Summernats surprise for cancer patient

For Dennis Deane, 2015 was a year to forget.

First, he was diagnosed with cancer. Then came the intense treatment. Soon after, his son was involved in a serious car accident and left in a coma for a couple of months.

"Dennis had a real tough year," said good friend Steve Mommsen.

But he began 2016 with a smile, thanks to Steve and his business partner, Jason Bobruk.

The pair own an auto restoration shop in Queanbeyan and pulled together a group of mates to get Dennis's prized 1962 Pontiac Laurentian ready for Summernats 29.

For the past 10 years it had been sitting in Jason's garage, where he worked on it "on and off". But Dennis' plight gave them the drive to get it finished and put it on display at Canberra's Exhibition Park this weekend.

"It's been a massive push," Steve told AAP. "The car was actually only painted on Boxing Day.

"We had about 12 to 14 guys working on the car fulltime - every day except for Christmas Day - right up to when we unveiled it on Friday night.

"We were doing close to 1000 hours a week on this car, which would be a couple of years work for a guy in a shed."

Dennis, who is on the mend but still unwell, flew from Queensland to see the car for the first time in 18 months.

In that time it's been given a new engine, gearbox, suspension, and full custom bodywork, paint and interior all built in-house by Real Steel.

"He was shocked," added Steve. "It was actually a really, really lovely night. Dennis was quite emotional about the car because it means a lot to him and his son."

The shiny black Pontiac with chrome highlights was, in fact, the original Summernats promotional vehicle more than two decades ago.

Back then, according to Steve, it was white with stickers. But it's new-found beauty had the eye of thousands of revheads who poured through the gates on Saturday - traditionally Summernats' biggest day.

It's one of more than 1800 cars on display at the 29th edition of the street car festival, which runs until Sunday.

About 100,000 people are expected to attend the event over the four days.

"Summernats is a wild and crazy event with a lot of moving parts, but the audience have been really well behaved," said co-owner Andy Lopez.

The Summernats grand champion and burnout champion will be crowned on Sunday.