CRUISING Northbourne Ave was a regular occurrence in the early days of Street Machine Summernats, but for many years it was a no-go zone. A few years back, the street machines once again rumbled down Northbourne with the City Cruise opening the event and showing the Canberra locals a small portion of what goes on inside the gates of EPIC.

Admittedly, the cruising now has a police escort and the speed limit is around 20km/h, but that didn’t stop the enjoyment of some 300 entrants as they rolled out of the gates and headed towards the city centre. While some of the wilder machines have to stay behind the fences—mainly due to noise levels—there were still plenty of blown cars doing the cruise right alongside a bog-stock Ford Prefect ute and Mazda R100. Variety is the spice of life—and street machining—and there was plenty to check out with all makes and models represented, even a Rambler Javelin!

With the number of people lining the streets along the entire route, it could be that Canberrans are actually starting to like Summernats again, although I’m pretty sure the politicians are still on holidays, so they probably didn’t get the chance to see the spectacle of hundreds of colourful cars and characters adding colour and character to the Canberra CBD.

It’s shaping up to be a cracker of an event with a whole heap of legendary street machines getting dragged out of sheds, including Howard Astill’s ‘Rock 3’, as well as a record number of entries. Apparently you’re meant to grow up when you hit 30, and while Summernats has definitely matured over the years, you can bet there will still be plenty of partying and fair amount of craziness. If you’re anywhere near Canberra, get your arse down here to have a look. If not, we’ll busting our guts getting plenty of content online.