The 12th annual Red CentreNATS car festival has drawn approximately 700 registered entrants to Alice Springs. More than half of the participants travelled from interstate for the four-day event.

The festival's program included drag races, burnout competitions, street cruising, a street parade, and show and shine displays of vintage and new muscle cars. The car displays were held both outdoors and inside the Alice Springs Convention Centre.

The event is estimated to boost the Alice Springs local economy by about $5 million each year. During the street parade, spectators lined the streets, with many watching from utes, deckchairs, and car roof-racks as hundreds of cars travelled around the town's largest roundabout.

Local volunteer Lisa Morgan said:

"Everyone bands together for the excitement, and the rumbles,"

Among the participants were Ben and Montana Taylor, who travelled from South Australia with a Ford Falcon XC 393 Stroker, and Paul Totani, who entered a 1984 Holden Kingswood ute into the drag races.