Four days, about 130,000 people and around 3,000 modified cars in a Canberra showground every January. Summernats is the closest thing Australian car culture has to a national holiday: burnouts that fill the sky with tyre smoke, show cars with paint you could lose an afternoon in, and a Grand Champion title that builders spend years chasing. Here's how it works, who's won lately, and how to go in 2027.
What is Summernats?
Summernats is a four-day street machine festival held every January at Exhibition Park in Canberra, known as EPIC. Chic Henry founded it in 1988 and ran it until 2009, when he sold to Andy Lopez, Dom McCormack and Andrew Bee. It's billed as the largest automotive lifestyle event in the Southern Hemisphere, and Summernats 38 drew about 130,000 people.
Henry staged the first one in the face of considerable community backlash, Region reported, and the event bled money for years before he sold it. He died in 2022, aged 75. The current owners trade as the Out There Group, which also runs RockyNats and, since November 2023, owns Street Machine magazine, a Summernats sponsor since the very first event.
That's worth knowing when you read the coverage, including the results quoted here. Street Machine says it remains editorially independent, but it's now part of the same business as the event. Adrian Portelli, the businessman known as the Lambo Guy, also made an undisclosed investment in the Out There Group in 2024, with the existing owners keeping the majority.
Sources: Street Machine (founding, crowd, prize money, Pro Burnout cheque), Region and ACM (2026 entrant expectations), and IER research commissioned by the organisers, reported by Region in August 2025. Compiled 21 October 2026.
Burnouts: the smoke is the headline act
Burnouts are what Summernats is famous for. Drivers light up the rear tyres on a purpose-built pad, often in blown V8s, and judges score the show until the tyres give up. The top tier, the Burnout Masters, started at Summernats 17 in 2004 and has run as the Pro Burnout Series since 2025, with an Open Burnout Championship alongside it.
The 2026 results show how wide the field is. Chris Orchard's VL Commodore, BALLISTIC, won the Pro Burnout title, having already banked a $50,000 cheque as 2025 series champion. The Open Burnout Championship went to Brett Battersby's BLWNLUX, a supercharged Toyota HiLux. Yes, a HiLux. Somewhere a tradie's work ute is very nervous.
Horsepower Heroes is the other numbers game. It's a dyno shootout, and the biggest twin-turbo cars at Summernats 38 made more than 3,500hp at the hubs, according to Street Machine's Summernats 38 wrap-up. The 2026 event also brought a two-lane Skid Row and new pedestrian bridges over the cruise route, so more people could see more cars.
How is the Grand Champion decided?
Grand Champion is the top prize in Australian street machining, and it isn't just a beauty contest. Street Machine says the title has four components: judging, People's Choice, Go-to-Whoa and a slalom. The winning car has to stop, steer and stand up to scrutiny, as well as shine. The prize is a sword and, Street Machine says, $20,000.
The path starts with the Elite Top 60, the best-presented cars on site, while the Meguiar's Great Uncover reveals fresh builds on Thursday. In 2026, all Top 60 and Grand Champion judging, driving events included, happened on Saturday. The award began as Top Street Machine Overall, first won by Rob Beauchamp's VL Calais in 1988, and became Grand Champion at Summernats 6 in 1993.
| Event | Winner | Car | The story |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summernats 36 (2024) | Joe Bauer | 1968 Dodge Charger, BLOWN RT | A 3,000hp, 604-cubic-inch engine built by drag racing icon Victor Bray; Bauer did much of the build at home. Also won People's Choice |
| Summernats 37 (2025) | John Fenech | LJ Torana | The late Sam Fenech's car, rebuilt by his son John and John's uncles. Also won People's Choice |
| Summernats 38 (2026) | Adam Bickerstaff | 1956 Ford F100 | Built by Viking Hotrods, with a supercharged Coyote V8. Beat Ben Fink's '68 Camaro and Dean Rickard's HT Monaro in the final three |
Source: Street Machine event reports, January 2024 to January 2026.
Other awards fill out the weekend: Street Champion for cars that are regularly driven on the road, Top Judged Elite, the John Taverna Master Craftsman Award and, since 2019, Mulletfest. Don't confuse Grand Champion with Street Machine of the Year. That one is voted by the magazine's readers and handed over at a party in Canberra during Summernats week.
Up close, the judging comes down to detail most people walk past. Panel gaps, the finish inside the door jambs, wiring you can't see, the way a dash has been reshaped and trimmed. On a Top 60 car, the parts you'd never photograph get the same attention as the paint. That's the real competition, and it's why the best builds take years.
The cruise route, and the newer Summernats
When the cars aren't being judged or shredding tyres, they're cruising. The internal cruise route loops through EPIC with the crowd packed along both sides, and Street Machine calls it the Aeroflow Cruise Route. On Thursday, the City Cruise takes registered entrants onto Canberra's streets, and Saturday's Supercruise circles the oval.
The rules are stricter than the reputation. Summernats says there's zero tolerance for skids on the cruise route, and alcohol bought outside the grounds is banned. The event dropped its Miss Summernats pageant in December 2017 as part of a crackdown on harassment, and Andy Lopez told the Canberra Times the scene was about families.
It isn't spotless. After crowd trouble in 2023, organisers flagged a zero-tolerance approach, and at Summernats 38 police made six arrests at the event and eight more on ACT roads. Set against a crowd of 130,000, that's a long way from the event's rowdy early reputation. For 2027 there's a third pedestrian overpass over the cruise route, near Gate 7.
Source: Summernats draft program and Street Machine concert announcement, checked 21 October 2026. Summernats says the program will be confirmed closer to the event.
Can you enter your own car?
Yes, if it looks, sounds and performs well beyond factory standard, or it's more than 35 years old and in original condition. Summernats says you'll need a current, unrestricted driver's licence (no learners), and it takes cars only, not motorcycles. Only registered vehicles can join the City Cruise. Be warned: entries for Summernats 39 have already sold out.
That's normal. Entries for Summernats 37 sold out months ahead, the Canberra Times reported in March 2024, and about 80 entrants were evicted that year for bad behaviour. If you're planning for 2028, build early, register the car, and check your state's exhaust noise rules before you drive a loud one to Canberra.
How to go to Summernats 39 in January 2027
Summernats 39 runs from 7 to 10 January 2027 at EPIC, on Flemington Road in Mitchell. As of October 2026, an adult season pass costs $203.50 in the second release, a youth pass (11 to 16) $96.40 and a family pass for two adults and two youths $494.20, before any booking fees. Kids 10 and under go free with an adult or family pass.
The light rail stops at EPIC and Racecourse, directly outside Gate 2. There's no parking on Friday or Saturday without a pre-purchased pass, which costs $33.15 on Thursday and Sunday and $38.25 on Friday and Saturday. Free park-and-ride runs from Gungahlin, Well Station Drive and Lyneham, which is the easy way in on the big days.
Camping on site is powered or unpowered, opens on Thursday 7 January, and each camper still needs a season pass. Concerts are included in the pass. Day tickets go on sale later in the year, and prices rise with each release, so the earlier you buy the less you pay. Leave the dog at home: only assistance animals get in.
Why Summernats matters
Strip away the smoke and Summernats is a showcase for Australian craft. Plenty of winners come out of home garages and small shops, as Joe Bauer's Charger did, and the event gives that work a stage. It's big business too: research commissioned by the organisers says Summernats 37 injected more than $46 million into the ACT economy, with 47,500 visitors from interstate and overseas.
It's going global as well, with Summernats New Zealand set for Mystery Creek near Hamilton on 26 to 28 February 2027. For more from the custom scene, read our story on the first RWB Porsche ever built. If you've only ever seen Summernats on the evening news, go once. You'll leave smelling of rubber, half deaf, and with a lot of respect for the people who build these cars.
Source: Summernats and Street Machine
Via: Photos by Eva Rinaldi (Summernats 25, 2012) and Nick-D (2018 street parade), via Wikimedia Commons
