From day one Canberra was always going to be Australia's car city. A small island of civilisation nestled amid the bucolic wilderness of the NSW hinterland and beset with a host of unresolved public transport issues, it has roads that can take you anywhere except to a place to park.
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Leaving that tiny problem aside, the council of the wise running the Centenary of Canberra is going out of its way to ensure the ACT's love affair with internal combustion is not overlooked.
All things on wheels are to be celebrated in October with the highlight being SPIN on October 19.
The centrepiece of the celebration will be a one-off performance by the Petrosexuals, a single-gig band to be led by car lover Mark Seymour of Hunters and Collectors fame.
Centenary general manager, Adam Stankevicius, said the plan was to create the backdrop for the concert using photographs supplied by Canberrans of themselves and their vehicles.
''We want photos that show the love Canberrans have for their first car, their current family car or their favourite car,'' he said. ''Images should be captioned with the name of the people in the picture and the make and the model of the car.''
A key point to remember is that the centenary crew are looking for pictures of cars and people, not pictures of cars by themselves.
Cars are a part of our social and family histories and SPIN is all about celebrating the connection between individuals and their machines.
To get the ball rolling, Gang Gang is running two photographs today.
One is of Gina Poulakis, a model, student of fashion design at Canberra Institute of Technology and lover of all things vintage, with Coco, her much-loved 1974 Mercedes 280S.
The other is of Mark Seymour's children with their father's super cool HQ Monaro LS coupe.
Gina is on her second classic Mercedes. Coco's unfortunate predecessor was retired after an accident just over a year ago.
She loves the old Mercs because of their great style, the fact they are so solid and dependable ''and the way she drives and looks''.
Coco has to perform as well as a modern car given she is Gina's daily transport and, among other things, serves in the mother's taxi role for two children.
On the downside, the youngsters, aged six and eight, aren't quite as enamoured of Coco as their mother, seeing it as just another car at this stage in their lives.
''I'm definitely the one who thinks she (Coco) is super cool,'' Gina said. ''They would probably prefer we had something else when we have to wait for her to warm up on a winter morning.''
People wishing to share their car picture with Canberra 100 should email a large resolution (at least 1MB) image to canberra100@act.gov.au by September 23.
By sending it in, you are agreeing to it being used as part of SPIN Saturday. Photos will also be archived by the ACT government.
