The brakes will come off at Exhibition Park from Thursday, January 5 to Sunday, January 8. Mr Lopez estimates that 100,000 people will go to watch burnouts, skids and cruising - and to listen to a lot of noise.

"We've sold out our car entry, so there's 2700 cars coming which is a couple of hundred cars more than the Street Machine Summernats has ever had in its time. So that, just in and of itself, is a massive thing for the event, just to actually sell out.

"What that means is that Exhibition Park is going to be heaving with cars and people."

He said the music line-up would be "the biggest we've ever had".

Jimmy Barnes had to pull out because he needed back and hip surgery but Friday night's four hour show features Jon Stevens, Daryl Braithwaite, DIESEL and Shannon Noll.

The festival started in 1988 and has grown into what is often claimed to be Australia's largest car festival. It was created by Canberran Chic Henry who died in April this year.

At the start, high-octane cars parade on Northbourne Avenue from the showground, down to Civic and back again. There is also an official night time fringe festival in Braddon.

Hundreds of Summernats vehicles combine with live music and food as part of the celebration of car culture and horsepower.

There are people who object to the noise in Civic as drivers burn up streets at night. But a group of local people under the auspices of the Braddon Collective said that the car festival was actually widely supported.

"I'm a local resident," Susan Davidson, the collective's co-founder said, "We talked to business about the event. Some businesses were cautious, but after the event the feedback from business was positive.

"It would have been dead for business without it."

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She said Braddon was once an area of car yards where people would do burn-outs: "People would gather. People would hoon up and down the streets."

"Our group contacted the Summernats organisers and said we were happy to work with them to make sure it was safe and family friendly. There were some voices in Canberra who thought it should be banned but the community as a whole supported it."

The result of the collaboration was the fringe festival.

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