Records set to be broken at Summernats

‘; var fr = document.getElementById(adID); setHash(fr, hash); fr.body = body; var doc = getFrameDocument(fr); doc.open(); doc.write(body); setTimeout(function() {closeDoc(getFrameDocument(document.getElementById(adID)))}, 2000); } function renderJIFAdWithInterim(holderID, adID, srcUrl, width, height, hash, bodyAttributes) { setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsR.push(adID); document.write(”); } function renderIJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) { document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.write(” + ‘ript’); } function renderJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) { document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsH.push(holderID); document.dcdAdsI.push(adID); document.dcdAdsU.push(srcUrl); } function er_showAd() { var regex = new RegExp(“externalReferrer=(.*?)(; |$)”, “gi”); var value = regex.exec(document.cookie); if (value value.length == 3) { var externalReferrer = value[1]; return (!FD.isInternalReferrer() || ((externalReferrer) (externalReferrer 0))); } return false; } function isHome() { var loc = “” + window.location; loc = loc.replace(“//”, “”); var tokens = loc.split(“/”); if (tokens.length == 1) { return true; } else if (tokens.length == 2) { if (tokens[1].trim().length == 0) { return true; } } return false; } function checkAds(checkStrings) { var cs = checkStrings.split(‘,’); for (var i = 0; i 0 cAd.innerHTML.indexOf(c) 0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(cAd.hash); cAd.style.display =’none’; } } } if (!ie) { for (var i = 0; i 0 doc.body.innerHTML.indexOf(c) 0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(fr.hash); fr.style.display =’none’; } } } } } if (document.dcdAdsAI.length 0 || document.dcdAdsAG.length 0) { var pingServerParams = “i=”; var sep = “”; for (var i=0;i 0) { var pingServerUrl = “/action/pingServerAction?” + document.pingServerAdParams; var xmlHttp = null; try { xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); } catch(e) { try { xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLHttp”); } catch(e) { xmlHttp = null; } } if (xmlHttp != null) { xmlHttp.open( “GET”, pingServerUrl, true); xmlHttp.send( null ); } } } function initAds(log) { for (var i=0;i 0) { doc.removeChild(doc.childNodes[0]); } doc.open(); var newBody = fr.body; if (getCurrentOrd(newBody) != “” ) { newBody = newBody.replace(“;ord=”+getCurrentOrd(newBody), “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } else { newBody = newBody.replace(“;ord=”, “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } doc.write(newBody); document.dcdsAdsToClose.push(fr.id); } } else { var newSrc = fr.src; if (getCurrentOrd(newSrc) != “” ) { newSrc = newSrc.replace(“;ord=”+getCurrentOrd(newSrc), “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } else { newSrc = newSrc.replace(“;ord=”, “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } fr.src = newSrc; } } } if (document.dcdsAdsToClose.length 0) { setTimeout(function() {closeOpenDocuments(document.dcdsAdsToClose)}, 500); } } }; var ie = isIE(); if(ie typeof String.prototype.trim !== ‘function’) { String.prototype.trim = function() { return this.replace(/^s+|s+$/g, ”); }; } document.dcdAdsH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsU = new Array(); document.dcdAdsR = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsE = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEC = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAA = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAG = new Array(); document.dcdAdsToClose = new Array(); document.igCount = 0; document.tCount = 0; var dcOrd = Math.floor(100000000*Math.random()); document.dcAdsCParams = “”; var savValue = getAdCookie(“sav”); if (savValue != null savValue.length 2) { document.dcAdsCParams = savValue + “;”; } document.dcAdsCParams += “csub={csub};”; var aamCookie=function(e,t){var i=document.cookie,n=””;return i.indexOf(e)-1(n=”u=”+i.split(e+”=”)[1].split(“;”)[0]+”;”),i.indexOf(t)-1(n=n+decodeURIComponent(i.split(t+”=”)[1].split(“;”)[0])+”;”),n}(“aam_did”,”aam_dest_dfp_legacy”);

The Sydney Morning Herald

Drive

Motor News

Date

January 2, 2014

17 reading now
(16)
Be the first to comment

David Ellery

Reporter for The Canberra Times.

View more articles from David Ellery

Follow David on Twitter
Follow David on Google+
Email David

Unprecedented spectators and entrants tipped for Canberra’s annual car festival.

A very rusty HQ Holden Monaro arrives at scutineering with owners Darrin Davis, left, and Matt Red Davis, from Orange.

A very rusty HQ Holden Monaro arrives at scutineering with owners Darrin Davis, left, and Matt “Red” Davis, from Orange. Photo: Graham Tidy

More than 30,000 Canberrans and visiting car enthusiasts are expected to line Northbourne Avenue from noon on Thursday to watch the annual Summernats City Cruise.

Event general manager Russell Avis said the 2014 event was expected to attract a record number of cars and spectators.

With a favourable weather forecast for the next four days and strong advance ticket sales from all over the country, Mr Avis is hopeful last year’s 100,000 turnout will be matched or even exceeded.

Car numbers were expected to be a record 1800-plus with 1700 entrants logged by Tuesday.

”We had 1767 cars last year and are hopeful of breaking the 1800 mark this time around,” he said.

While work has been progressing steadily at EPIC, the Summernats site in North Canberra, since the start of December the pace had really picked up in the past few days.

By Wednesday morning cars were lining up 10 and 12 deep to undergo scrutineering before being officially cleared to take part in the event.

Mr Avis said the scrutineering served two purposes.

The first was to ensure the cars were safe to be used at a public event. Given many of the vehicles are not road registered – or, indeed, road registrable – an ”eyes on” inspection of their condition is a must.

The scrutineers’ second job is to ensure that the car that turns up is essentially the same as the one listed on the entry form.

While each of the modified vehicles is a unique piece of craftsmanship in its own right, those taking part in performance events such as the burnouts, horsepower heroes and time trials are grouped into classes depending on their specifications.

The organisers do not want to find themselves with a ”Fine Cotton” horsepower substitution scandal on their hands.

Among the visitors to Canberra getting their machines checked out before Thursday’s City Cruise were Chris and Kirsten Genter and their young friend Caleb Fahy of Albury.

Mrs Genter, a financial planner, loves the family’s brightly coloured VC Commodore which bears a ”From Hell” number plate.

It is a far cry from how most of her work colleagues spend their weekends.

Mr Genter has hand-built the car, which is powered by a 355-cubic-inch ”stroker” V* (based on Holden’s ubiquitous 308 over the past two years. ”He has done almost all the work himself,” Mrs Genter said. ”We did send it out to get the paintwork done, however.”

Their four-year-old son, Haedes, who is the inspiration for the car’s name, is its biggest fan.

”He does burnouts in the lounge room in his little plastic car which he says is powered by methanol.”

Darrin Davis of Orange, who arrived with his brother Matt, is at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of presentation.

His 1972 Monaro GTS 253 four-speed was covered in rust and lichen.

Darrin originally bought the car as a donor to support his pristine HQ GTS 308 auto.

However, he decided it was too good to wreck, ground the olive green metallic paint (or what was left of it) back and then sprayed the bare metal with vinegar.

Time did the rest. The look has proved popular with one punter already offering him $15,000 for the car before the event even began.

And, on a more glamorous note, it also looks like being a bumper year for Miss Summernats fans.

More than 20 young women had entered by Wednesday afternoon with up to another 20 expected to enter before the judging at the weekend.