OPINION: "Not bad for an old girl of 60" - Summernats First-Time Attendee

Words by: Ktima Heathcote

While walking past the pavilion for Entrant Scrutineering at Summernats 35, ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ by rock band Thin Lizzy cranked out into the cool morning air. From the first chord, you know what’s coming next. It’s a track full of as much testosterone as four days of motor madness and it transported me straight back to being a teenager driving round in a mate’s Subie in suburban Australia in the late ‘70s.

Nostalgia. It’s a powerful hook and it was a large part of the appeal for this motorsports first timer at the 35th Street Machine Summernats.

Headphones, hot chips and a boost from mum - the perfect Summernats combo meal

From fully blown V8s to classic cars which have no seat belts (that was a real thing until the law changed in 1970-71), there was plenty on offer at Exhibition Park in Canberra to inspire someone who only just learned that a four-banger is the number of cylinders in an engine as well as my first car - a beat up Morris Mini (don’t ask me what year) in fire engine red. 

What I really needed was a guide to tell me more about this wild weekend of horsepower, and, hopefully, someone who wouldn’t roll their eyes at my ignorance.

PG's own Durbz was on hand as a senior paint and body judge at Summernats 35.

Step in 35-year-old Rachael Durbidge (AKA Durbz), an automotive paint specialist, pocket rocket and Summernats judge. Rach is one of the growing number of women interested in all things related to four wheels; whether they’re pros doing a rebuild, a wife or girlfriend behind the wheel, or a newbie, like me, curious about what’s putting women in the driver’s seat at a car festival.

L to R: Katelyn Minett, Corey Ringe, Blake Navan and Amelia Blundell enjoy the Canberra sun.

“It’s great to see more women coming along to this event,” she said. “I’ve been into cars since I was a kid and not everyone is as obsessed as me but there’s a definite shift towards women of all ages wanting to find out more.”

Smiles for days at Street Machine Summernats 35.

When Rach was a little girl she used to get toy cars, pull them apart and “repaint them with nail polish”.

“I loved art and I still do, and I love cars, so when I found out about a vehicle painting course at school I thought that’ll be the perfect job for me.”

In the background someone yells, "let’s shred some tyres". Three days in and I’ve been showered in the acrid tang of rubber, engulfed in wafts of colourful smoke at Skid Row and the Burnout Pad, deafened by noise and surrounded by a sea of black T-shirts, tatts and mullets as Tuff Street crowds pulsate, chant and cheer.

I’ve lapped up the skill of Burnout champs and watched bleary-eyed punters, cuppa or can in hand, camp as close as they can to the adrenaline-pumping action so they don’t miss a single second. I also can’t seem to shift this buzzing sound from inside my head.

We're told it's called the Summernats tan. That's four whole days at the burnouts for some!

“It’s fine to be dirty and disgusting this weekend,” said Rach, admiring the grit and soot smeared across my face.

What about the lingo, then?  How can I talk the torque? “If you want to know a bit more about cars before you come, head to the Summernats website, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channel which goes into all the descriptions of the builds and the owners,” she said.

You also don’t need to know what ‘twin throttle body with custom air intake’ means to admire and appreciate the engineering, skill and sheer mastery of the guys and gals who spend countless hours and dollars on modifications and rebuilds.

“I like to see how other people do up their cars,” said Sydneysider Richard Dewar eyeing off a 1963 EH Holden Station Wagon at the Shannons Show ‘N’ Shine. “I’ve got an EH Wagon like this one at home and it’s great to pick up new ideas, especially when they’re using new technology in old vehicles.”

Classic Aussie steel is still the most popular choice for car entrants.

Many of the young women milling around were attracted to the shiniest and most colourful cars, like 19-year-old Dekotah Wynands, from Hunter Valley. She couldn’t get enough shots of the fairy floss pink paint job on a VF Maloo, and had a boyfriend, one year older, to help fill her in on the finer points of the detailed bodywork.

Dekotah Wynands and her boyfriend Paul Gardner pose next to MISSR8.

Now, I confess, I still don’t know my hp from my kW or hub dynos from chassis dynos and why that’s even an area of contention, but I do know the Haltech Horsepower Heroes dyno comp is not just a place for heroes and heartbreak - but mind-blowing, ear-splitting noise.

I didn’t have the metal to stay for long but as Terry Keys, Chief Scrutineer Manager at Summernats, explained, “Yes, it’s violent, very violent.”

And his advice for a first timer? “See everything, keep an open mind, grab a slushy and have fun at our theatre,” he said, arms spread wide as everyone from families to couples and mates gunned their modified engines on the cruise circuit.

There is an edge to the air and the sense that wild things could happen at Summernats but if you push past antics like young lads stealing signage late at night you’ll meet really passionate people – men, women, young and old – who, quite simply, are passionate about cars.

His other advice for a Summernats virgin was to have a good look around, even if you don’t really know what the hell the thing that pokes up from the middle of a bonnet is.

“I really think a car will speak to you,” said Terry. “You’ll go, ‘oh my god, look at that’. You’ll get chills, you’ll get goose bumps and you’ll smile, and you won’t even know what you’re smiling about.

“It’s like seeing a boyfriend or girlfriend or meeting that special one person for the first time. You get that real excitement. You just fall in love and you won’t know why and then all of a sudden you’ll say to yourself, ‘I’m going to come back to Summernats next year’.”

Well, I did fall in love with a stunning seascape aqua 1964 Chevrolet Impala and a magenta coloured Holden HZ 1978 Sedan elite at the Meguiar’s pavilion. I loved the shape of a 1950 Ford Single Spinner with a bronze and orange flame-like paint job down the side.

But what really caught my eye amongst all the automotive candy was a blue and purple Toyota 86, one of the cars at the Drift Cadet Drift Rides. For $115 bucks, I had the most fun with my clothes on as the driver screeched round tight corners at speed and my stomach lurched up to my racing heart – not bad for an old girl of 60.

On the way back to tell my new-found metal mates “I’d fallen hopelessly in love” I spotted a cream Bedford van and with increasing confidence peered under the bonnet. It had a Ford motor in it. “That’s a no, no,” said a white-haired gentleman standing nearby. “It upsets the purists.”

This is called ‘cross dressing’, apparently. Armed with extra insider knowledge, I grab a slushy, and later on with a huge smile on my dial plunge into the crowds to sing my lungs out to Aussie rock legend Daryl Braithwaite’s classic ‘The Horses’ under a full moon and a sea of arms holding up lit mobile phones. And then just like that, I’m not sure why, I decide I’m coming back to Summernats to Send It in 2024.