About 30 police were deployed after a gathering of more than 200 cars saw antisocial behaviour on the streets of Levin. Photo: NZ Police / Supplied
A weekend Levin car meet-up that descended into chaos has been labelled "ridiculous" and "disgusting" by car enthusiasts, who say those involved are damaging their community's reputation.
Dozens of police officers trying to disperse a gathering of more than 200 cars on Saturday night were pelted with rocks and bottles, injuring two police officers and damaging two police cars.
Two people were arrested and six cars impounded.
Rolando Rarere runs the Riverside car group based in Gore, and said he believed those involved were copying what they were seeing on social media.
"If you go on to Instagram you'll easily find these car meets in America, which is essentially exactly cut and paste what they're doing now, meeting up at a big intersection, right in the middle of town," he said.
"It's just causing an absolute ruckus and they don't seem to care about the general population."
The behaviour was "ridiculous" and a "big anti-authority exercise" - and there was no excuse for it, with plenty of controlled, organised events for people to do burnouts safely, Rarere said.
At proper burnout competitions and drag meets, people just had to pay a small fee to take part, emergency services were around and there was usually a big crowd that "really appreciates" the cars and burnouts, he said.
Rolando Rarere with his car at the Hardpark Takeover car show in Invercargill. Photo: Supplied / Rolando Rarere
Scenes like those in Levin would damage the car community's reputation and could see police cracking down on people with modified cars, he said.
"It puts us all on edge," Rarere said.
"From past experience when these things have come up in the media, especially something as major as what happened on the weekend, you can definitely feel the flow-on effects.
"Cops just really come down a lot harder ... you'll get pulled up a lot more, and you'll get questioned a lot more."
Southland car enthusiast Larissa Raroa described events such as the Levin car meet-up as "immature and irresponsible". Photo: Supplied
Another Southland car enthusiast, Larissa Raroa who runs the online community Boganesque, said the behaviour demonstrated in Levin was familiar.
She saw "underground" events like that unfolding regularly on social media, she said.
"It's really disgusting, a really immature and irresponsible response."
Meets she organised or attended in Invercargill were usually off the roads - for example at a park with lots of car parks, and away from playgrounds.
And during road cruises, they would regularly pull over to let people pass.
"We're not kind of, doing burnouts in the middle intersection in town," she said. And if one or two "silly people" did that, they would be spoken to by an organiser and encouraged to go home if their behaviour was unsafe.
The actions of those in Levin leant into negative stereotypes around safety and public nuisance, she said. While those were valid concerns, they did not apply to the entire car community.
"I sit here and I'm like, oh no, this is going to reflect [on] every single person, no matter how many good things we do, it reflects on everyone really negatively."
The community was good for people's mental health, providing a sense of belonging and "somewhere to be, something to do," Raroa said.
Some events were charity fundraisers, and the local economy benefited during car meets.
"For me, it's ... a passion that I can actually focus a lot of my energy into," she said.
"I find the positives endless, but you only have a positive if the negatives are controlled."