The 2023 edition of the British Invasion Car Show at the Festival of Whales in Dana Point was held on March 5th.

We had a good turnout of 25 cars, including Austin Healeys, Sprites, Triumphs, Jaguars, MGs, Jensen Healeys, a Morgan and a Mini. A few other cars were unable to come. The day was cool and mostly sunny, with slight mid-day showers. A few members of the group also met for dinner at the Dana West Yacht club on Saturday evening.

We arrived at the Dana Point Harbor and parked the cars on the grassy median overlooking the harbor about 9AM.

Many of the exhibitors took advantage of coffee & pastry’s at local food booths/businesses. Spectators strolling on the harbor walkway were able to view the classic cars and take photos and ask questions. Some of the group went over to the Yacht Club for lunch and others took advantage of the  food booths at the event. The car show broke up about 2-3 PM.

Attending were Phil Caliva & Nancy Wolf, John Hummer & Alice Johnson, Tony & Debbie Trentacost, Peter & Alexandra Roses, Rich & Lou Heimann, Mike Biss & Anna Johansson, Tom & Paige Rubinante, Greg Aden, George McHarris, Bob Bolling, Steve Heck, Chuck Lakowski and Mike & Kathy Scroggie.

British Invasion @ Festival of Whales by Mike Scroggie 

Sidebar to Festival of the Whales

This is a very interesting story. As six of our Austin Healey gang were driving south down PCH to Dana Point Harbor for the British Car show and just as we passed the So.

Laguna Hospital, we noticed a huge stream of water running across PCH from the hill side. We slowed down as fast as we could and tip-toed across the stream, but a few feet ahead the water was full of mud! a different stream was running there.

We almost made it across with little mud-splash on our cars and then an SUV came up from behind us and passed two of our cars that were at the rear of the pack when the a****le driver of this SUV accelerated to about 35 MPH through the muck and doused a couple of the leading top- down sports cars with a complete  water and mud bath. Talk about a piece of S**T person to purposely make such a move.

We encountered rain both ways and this mud bath. Some of our group spent the entirety of the event cleaning mud from their cars.

Phil Caliva