beauties at Oakbrook Center's Father's Day car show

By age 5, Bob Joynt of Batavia had found true love.

She had voluptuous curves and platinum highlights.

And to top it all off, she was a Lincoln.

A Continental to be precise.

“I remember walking to kindergarten and seeing a 1941 Lincoln Continental parked on the street,” Joynt said. “I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.”

The early encounter began a lifelong passion that Joynt once again will share today with thousands at Oakbrook Center's annual Father's Day Classic Car Show.

Joynt, a retired banker and attorney for First National Bank in Chicago, owns six classic cars and has been participating in the Oak Brook event since 1970.

The 2011 Father's Day car show, open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Oakbrook Center shopping mall, will feature more than 100 classic and antique automobiles owned by members of the Greater Illinois Region of the Classic Car Club of America.

“I think the only (other) car show at the time was one in Palm Springs,” Oakbrook Center's Senior Marketing Manager Suzanne Beres said of the show's 1968 beginnings.

After 43 years, the event has gained immense popularity and organizers expect between 70,000 and 80,000 people for the one-day showing, Beres said.

Though for collectors like Joynt, who prefers the older cars (he refers to them as “dinosaurs that died out when World War II came along”), events like this one are about more than showing off their antique wheels.

The friendships fostered through these types of events are a reason to return each year.

“This is like any other hobby when you get really involved with it,” Joynt said. “You have a lot of friendships develop and it becomes more of a people-oriented hobby because of a car-oriented one.”

The same sense of community holds true for individuals attending the Oakbrook Classic Car Show, Beres said.

“I think the beauty of the show and the time that it takes place, on Father's Day, is that generations come to see the show,” Beres said. “It's just so delightful and so refreshing to have grandfathers not only with their children but also with their grandchildren.”

This year Joynt plans to bring his oldest, a 1920 Locomobile, to showcase on Father's Day.

“People are always interested in seeing these and learning about them,” Joynt said of his classic cars. “It's a chance to educate them, if you will, about earlier cars.”

For most, cars like those Joynt and other club members display are relics rarely seen in the world of modern automobiles.

“Particularly in the earlier cars, the styling was classic with a capital C,” Joynt said.

According to Joynt, new cars are not made with the same workmanship and durability.

True to form, Joynt still owns his first car, a 1932 Packard Phaeton that he purchased 53 years ago at age 16 with money from his paper route.

“I can't seem to wear the car out,” Joynt said.

For an afternoon, car enthusiasts from all over the Chicago area are invited to peruse automotive history provided by exhibitors like Joynt.

And who knows? Maybe there will be a few more cases of love at first sight.

If you go

What: 43rd annual Father's Day Classic Car Show

Where: Oakbrook Center mall, 100 Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook

When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today

Cost: Free

Info: oakbrookcenter.com/events