Kim Dotcom loves fast cars so when the organisers of the annual Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally approached him about starting this year’s event in the grounds of the Dotcom mansion the high-profile internet entrepreneur was happy to oblige.

“Of course,” he said earlier this week,” I am a big supporter of Targa, I like the format of the event, where they close off the road and you can drive as fast as you like, very much, so when I was asked to be part of it I said yes immediately.”

Dotcom will open up the grounds of the Coatesville mansion for documentation and scrutineering on Wednesday October 30 and will flag the 130+ cars set to start this year’s event away early on Thursday October 31.

Members of the public are welcome to join him on Wednesday afternoon and evening with a shuttle bus running to and from the mansion from the nearby Coatesville School between 3.00 and 8.00pm and proceeds from ticket sales (available at www.targa.co.nz) going to the official Targa charity Kids In Cars.

“I want to be the host not just of the event but also for the visitors who want to come and check out the cars and the drivers,” says self-confessed ‘speed junkie’ Dotcom. “We will have food and drink vendors on site and I will be organising some fun things for the visitors to see and do while they are here.”

One of these already locked-in is on-the-hour runs up and down a section of the mansion’s driveway by drifter Cam Vernon behind the wheel of a limited edition Ferrari F430 Challenge Cup car!

This year’s is the 19th annual Targa New Zealand event with the 80+ competitors and 50 associated Targa Tour participants set to cover almost 650kms of closed special stages and 1225km of transport stages over four days, starting in Auckland and visiting New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Havelock North before ending in Taupo.

Multi-day Targa tarmac rally events attract people from all walks of life and with every imaginable type of car, from sophisticated hi-tech modern all-wheel-drive machines like the Nissan GTR-35 of current Targa New Zealand ‘King’ Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillett, to the classic early 1964 Fiat Abarth 1000 of New Zealand event stalwarts Mike Lowe and Phillip Sutton.

Back to try and make it five consecutive wins from five starts are Quinn and Tillett with competition again expected to come from local pairings Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn from Pukekohe in a new Mitsubishi Evo 8 and Targa Rotorua winners Leigh Hopper and Simon Kirkpatrick from Orewa in their Subaru Impreza.

Back to defend his Metalman Classic crown, meanwhile, is BMW M3 ace Barry Kirk-Burnnand, but this year the Auckland man will have to do it with another co-driver as son Steve steps up to a car of his own, a later model E36 Compact which he has entered in the Instra.com Modern 2WD class.

The 2013 Targa New Zealand tarmac rally has an official charity, Kids In Cars, and is brought to you with the support of sponsors Federal motorsport tyres, Instra Corporation, Metalman, NZ Classic Car magazine, TeamTalk, TrackIt and VTNZ.