All In For Adrian cruise proves Canberra's car community has a heart of gold

Any notion of Canberra being nothing more than a haven for porn, politicians and fireworks was blown out of Lake Burley Griffin over the weekend, with hundreds of car enthusiasts putting their money where it matters for a fellow community member in need.

You may know Adrian Woodley for his '67 Camaro that hit the Top 20 on debut at Summernats 26 in 2013, which managed to hold its own among the mega buck builds despite Adrian, an auto electrician by trade, having done most of the work at home.

Sadly fate has taken a terrible turn for Adrian, having since been diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.

The truly terrible punchline is that Adrian's wife Rachel and young son Lincoln are also dealing with this challenge.

Enter top local performance workshop Profection Automotive in Hume, run by local legends Pete and Jaala Hamilton with Steve Polglase, Graeme Le Lievre, Adam Schliebs and tuning guru Kit Hunter, who organised the All In For Adrian charity cruise last Saturday to help make life a little easier for Adrian and his family.

The Profection team have also previously tuned Adrian's current ride, a VK Blue Meanie replica with a 6.0-litre LS and a big single turbo.

As a reformed Canberran and Friday night Braddon cruiser from its heyday, it was a no-brainer for me to bring Team OverSteer on board, particularly when our friends at Jeep offered a Hellcat-engined Grand Cherokee Trackhawk to join the cruise.

What better way to knock over 300km of Hume Highway from Sydney before 0830 than aboard the world's most powerful SUV, which also happens to have every important convenience and comfort feature you could want?

You've got to get up early to beat Team OverSteer, particularly when we're packing 707hp. (image: Malcolm Flynn)

It was clear that most of its 522kW and 868Nm wouldn't be put to use at the 110km/h limit, but it's chuckleworthy that the Trackhawk's extensive driver telemetry indicated we were using just 48kW to do the job!

This also helps to explain how we managed to record a pretty impressive 14.12L/100km (at the pump) figure for the trip down, which is a surprisingly big chunk beneath its 16.8L/100km official combined number. This is about what we'd expect from a new petrol LandCruiser or Patrol, and they don't have over 700hp at the ready!

As we rolled up to the cruise's kickoff point at the Eaglehawk rest stop on Canberra's northern border, we were instantly reminded of just how healthy Canberra's car scene is for a town with such a straighty 180 reputation.

About 200 cars from seemingly every corner of car culture lined up for the run to Hume. Even a few dozen bikes rocked up for the early Saturday show of support.

There seemed to be even more when we got to Profection, but it's fair to say our Trackhawk won the unofficial Mopar muscle award, even though our all-wheel drive layout precluded us from proving the point with a charity dyno run. The Profection team also laid on a sausage sizzle, jumping castle and ice cream truck, with proceeds all heading to Adrian and his family.

If you'd like to help out Adrian and his family, please hit up their gofundme page here.