Over the Merdeka weekend, we had the pleasure of attending Summernats Malaysia 2014 at the Sepang International Circuit. A weekend with a mixture of hot machinery, burning rubber and sweet, loud trumpets blaring away till kingdom come. Add in some race queens to the mix and you’ll get a car geek’s ultimate dream come true.
What is Summernats?
What it is, is an annual car festival that started in Canberra, Australia in 1988. Created by Chic Henry, Summer Nationals (Summernats) is Australia’s biggest auto event that is held over a period of 4 days. It features insanely modded hotrods and utes, vintage automobiles, beautifully airbrushed machines, parades, burnout competition as well as a dyno challenge. Oh and not forgetting the Miss Summernats pageant.
To many Malaysians, Summernats is a mystery as this is the first one held here. So it is a pleasant surprise when we were invited to sample what it is all about. The event also happen to coincide with the 12-hour Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race, so all the more reason for us to attend.
So for our local chapter, the event is packed with activities ranging from a gymkhana event organised by UltraRacing, an auto fair, car and bike test drive demo, safety campaign demos, competitions for car & bike mods, custom paint jobs, a bazaar and the list goes on.
What really attracted us were the cars on exhibition. Cars like the modern wonders that are the Lotuses, Mercedes SLS AMG supercar, as well as the McLaren 650s and MP4-12C hanging out in the paddock car park.
The main highlights were the rare classics that were graciously loaned by private collectors, like the pair of VW Karmann Ghia, the legendary Shelby AC Cobra, the beautiful Eleanor Shelby Mustang GT500, a flaming Lamborghini Countach, a DMC DeLorean all the way to the exquisite Ford GT40 and the Porsche 917 & 919 Hybrid LeMans racers.
Excuse us while we attempt to clean up the drool from the carpet floor.
We have to admit that we missed quite a few of the other events. Not because they were not exciting, rather, we couldn’t possibly keep up. One thing we were fortunate to catch though, this gorgeous 1912 Ford Model T being reverse parked.
Noteworthy
Hordes of patriots gathered at the track on the wee hours of Merdeka Day itself, attempts were made for entries into the Malaysian Book of Records. The categories attempted were the Biggest Summernats Car Gathering, Biggest Summernats Bike Gathering as well as Biggest Merdeka Summernats Bicycle Gathering. On top of all that, many signed up for the 11.08km Merdeka Run that covered 2 full laps around the circuit.
Enjoy the pictures while we recuperate from the heat.
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