The group meets in a carpark near Woden Plaza, on the corner of Corinna Street, and by 8pm sleek cars and people in hoodies are gathering to shouts and laughter.

Welcome to RushHour.

One young guy yells out to his mate before running across the carpark and giving him a tight hug. Another one of the group is drinking Diet Coke and wearing a skeleton-themed onesie.

Nearby, a group are pointing in awe to the rims of the shining machine parked nearby. "Did you know they cost $10,000? No joke," one says.

Amid the laughter and play fighting, a lovingly-maintained Chrysler 300C SRT8 pulls into the carpark and out steps RushHour's founder, 34-year-old Tyson Bonfield.

Tyson started the group with a few friends when he was 21 because he felt there was nothing for him to do in Canberra. Now it has hundreds of members across the ACT.

For the past 13 years, the group has been meeting up in a carpark in Woden, near RJ's food van. After a discussion, they decided to name themselves RushHour.

"We got sick of Canberra and its boring shit," said Tyson. "So we stuck signs at literally every service station, every McDonalds, wherever, asking for people if they're into cars to come down and meet at Erindale Maccas one night," he said.

"Ended up filling the car park twice, so we had to find another place to go."

As Tyson walks around the car park, other members of RushHour run up to say hello and shake his hand, although he gave up leadership of the group several years ago to focus on his children and his career.

Between greetings, he says he believes young people in Canberra often turned to crime or anti-social behaviour, including drugs and alcohol, out of boredom.

"I put together something that was a mutual interest to get them off the streets and give them something to do," he said. "We don't discriminate or class anyone any different to anyone else. I guess some of them call it a family."

Tyson says they look after each other – when RushHour member Ian McGregor's niece, born prematurely, was cared for by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit [NICU] at Canberra Hospital, RushHour showed their appreciation by holding three separate "NICU Cruises", raising tens of thousands of dollars.

Another one has been tentatively scheduled for later in 2014, although Tyson says they're having trouble getting insurance.

Not all their activities take place in Woden though – on Wednesday nights, after the members have arrived and caught up with each other, the group get into a convoy and head west out of Canberra, showing off their cars along the way.

Once they're safely outside the city, Tyson says the young guys are given a chance to get the need for speed out of their system.

"Just the odd burnout, no street racing," he says. "I'd say we'd probably get four burnouts, maximum, a month.

"We understand that it's illegal, that we shouldn't be doing it, and I know it's not an excuse, but these kids are stupid. And if we give them somewhere to do it... We're not necessarily encouraging burnouts, but we try to get it off the streets if they're going to behave like that."

RushHour was in trouble with the police about five years ago and Tyson admits some street racing did happen back in the day, but he says he has put a stop to it.

"Cars were getting faster and kids were getting stupider," he says.

Tyson says if the city had a drag strip, as was suggested by numerous groups in 2009, they wouldn't even need to help kids get out their urges.

"If we had a burnout pad, or even if somebody had a property in Canberra, where we paid to build a tarmac, we pay them entry every time we go in, they'd make a killing," he said.

Founding RushHour member Ian McGregor says although he comes less nowadays, he still enjoys coming to the group every now and then to catch up.

"It's just locals, it's not people coming from Sydney or whatever. It's just a bunch of kids who have grown up together and love cars. That's all it is," he said.

"If shit went wrong in your life, you would not want a greater bunch of idiots around."