The Thursday of Street Machine Summernats has quickly become one of the most hectic days on the four-day schedule, and with a packed Burnout Masters shoot-out, Elite Hall unveiling, plenty of spectators and a dash of stormy weather, Summernats 36 was no different.

The annual City Cruise burled through Canberra’s CBD from midday, where we caught up with a few entrants before they hit the streets.

Jason Ford’s Charger grabbed attention with its blown 265 Hemi and rough-and-ready R/T paint scheme. “I supercharged it around seven years ago,” he said. “It’s all street legal, and I use it on the street all the time.” Other cool bits include a Ford T5 manual ’box and shaved door handles, along with the jellybean mags. “It always gets attention; I got stopped at every servo on the way here!” he laughed.

We got a bit of a shock when young gun Seth Fuhrmeister popped the bonnet on his patina-clad Torana to reveal a sweet little turbo RB30 hiding under the bonnet. “I drove it twice with the 173, and it was way too slow,” he said. “Dad has an FC with an RB, so that’s what we went with.” The boys did a mad thrash to get the Torry to the ’Nats: “We only got the turbo on Monday after the old one blew, but we made it!”

The City Cruise was 500 cars strong, with punters and locals alike lining Northbourne Avenue to get a taste of the ’Nats action.

The dyno cell fired up for the beginning of the Haltech Horsepower Heroes, with MPW Performance & Race Fab frontman Adam Rogash kicking off proceedings with demo runs in his STRIPSHOW Capri. The Dandy Engines big-block chucked out a best of 2093hp on a lazy 21psi, to the applause of a packed hall.

Jason Waye’s Tuff Mounts Fox-body Mustang spun up the hubs to the tune of 810hp, as did Luke Furse’s turbo LS-powered VFJET Commodore, which hit a best of 903hp.

Castlemaine Rod Shop debuted a fresh look for the Ferrari V12-powered REAL DEAL LC Torana, doing away with the bare-metal finish for a fresh lick of Ferrari yellow paint. “Everyone thought we were going to paint it Ferrari red, so we went with the yellow instead,” said the Rod Shop’s Heath Waddington. He also mentioned there’s plans for two turbos to make their way onto the Fezza V12 at some stage, but it’ll be cruising at the ’Nats in aspo form this weekend.

Due to the less than favourable weather conditions, the Burnout Masters Last Chance Wildcard Shootout was pushed back to a 3pm start, with only six of the 29 field getting to run before more rain killed the parade. It was great to see Kiwi visitors Liz Gracie and Ryan Shortcliffe going their hardest.

The rest will get to run today from 11am, with dry conditions predicted for the rest of the weekend.

We were also treated to the covers being pulled off over 20 cars for the Meguiar’s Great Uncover, one of the highlights of the whole weekend. You can read about all of those here.

The Street Machine merch store is also open in the Rare Spares Pavillion, so drop in and check out our new designs.