Nearly 2,000 British car buffs are expected to descend on the grounds of Fairbook Farms in Bonsall Sunday for the annual British Car Day.

For the 27th year running, members of British car clubs from all over San Diego will park their Austin-Healys, Sunbeams and TVRs, to name a few, and either enter them in competition or simply enjoy the camaraderie of fellow enthusiasts.

Many have loved these small foreign cars with character since childhood.

Steve Kirby, for one. The Escondido man fell in love with a cherry red MGTD when he was just 13 and he found he might be able to snap one up for a cool $500 or $600. Soon he was secreting his $1.25 hourly busboy salary as he patiently waited to turn 16.

Certain his strict father would never agree to the idea of a sports car, Kirby conceived a plan. And when his parents left one sunny afternoon for a road trip to Iowa, Kirby rushed off to buy his dream car. A neighbor agreed to hide the car until he could find a way to work the topic into conversation with his dad.

Kirby's father ordered him to sell it. "I begged and pleaded and cried until he finally said I could keep it," he said. The crankshaft broke two weeks later and Kirby was forced to sell his dream car. But the love never faded and the first chance Kirby had to buy another, he did.

Now Kirby owns not only a mint-condition red 1952 MGTD but also five other British classic cars: a 1960 Austin Healey, a 1966 green MGB, a 1959 Morris Minor 1000, a 1958 MG Magnette and a brand new Mini Minor.

But Kirby's wife counts differently. Her total is more like 15 as she counts the three British parts cars, a 1958 Dodge pickup, a 1958 VW Beetle convertible, and a big American car left to Kirby by his stepfather that he plans to sell.

"First you get the car, then you get into the hobby," said Kirby.

Visitors to British Car Day can view nearly 400 cars throughout the afternoon to culminate with trophies and recognition in a number of categories, including Best of Show, Best 'Beater' (most in need of restoration but still running), Earliest Car and Best of Marque, or brand.

This year's featured car is the DeLorean, or the DMC-12, easily recognized by its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless steel body. The prototype appeared in early 1977 but it wasn't until 1981 that it was produced in the DeLorean factory in Northern Ireland.

"It's only British by the strangest definition," said car enthusiast Bob Adams of Poway. "The committee picks the marque every year. This year, they have a high sense of the dramatic."

The DeLorean is perhaps most famous for its role in the movie "Back to the Future." Fewer than 6,000 DeLoreans still exist. "Last year they had one that wasn't hooked up to anything, but it was wired up to look just like the one in the movie," said Kevin Schulte of La Costa, president of the San Diego Triumph Sportscar Club. "It was amazing."

Schulte will be at British Car Day too, provided, he said, his TR6 gets out of the shop by then. "I am not a mechanic," he said. "I can do some of the simple things, like replace hoses, but I wouldn't do major repairs."

Schulte's first car when he got out of the service in 1972 was a TR6. His soft spot for British sports cars, he said, is partly because his mother was an English war bride and partly because British cars have so much character. Or perhaps because, as he said, "they are a ball to drive."

"All of us have an affection for times gone by when driving was different," Schulte said. "I'm 57 and I'll probably have a stick shift until I die. I will never be old enough to drive a Buick. I just can't see myself driving one of those lumbering, comfy cars that are more like sitting on a couch than a bucket seat.

"There is something more to driving than getting from A to B in a dependable way. Every time you drive one of these cars, it is like an adventure. What is going to happen today? What's going to break down?"

Bill Armstrong of Oceanside agreed that part of his attraction to British cars came from his childhood and later working in Belfast, where he apprenticed as a car mechanic more than 40 years ago. "I like these cars because I grew up with them," he said.

"And most of these people (who own these classic cars) are older and they want the car they had as a kid or their parents had," Armstrong said.

Though Armstrong and his son Nick of San Marcos restore all kinds of British and American cars in their shop, B & A Restoration and Repair in San Marcos, Armstrong's favorite is the E-type Jaguar.

He is restoring two from the ground up. "There will never be another E-type," he said, a wistful longing creeping into his slight Irish accent. "The suspension, the engine was ahead of its time. And the design -- the design is the most beautiful."

Simplicity is one of the features that many of those who work on their own British cars find so appealing. "I've always enjoyed British cars because they are so easy to work on. They are still old-school technology," said Mike Kacmarcik of Oceanside, who won first place last year at British Car Day for his 1971 Morris Minor woodie.

This year, though, Kacmarcik said he plans to enter his 1958 red MGA. The marque is near and dear to his heart because he was driving a 1979 chocolate brown MG Midget when he met his wife.

Bob Adams said he has been attending the San Diego British Car Club Council's British Car Day in his Jensen Interceptor since the event started.

Calling himself "a shade tree mechanic without the shade tree," Adams owns two Jensen Interceptors --- a 1975 in the last stages of restoration after an engine fire a couple of years ago left it totaled, and a working 1972 car he bought from a garage to drive around town when the first was out of commission.

Maybe Adams inherited his affinity for classic British cars from his father, who bought a brand-new black Austin A40 in 1949. "It was a strange little car, with leather interior," he said. "He bought it because it was the cheapest car in 1949. With the devaluation of the pound, he was able to buy it for 1,500 Canadian dollars. It worked well in the snow but the heater wasn't too good. I bought it eventually when I was in college."

Or maybe it was watching the dashing Simon Templar, aka the Saint, jump into one in the popular British television series that drew Adams to the Interceptor. Produced between 1966 and 1976, Jensen pioneered a number of innovations in its cars, including four-wheel drive, anti-lock brakes and traction control.

Whatever the reason, the 75-year-old says he has always enjoyed British car culture. "It's kind of an addiction," he said. "All of my friends have five or six cars. I don't know how they find the room. They must have accommodating wives."

Like the public at large, Adams likes to check out orphan cars, too -- those unusual makes and models without a manufacturer such as the Alvis, the LaGonda produced by Aston Martin, or the Nash-Healey.

"One of my favorite things to do is to see the ones you may never have even heard of," said Schulte. "Like this one guy who comes from Orange County or L.A. with his Austin America. It's tannish gray and restored immaculately. It's really cool."

British Car Day and the council's spring event, Rolling British Car Day, are fun, said Adams, because they are a chance to socialize with fellow enthusiasts -- those nut cases, he says, who love to scramble around junkyards and scour the Internet for parts.

"I've never met most of these people, but you think you know them," Adams said. "But British Car Day brings them out, and when you hear their name, you ask, 'Is that you?' "

Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com.

Information

WHAT: San Diego British Car Day

WHEN: Registration starts at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 1; show from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

WHERE: Fairbrook Farms, Bonsall, on Mission Road near Highway 76.

ADMISSION: Walk-in admission is $2 per adult; children under 15 free.

PARKING: Available, though organizers caution that neighboring residents may experience some inconvenience or traffic delays.

CAR REGISTRATION: $20

FOOD: Bring picnic or buy food from vendors

Call: (760) 746-1458; www.sandiegobritishcaraday.org