1800 hot cars, 100,000 people over four days, an injection of more than $20 million into the ACT economy and well-behaved crowds are just some of the predictions Summernats co-owner, Andy Lopez, is making for this week's event.
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With entrants already flocking in and scrutineering underway since Tuesday evening, the car festival will explode into a cacophonic medley of revving engines, smoking tyres, cutting edge music, car fans and the simply curious when the gates open at 11am on New Year's Day.
Mr Lopez, who hopes the startlingly low petrol prices will make it even easier for enthusiasts to drive to Canberra for the car-based happening than in previous years, said the 28th Summernats would start with a roar.
"One Summernats event not to miss is the Guinness World Record burnout attempt at 1pm on Thursday," he said.
Summernats first set the official world record with 68 cars on the burnout track in 2013. That has since, unofficially, been broken in Poland of all places. With 120 cars already registered to take part this year plans are well advanced to take the title back.
"It is a fun thing," Mr Lopez said. "We are glad other people are trying to better it."
Fun, plus an appreciation of some serious works of automotive art, is now apparently what Summernats is all about.
Mr Lopez said the days when the event was known for raunchy adult entertainment, a strong misogynistic element and media headlines for all the wrong reasons are a thing of the past. No arrests resulted from the 2014 event and 2013 was also trouble free.
"There will always be a rowdy element but the crowds are largely self-regulating," he said. "Over the four days Summernats becomes a big country town and every country town needs its police force."
While it is hard to put an exact value on the event, an ACT Government study in 2006 had come up with the figure of $15 million.
"Given the event is quite a bit larger now you can only imagine that those numbers would have increased a lot," Mr Lopez said. "It is a pretty good investment for the ACT Government. They are good supporters of the event and I would suggest that from an ROI (return on investment) basis we are probably one of the smartest investments they make."
He said generational change, the shift to family-friendly entertainment and a growth in the number and value of the cars taking part, were all reasons the annual car festival is now something that happens in Canberra, not to Canberra.
"Back 20 years ago when Summernats had wet T-shirt competitions and all that sort of thing a lot of the boys and girls who might have been into that are now into their 40s with kids of their own," he said. "What they want out of the event has changed a little bit. What hasn't changed is that people want to look at awesome cars."
Recent years have seen a "Mater" tow truck modelled on the character in Cars on the burn-out track and 2015 will feature Bliss N Eso, a hip hop act featuring a heavily modified lime green Kombi Van, singer and DJ Havana Brown and rapper Illy.
"We've also got The Radiators; they're pretty old school."
To find out more visit: http://www.summernats.com.au/
