Australia’s biggest horsepower party kicked off again for its 26th event. And what an event! Over 1,500 cars and 100,000 people flocked to the Exhibition Grounds in Canberra to get a dose of the action.
Summernats 26 had something for everyone from cruising, burnouts, dyno comp, show & shine, elite hall top 60, Miss Summernats, live bands and more spread out over 4 massive days!
The main cruise route around the whole show grounds is most popular with 500-1000hp cars revving and dosing past you within arm’s reach.
It’s not all V8s and blowers with several rotary, 4 and 6 cylinder cars roaming around the showgrounds, such as this mint old school Porsche.
This minitruck didn’t just look wicked standing still, but it had the mumbo to back it up with a completely boosted 4ZE1 2.6L engine.
A crowd favorite was this slammed Mighty Boy with bright paint and laying lower than a snake’s belly with its trick airbag system.
This VL Group A SS was neat, running on old-school Brock wheels and chameleon paint and catching punters’ attentions.
Burnouts kicked off Friday afternoon and Gary Myers put on a stellar performance in his famous GM 176 Ford Mustang.
Saturday came and it was time to check out the Elite Hall where 60 of the best built show machines are judged from a range of criteria to see who will be crowned Summernats Grand Champion.
The show & shine at the main arena next to the grass driving events had hundreds of new and old muscle cars on display from mild to wild.
A 5L V8 would be plenty of power for such a small light weight car, but not for this owner. He went the whole hog and slapped not one, but two turbochargers on it for good measure!
The dark clouds rolled in quickly Saturday afternoon and followed up with a massive thunderstorm which cancelled the Supercruise around the Main arena, but didn’t stop the night’s activities with a live performance by the Rose Tattoo and fireworks display.
The sun returned, and a day of finals was ahead. Competitors got their engines and cars ready for the finals of the dyno and burnout competitions.
Tuff St and Street Machine show classes were judged first thing Sunday morning. This slammed EH Holden with its trumpet manifold and attention to detail was just one of the contenders.
Grand Champion was announced on the burnout pad before the burnout finals commenced. Mick Fabar took out Summernats Grand Champion with his Zero’d “Sustainable Muscle” XR Falcon, the world’s first ecofriendly super-elite muscle car, a 600 horsepower turbocharged biodiesel V8-powered sedan built entirely from second-hand body parts!
Then it was burnout finals time, with the Liqui Moly Burnout Champion and the Liqui Moly Burnout Master competitions for 2013.
Mark Schwirse won Burnout Champion for 2013 in his blue ‘BLOWN’ VE SS Ute and Peter Grmusa took out 1st place in his blown ‘EVILXA’ ute in the Burnout Master competition!
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4 days of Summernats action piled into one 12min video, contaning footage of the cruising, Elite hall, burnouts, Hilltop Hoods + more. Grab a drink, crank up the volume and kick back to Summernats 26!
Summernats burnout video – containing over 12mins of burnout action!