A quick glance across the road revealed an equally surprising sight being unloaded, Ferrari’s ultra-rare hypercar, LaFerrari, which cannot be road registered in Australia.
Unloaded and ready to roll the pair of high-performance machines took to the road and were escorted by local police at a brisk pace through an industrial area of Wingfield, famously known for its streets named after Adelaide Era F1 legends.
The Adelaide Motorsport Festival offered a cryptic partial explanation for the events later in the day, posting only a single image on their Facebook and Instagram accounts: Not a lot of traffic on a Sunday morning in Adelaide … #RaceToTheCity. This kept to public guessing at what could have coaxed out these beautiful beasts.
Later that day, the two infamous cars that caused quite the stir were spotted in a crowd of equally gorgeous and powerful performance cars at the Adelaide Motorsport Festivals Main Venue, Victoria Park. Before the small crowd that had quickly gathered could get any bigger, the cars were all swept away on the back of trucks off to another location.
Tim Possingham, Adelaide Motorsport Event Director, confirms the activities were part of filming for the new promotional film for the event.
Back in 2017, Possingham directed Race to the City, a short film featuring a trio of F1 cars, a 1970s touring car and a Ducati Superbike racing through the centre of Adelaide. The film was a viral hit, being seen by more than 2.5 million people around the world. This inspired the next stunt!
“Race to the City was a great success for us last year, so we’re doing a more elaborate version for 2018,” Possingham says. “We started filming in Italy in May, and have done several shoots around South Australia, including in the Murray Mallee and the Adelaide Hills, as well as the scenes we shot in the north-western suburbs of Adelaide last weekend.
Possingham goes on to say "As with last year we are grateful for the amazing support and assistance we have received from SA Police, DPTI and other regulatory bodies. Thanks to this help we have been able to capture some incredible footage that really captures some of the wonderful tourism regions that are so close to the capital city here in SA.”
The film’s stars include Italian F1 stars Ivan Capelli and Pierluigi Martini, Le Mans winner and F1 driver David Brabham, British Rally Champion and WRC driver Alister McRae, Supercars stars Craig Lowndes and Tim Slade, and Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall.
There is not a full list of cars that will be seen in the film available yet, however, Adelaide Motorsport Festival has confirmed that the hybrid hypercar and the classic F1 machine will be joined on-screen by Adelaide's very own Brabham BT62.
Some more of the film’s four-wheeled stars will appear on public roads again this year. They will be joined by other rare and exotic vehicles for the Peak Hour of Power, a brisk parade through the city to Gouger St on Friday, November 30 to join a free street party to kick off the Festival.
Race to the City 2018 is due for release on October 18 through Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to follow the @adelaidemotorsportfestival Facebook page for updates.
