Event – Adelaide Motorsport Festival 2018

Adelaide Motorsport Festival is one of the premier motorsport events on the calendar! It allows the general public to get up close to a variety of machines and whilst not JDM specific it is well worth a look.

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival (AMF) itself combines multiple events such as the Adelaide Rally, Prima Tour and Victoria Park Sprint, along with other displays both static and moving (and not just cars but more on that later). I could go on for hours about what happened at each event but long story short, if you didn’t go make sure that you in the future! Unfortunately, for 2019, a funding change means that the festival will not be run the same way as it was in 2018 but it promises to return to full size in 2020. The event caters for so many different types of car lovers there is something for everyone.

Do you know about Frisco and Corlandi? They have a dream to take their 1969 911 Turbo to iconic destinations of the world! So far Australia and New Zealand have been crossed off the list with Japan next up in 2019. They were eager participants in the Prima tour component of AMF. Their 911 was then on display at the festival over the weekend next to the 70 years of Porsche celebration. If you want to see more of their adventure follow along on Instagram @frisco_911

Let’s take a quick run down through the 5 days of action, it all kicked off with the Adelaide Rally on the Wednesday, this year it ran over 4 days, culminating in a lap around the Victoria Park circuit on Saturday evening. Fortunately temperatures weren’t as hot as they had been in the past, the action was still as hot as ever though! (I apologise for that pun – there will be no more!).

This 33 GTR was super clean, a definite highlight!

The next day saw the Prima Tour kick off, this is the introductory component of the AMF where drivers (& their co pilot) can get involved in the action without the need for a race car and all the equipment that goes with it! I entered the Prima back in 2017 and I can say it is a good day out with like minded car enthusiasts, it definitely wets the whistle for more time behind the wheel! This year participants got to drive around the new Bend Motorsport Park and check it out first hand among, the other stages throughout the day.

The Prima tour saw the Australian public road debut of the new Ferrari 488 Pista. With Aussie racing legend Craig Lowndes behind the wheel no less!

It wasn’t only new models getting out and about for the Prima Tour.

I checked out some of the cars doing the rally as they awaited their turn to leave in the marshaling/pit area. This is a friends car, see more on his Instagram here.

Friday night is where the general public could really start to get a look at the action first hand! The ‘Peak Hour of Power’ cruise saw everything from Le Mans cars, classic Formula One cars, motorbikes and multi-million dollar hypercars drive from Victoria Park, through the CBD and into Gouger street meeting up with the Adelaide Rally participants. Once the cars were parked it allowed everyone to get up and close with their favourite machines, a great chance to get close to cars you might otherwise not be able to. I wandered around and had a look at what was on show, plenty of highlights!

A full blown race Aston Martin cruising through the City of Churches? Tick!

One of 918 limited Porsche 918 hypercars in the iconic Martini Livery? Tick!

Once the cars hit Gouger street they were parked up allowing people to get close to some of their favourites!

This year some Le Mans legends were billed as some of the highlights of the event.

It wasn’t all just former race cars with the ‘holy trinity’ out on display. Believed to be the first time a Porsche 918, McLaren P1 and A Ferrari LeFerrari have been together on Aussie roads!

I spotted this classic Skyline leaving the area…

After Friday night’s event the action kicked off bright and early Saturday at Victoria Park and continued well into Sunday evening. Here all makes of cars (& other machines!) either on or display or being driven around the circuit that contained a portion of the old F1 & current Adelaide 500 circuit. Make no mistake either there were some drivers who weren’t holding back even though it wasn’t a ‘race’ as such! The great thing about an event like AMF is there is always something on track and if you need a break from that there was plenty of static displays, with the owners generally never being far away so the general public could really interact. I hope this accessibly is something that stays as the event no doubt continues to grow.

With the pits so accessible to the general public it allowed greater interaction with the cars and drivers. Everyone we saw was very respectful – top marks Adelaide!

Remember how I said it was not just cars at AMF? As always there was a large number of motorbikes either on display or being ridden around the sprint circuit. There was also a plane… yes you read that right, a plane! Redbull Air Race pilot Matt Hall was keeping the crowd entertained over lunch, not that you would want to have eaten lunch before flying with Matt! The loops, turns and G Forces would surely challenge even the most iron clad stomach…

A plane just casually performing tricks above the crowd, told you AMF isn’t a one trick pony…

Another highlight (well the whole event is just a highlights reel isn’t it?!) was seeing the Australian built (well South Australian actually!) BT62, this machine sounds insane – its 5.4L V8 being pushed was a glorious treat for the ears.

The Brabham was on the track in all its glory!

There was a crowd around the car all day.

Of course there was plenty of other track focused machinery on show and out on track, Maranello was strongly represented as one would expect! We have been fortunate enough to see some of these cars at the AMF before, not that one really tires of seeing & hearing them.

Talking about on track shows, it was fantastic to see the ‘holy trinity’ being pushed in a closed environment, the tyre’s squealing as various drivers wound them up around the circuit.

Making sure it was not only the Italian marquees impressing on track a strong field of Porsche’s were making the most of their track time – the speed of these cars compared to ‘road’ cars is always mind blowing.

I will leave it at that for 2018 but make sure to keep scrolling and check out all the images below. As the festival continues to grow I have no doubt its appeal will grow and people will all over Australia & the world will be saying ‘Are you going to Adelaide Motorsport Festival?’.

Bonus Images: