Drivers watch as $25,000 car burns out

Photo / Supplied

Owners of a prized race car used in a New Zealand film are said to be devastated after the vehicle was destroyed by fire while taking part in an event at the weekend.

Worth around $25,000, the car was left in a charred state after it caught fire while riding in this year's The CannonBall Run event, a street-legal car run from Albany to Kaikohe in the Far North, and back to Silverdale.

The car is known among race car enthusiasts after it featured in the New Zealand-made film and DVD series High Octane.

The accident happened while the owners of the car were heading towards Kaikohe on Saturday afternoon.

A photographer for the event, Nik Gilchrist, managed to capture what she called "a quick set of events".

Miss Gilchrist had been following the vehicles when the car in front of her stopped abruptly.

"We saw two girls stop and run out of the car with fire extinguishers. We thought, 'Oh it's another challenge!' and then we saw flames coming out of this other car."

She said the two occupants of that vehicle - a man and a woman - quickly got out but appeared to be reaching into the car to get various possessions.

"We found out later that they were getting their iPhones. But you could hear people saying, 'Get out of there, it's going to go!'

"We could hear popping noises coming from [the car] and then it just went 'boom!' The heat was just amazing. We were standing on the side of the road and you could feel it burning on your skin."

A large crowd gathered on a nearby bank and watched as the white car turned charred black.

"[The owners] just had that look of devastation - they couldn't believe it," she said.

"I heard the guy say: 'Oh f***! My wallet's in there!"

A fuel leak is believed to have caused the blaze, which was put out by a team of firefighters.

A media spokesman for the event said the couple had stopped at a petrol station just before the accident and believed that that was where things started to go wrong.

"They said they could smell petrol and then they heard a pop. They got out of the car and have sort of stood there and had to watch it go up in flames," he said.

The spokesman said he had talked to the owners and they were devastated the vehicle was not insured.

He said the incident had turned into "the talk of the event".

Participants armed with fire extinguishers tried to put out the blaze, however, when those efforts failed, the fire service was called.