Two Northland farmers have come up with a novel way to express their boyracer tendencies - from the comfort of their own couch.
Hikurangi dairy farmers and neighbours Clims Lammers and Jesse Bagley wowed the 2000-strong crowd with their modified four-wheeler at the 6th annual burnout competition in Dargaville on Saturday.
The
duo bought a Mitsubishi car, stripped most of it then threw in a second-hand couch for that "special look" and speed on the tracks.
They won $500 in the four-cylinder class category and a further $100 for their most unusual vehicle. It was the first time Mr Lammers had entered in the competition which had prize money of $10,000.
"It was awesome ... a really good day, although it started raining in the end but I don't think there was anybody amongst the crowd who didn't enjoy it."
He built a similar couch car last year and it featured on Campbell Live.
"Most people liked my idea and I thought it was much faster and better and it went really well on Saturday."
Mr Bagley helped build most of it.
"The whole thing was built from scratch. It took us two weeks and we used to start after work and go until midnight."
Watch out - their special car will soon go on Trade Me.
"In the last round, we took the steering wheel off, had a drink, and put the steering wheel back on," he laughed.
Mr Lammers is an avid car enthusiast and participates in offroad races annually.
On what he plans to introduce in next year's burnout competition, he said: "It has to be a V8."
Car enthusiasts from all over the region converged on the area to smell the burning rubber as about 40 vehicles offered up prolonged burn outs.
At least two competitors laid it down so thick they had to rush from their cars after the engines caught fire.
Members of the Dargaville volunteer firefighters were on hand to quickly quell the flames.
Event owner Shane Vuletich was disappointed the numbers were down on previous years but put that down to rain.
However, Whangarei band Tempist Fugit kept the crowd dancing into the night.
Mr Vuletich said the skid pad was on his family land which he opened up to competitors a week before the event to practise.
Police, officials from Vehicle Testing NZ and court bailiffs put up a checkpoint before the competition and it's understood some vehicles were seized.
The event was filmed by Close Up and is scheduled to show this week.
