ADELAIDE’S western suburbs awoke to some unusual traffic last Sunday morning as a LaFerrari and a Formula One car sped along the South Road Superway and through suburban streets.

Early morning motorists were surprised to see the Leyton House March, raced by Ivan Capelli in Adelaide in 1989, being unloaded on the roadside before taking off up the Superway on-ramp.

Across the road, Ferrari’s ultra-rare hypercar, which cannot be road registered in Australia, also took to the road and the pair of high-performance machines were escorted by police at a brisk pace through an industrial area of Wingfield where the streets are named after Adelaide-era F1 stars.

The southbound lanes of the Superway were then closed for two hours as the two cars stretched their legs across the elevated roadway, pursued by a film crew.

Later in the day, the Adelaide Motorsport Festival offered a cryptic partial explanation for the events, posting a single image on their Facebook and Instagram accounts: Not a lot of traffic on a Sunday morning in Adelaide … #RaceToTheCity

Later that day, the two cars were spotted among a gaggle of performance machines at the AMF’s CBD venue, Victoria Park. A small crowd quickly gathered before the cars where all driven away on trucks.

Adelaide Motorsport Event Director Tim Possingham confirmed the activities were part of filming for the new promotional film for the event.

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.

“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. 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.

The Festival has not released a full list of cars in the film, but the hybrid hypercar and the classic F1 machine will be joined on-screen by the new, Adelaide-built Brabham BT62. All of the cars in the film will appear at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which takes place on December 1 and 2.

“The film carries on last year’s theme of cars and drivers racing to get to the festival,” Possingham says.

“It encapsulates the sheer diversity of drivers and cars from around the world that gather for the Festival, which is the only event of its type in the southern hemisphere – a lot of people describe it the southern hemisphere’s version of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. At AMF you can get up close to the cars and drivers, and see a huge variety of vehicles, from Adelaide-era F1s, Le Mans racers, Can Am beasts, modern exotics, time attack weapons and all sorts of historic racers.”

Some of the film’s four-wheeled stars will appear on public roads again this year when they are 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.