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Suuuuummernaaaaats
Jan. 11th, 2004 01:14 amThat. Was freaking. Awesome.
Shortly before 5, I hopped on my bike and headed 5km north up Northbourne to the Exhibition Center in Canberra, where I waited for about 20min in line to get my A$38 (US$29) ticket for the evening at Summernats 17.* Sounds steep, you might say--I did too, but hearing all the powerful engines inside and knowing what few examples I'd seen of the cars out on the streets, I was still willing to give it a shot. And damn, am I glad I did.
(Summernats is, as you may know, the largest car show in Australia--though Sydney is getting one of its own soon. :)
The cars were fantastic--hot rods, street rods, classic cars, modded everything, great paint jobs, roaring engines, burnouts whenever you turned around.. both cruising a couple loops through the fairgrounds and parked in lots and tents and exhibition halls. Many, many pictures were taken. (There was also camping space for the participants, food & drink, promotions & sales, a couple carnival-style rides (including a human slingshot and motion simulator), and various competitions throughout the 3.5-day run of the event.)
From about 7-8, all the cars cruised the track (normally a dirt horse-racing track) by class, giving me a chance to photograph all the cars I missed previously. That was followed by a stunt plane that no one could see due to dust and smoke, and then the Stunt Spectacular--including a 1300hp muscle car, a dragster--not dragging, just showing off its engine and flames, a donut truck with a real jet engine in the back, a London bus with a V8 engine attempting to jump 50 motorcycles--it cleared 38, still a new world record--and then there was a fireworks show.
Following that, a rock cover band (the Red Hot Rock Band--guys on instruments, girls on vocals and dancing) came onto the Grandstand Stage for about an hour, followed by entertainment on the same stage that was, shall we say, less suitable for family consumption. Naturally, the crowd was predominantly male and less cultured/sober than one might hope--but still a far cry above, shall we say, a NASCAR crowd. ;)
Festivities ran until 1am, but I cut out around 12:30 to beat the rush since I was biking back--good thing, too, because the pedestrians I passed were already getting obnoxious.
How many pictures, you may ask? Just over 130. :) If you like hot cars, you will drool when I post them--so I'll hold off on describing them until they're captions for photos. ;)
Incidentally, my phone gave the region/suburb "MaximumRPM" when I was at the exhibition center. :)
Shortly before 5, I hopped on my bike and headed 5km north up Northbourne to the Exhibition Center in Canberra, where I waited for about 20min in line to get my A$38 (US$29) ticket for the evening at Summernats 17.* Sounds steep, you might say--I did too, but hearing all the powerful engines inside and knowing what few examples I'd seen of the cars out on the streets, I was still willing to give it a shot. And damn, am I glad I did.
(Summernats is, as you may know, the largest car show in Australia--though Sydney is getting one of its own soon. :)
The cars were fantastic--hot rods, street rods, classic cars, modded everything, great paint jobs, roaring engines, burnouts whenever you turned around.. both cruising a couple loops through the fairgrounds and parked in lots and tents and exhibition halls. Many, many pictures were taken. (There was also camping space for the participants, food & drink, promotions & sales, a couple carnival-style rides (including a human slingshot and motion simulator), and various competitions throughout the 3.5-day run of the event.)
From about 7-8, all the cars cruised the track (normally a dirt horse-racing track) by class, giving me a chance to photograph all the cars I missed previously. That was followed by a stunt plane that no one could see due to dust and smoke, and then the Stunt Spectacular--including a 1300hp muscle car, a dragster--not dragging, just showing off its engine and flames, a donut truck with a real jet engine in the back, a London bus with a V8 engine attempting to jump 50 motorcycles--it cleared 38, still a new world record--and then there was a fireworks show.
Following that, a rock cover band (the Red Hot Rock Band--guys on instruments, girls on vocals and dancing) came onto the Grandstand Stage for about an hour, followed by entertainment on the same stage that was, shall we say, less suitable for family consumption. Naturally, the crowd was predominantly male and less cultured/sober than one might hope--but still a far cry above, shall we say, a NASCAR crowd. ;)
Festivities ran until 1am, but I cut out around 12:30 to beat the rush since I was biking back--good thing, too, because the pedestrians I passed were already getting obnoxious.
How many pictures, you may ask? Just over 130. :) If you like hot cars, you will drool when I post them--so I'll hold off on describing them until they're captions for photos. ;)
Incidentally, my phone gave the region/suburb "MaximumRPM" when I was at the exhibition center. :)
