Two hundred of Summernats' finest did the run into the city to bring the event to the people.

Summernats general manager Russell Avis said the street parade had become the opening ceremony for the iconic event.

While most of the participants were loud, fast and furious, the City Cruise lineup was bookended by the Shannons’ Goggomobil Dart sportscar and a tag-along 1928 Austin 7 Wasp driven by Canberra classic car enthusiast, Ray Scarlett, of Evatt.

"I'm here to give them a drag," the 70-year-old who was accompanied by his son, Aaron, said.

The highly visible kerbside police presence was more than adequate to keep the spectators at bay.

A flotilla of ACT Policing vehicles, which ranged from four-wheel-drives, to highway patrol cars and an army of motorbikes, added to the rich and colourful milieu and, on occasion, turned the cruise into a rerun of the last five minutes of The Blues Brothers.

At the city end the spectators, believed to have numbered about 30,000 in total, were neatly dressed, clean cut and obviously either workers or visitors to Canberra who had heard about the event.

Among the latter were Pablo Ortiz, his wife Xuan and their daughter, Isabella, 3, and son, Sebastian, 2, from Melbourne.

The family had travelled to Sydney for the New Year’s Eve fireworks and stopped in Canberra on their way home.

"We heard about this last night and came along to see," Mr Ortiz said.

"We’ve seen some of the cars already and they are pretty nice. I’m into modified cars. We have a Volkswagen Tiguan with Stage 2 APR mods.

"I appreciate the work that goes into these vehicles."

The closer to EPIC you were, the more colourful the crowds became.

One party of four packed onto a well worn lounge some distance south of The Tourist Centre where, it would be fair to say, they were getting into "the spirit of things’’.

Summernats’ heavily promoted family friendly ethos generally prevailed however.

Event general manager, Russ Avis, said much had been done to change the once grungy image of hot cars, showgirls, vodka shots and beer.

"We have absolutely changed the image,’’ he said.

"We have got rid of some of the things that didn’t fit; the wet tee shirt competition and adult entertainment, and replaced them with high quality music.

"One of the highlights this year is going to be the performance by Living Ends on Friday night."

Cars are the king however and Summernats was, is and always will be, petrolhead paradise.

"This is a street machine community event,’’ Mr Avis said. "Without the 1800 plus cars that have turned up the show just doesn’t happen.’’

Those cars come from a very broad church with Dodges, Chevrolets, Plymouths, Buicks and even a Rolls Royce and a ramped up Toyota 4-Runner joining the ubiquitous Holdens, Fords and Valiants in the eclectic mix.

The number of Hot Fours, usually from Nissan, Subaru and Mitsubishi with Toyota, the least sporting of the Japanese marques, lagging slightly behind continues to build year-on-year as a new generation of enthusiasts explores territory not serviced by the former big three.

European cars were in scarce supply and no Korean, Indian or Chinese vehicles appeared to have made the cut.

Mr Avis is confident that despite their respective woes (both companies announced plans to cease Australian production in 2013) Holdens and home-grown Fords will dominate for a long time yet.

"I don’t want to get into the politics of what governments should or shouldn’t have done to support the industry," he said.

"It is sad to see what has happened but Summernats is not actually about new vehicles. There will be a place for Australian made cars (at Summernats) for many years to come."