There are those at Summernats who spend decades and countless dollars meticulously developing and engineering their cars, agonising over a choice of paint colour, then preening and polishing every square centimetre.
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Then there are cars like Adam Spencer's 1929 Graham-Paige rat rod.
Bought for $3000 sight unseen off an online marketplace, the Grafton miner's rat rod sits within a growing left-field niche of the hot rod fraternity where the car's level of coolness is defined by how unkempt and "ratty" it looks, with rust patina greatly encouraged.
"It's a funny thing, you know; I spent 10 years building my other street machine, an LJ [Holden] Torana and when I brought that here [to Canberra's Summernats festival] a few years back, it hardly got a second glance," Mr Spencer said.
"But I bring this weird old clunker here and everyone wants to have a good look."
Part of the curiousity the car attracts is its engine set-up with two V6 Commodore engines sitting one behind the other under the long bonnet, bolted together to create a V12.
"I have to admit, it's pretty wild to drive," Mr Spencer said with a laugh.
"If you go any faster than 60km/h, the steering shakes and carries on. But it stops and goes pretty well."
The hand-painted matte-black four-door sedan previously had been used to churn up paddocks in the annual Mud Run held west of Newcastle.
Rain forecast for Canberra over the next few days means cruising around might be a little uncomfortable given there's no glass, but a piece of tarpaulin tacked down over the chopped-down roof should keep out the worst of the weather.
Mr Spencer, just back from a long stint working as an underground driller in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, is pleased to be back for Australia's biggest street machine party which he will enjoy this year with his 12-year-old son, Maximus.
Tim Haines, a panelbeater from Queanbeyan, built his Falcon ute rat rod at home in 9 weeks, installing a Ford 351 cubic inch Cleveland engine.
He loves the fact that he doesn't need to prepare it before the event.
"I just roll it out of the shed and see if it's got fuel in it," he said.
Guy Tiltman, from Shellharbour, is taking his 1939 Dodge Fargo ute rat rod on a sentimental journey to Summernats after selling it two weeks ago.
"The bloke who bought it said it could take it [to the event] as long as I don't bend it," he said.
It's been a long-running project but he's not overly concerned about parting ways with it because he has another project just like it ready to start when he returns.
"The great thing about these old cars is there's not a bit of plastic; it's all old-fashioned steel," he said.
"The great thing about a rat rod is you can do what you like with it."
He is a member of the Oddrods crew out of the Illawarra region, which had gathered regularly to cruise together up and down the NSW South Coast before the region went into lockdown due to the COVID pandemic.
Vehicles began rolling in from all over the country for pre-event scrutineering on Wednesday, a process which will stretch well through Thursday's opening day given the record 2500 entries.
Each car is given an entrant number which identifies whether it is there for cruising, judging or burnouts, or any combination of all three.
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Summernats traditionally brings searing heat to the national capital but the forecast for the next few days is for inclement weather, which could present some issues for the ever-popular burnout competitions held right through the four days and culminating in the Burnout Masters on Sunday afternoon.
Promoter Andy Lopez said that generally speaking, the burnouts would continue provided it's not pouring with rain.
"There's a fairly complicated set of atmospherics which go into determining how the burnout pad responds to the weather," he said.
"The pad tarmac retains its temperature well and it also heats up quickly; obviously, the more friction on it, the hotter it gets and the faster moisture evaporates."
SUMMERNATS DAY ONE
Thursday, January 6
- 11am: Gates open to the public
- Noon: City cruise begins
- 1pm: Skid Row starts
- 2.45pm: Lawn Mower Racing
- 4-6pm: Wildcard Last Chance Burnouts