The Chicago Auto Show just wrapped up early this month. It was as busy as usual, but it was missing some cars I really wanted to see. The Mini Crossman, VW NMS, and Infiniti Essence are examples of cars I wanted to see, but none of them made it to Chicago. There were still lots of nice cars, but only a few concept cars that were exciting. You can see all of my pictures from the show here.

The Fisker Sunset was probably my favorite, not that the Karma was bad or anything. This hybrid sports car has amazing presence, a competitive price, and car run on only electricity.

It was nice to see the Evora in person, but it not as radical as the other Lotus cars on sale today. The Evora was built as a more grown up and practical car, so it has more conservative styling.

I really liked the looks of the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept. The only let-down was the FWD-based configuration. This large Caddy is a great looking plug-in hybrid. It would be a great car, but a risky move on GM's part.

The Mercedes SLS AMG was a disappointment as far as looks. It is such a goofy looking car. The lines just look all wrong on this car.

These are some other ones I thought were pretty cool.

I have a tendency to get lazy at the end of the season, but I need to make a post about 2009's Treffen show. (Midwest) Treffen is an annual summer meet-up of Volkswagen and Audi owners and enthusiasts put on by the Chicago Volkswagen Organization. All of my pics can be found here, but these are some of my favorites.

Better late than never.

DUB Show and Concert is well known for outrageous cars and performances, but this year's show still surprised me. There were a lot of cars that you might not expect at this type of show. You can see all of the pictures I took here.

The trucks are well known for stealing to spotlight. The Chevy S-10 with the flaming skull was probably the coolest one of the show. The SUVs with vertical doors looked wacky, but they did draw a lot of attention.

The DUB show is really about big American cars on big rims and two of my favorite were the Caddy Deville and Impala below. These big, domestic, convertibles have presence on the road and really let you show off by putting your top down.

The 2009 DUB Show had more high-priced exotic cars than usual. I was very shocked to see a Spyker C8 Spyder. These Dutch sports cars are rarely seen in the US. The even more surprising car was a Ferrari California. Those new Ferraris are so rare that the press still has a hard time getting their hands on one.

Ludacris put on another great show this year. The cars were better than previous years because people were trying to be different by using different cars, paint schemes, etc. Autowerks cleaned up in the awards ceremony, but they were pretty arrogant about it. I can only hope next year is as good. I can tell the competition is getting stronger, but I hope it doesn't turn into another HIN because I think the DUB show should cater to a different crowd.

Drifting in Chicago is not dead. D1 Grand Prix was proof that this sport still has a strong following in Chicago. The drifting was even more intense than I'd seen in a while because the teams were so well funded. When you see cars like Skylines and Soarers, it usually means these guys mean business. The tandem drifting was so fast it was difficult to even take pictures.

The car show was also very impressive. There were plenty of RWD Nissans and Toyotas, but there were also many Hondas, Scions, and Subarus that came to show off. You can see all of my pictures here, but these ones below are some of my favorites.

Hot Import Nights was held outdoors this year, which I think was a great choice. There was plenty of heat, but the show still went on long after the sun started to set. I took around 200 pictures at the show and you can see them all here.

The first thing I noticed when I entered 2009's HIN was the sound of scorching tires. Racing within the Chicago city limits is pretty rare. So drifting is especially hard to catch. The drifting had local drivers running solo. There were plenty of Nissan 240's, but also a few other cars.

Hot Import Nights is really all about the car show though. Some of Chicago's sweetest imports were out, but there were also plenty of cars that came from around the country to compete. The detail that went into some of the cars was amazing.

I think the best looking Nissans of the day had some JDM flair. Whether it was headlights from a S15 Silvia or just having a real Skyline GT-R, they look amazing.

The BMWs had a very strong presence at the car show. There was one BMW drifting, but that ended the day not even being drivable. BMWs have a reputation for performance, but they also look great. The M3s and 3-series below all prove my point.

One of the coolest cars that I saw that day was a EK Civic hatchback with an Acura EL front. It was such a simple front end conversion, but it gave the car a really unique look even in a sea of Hondas. Another car that really grabbed me was an Acura RSX with a supercharged K24. The 2.4L engine alone would have done it for me, but Hot Import Nights is all about going above and beyond.