Warwick Thornton prepares modified 1970s Toyota FJ 40 'bull chaser' for Red CentreNATS debut in Alice Springs

Acclaimed Kaytetye filmmaker Warwick Thornton has a tongue-in-cheek warning about his entry into this year's Red CentreNATS in Alice Springs.

"You probably need a tetanus shot to actually drive it," he says.

But the truth is the Cannes Film Festival Camera d'Or winner, whose landmark films Samson and Delilah and Sweet Country have cemented him as one of Australia's finest directors, has always loved cars.

Finding and buying them, Thornton then spends hours tinkering away in backyards and sheds across Alice Springs until their engines burst to life and roar.

This year, Thornton is making his Red CentreNATS debut with a beast: a heavily-modified, 1970s Toyota FJ 40 "bull chaser", rebuilt to chase and catch scrub bulls in the harsh Northern Territory outback.

He says his car fixation is linked to his film expertise.

"Where they intersect is in storytelling," he says.

"There are so many great Australian films about car culture and I was watching that even before I thought I'd be a cinematographer, let alone a director.

"It's always been a part of me."

A Northern Territory icon

The Mad Max-esque automobile is by no means Thornton's prettiest car, but it has been a passion project for about 10 years after he and his son, filmmaker Dylan River, brought it back to Alice Springs from the Top End.

Bull chasers are stripped-down, short-wheelbase four-wheel-drives, fitted with heavy bull bars, reinforced steel sides and gutted interiors, made for tearing through rough terrain.

"I found it under a big old mango tree, covered in bat shit, rotting — just completely rotting," Thornton says.

In the hulk of rusting metal, Thornton saw the potential to preserve a piece of station history, dreamed up out of necessity.

"These things were built to get in there, give [bulls] a tap with those tyres on the front, or give them a slap on the arse with that big side plate there, and push him out where there would be a bull catcher [with a mechanical arm] waiting," he says.

"I have such love and respect for this, this would have been flogged."

Amber Driver, who owns Elkedra Station, about 400 kilometres north of Alice Springs, says station workers are still using similar vehicles to muster cattle.

"[They are] quite an iconic part of the Central Australian and also Northern Australian cattle industry," she says.

But unlike most working bull chasers, Thornton and River have installed a shiny new V8 engine in theirs.

'Michelangelo of the bush'

Red CentreNATS is a sister festival to Canberra's Summernats, celebrating all things horsepower with dozens of high-octane events across four days, including burnout competitions, drag races, a street parade and even a mullet-off.

The festival, which begins today, is an economic boon for the town, as more than 50 per cent of the 700 entrants to descend on the Red Centre each year travel from interstate.

Festival organiser Andy Lopez says part of the magic is the special permit available across the weekend which allows motoring enthusiasts driving heavily modified cars that aren't usually allowed on the roads to participate.

"This might sound a bit soppy, but in the end, these vehicles are an outpouring of love," he says.

"They represent the personality of not just the owner, but the people behind it and with that comes meaning."

Although Thornton will not be participating in the street parade — his bull chaser doesn't have brakes because "you don't really need brakes in the bush" — he will be parking it up at the show and shine for all to see.

"It's a work of art, a Michelangelo of the bush," he says.