While there will be a focus on the battle for overall honours one category in particular that should not be overlooked is the Classic competition for older cars.

When the late John Large announced the five-day closed-road event would be held in 1992 he claimed "Targa Tasmania will be a multi-million dollar mobile motorshow to cater for the earliest cars to the very latest cars".

In the early years some wonderful older generation cars proved to be very popular with spectators but as the event became more competitive and tougher the numbers dropped off.

Sadly the media focus favoured the battle for outright honours and it's only in recent times other categories received the coverage they deserve.

This year, of the ten competition categories, there are 28 entries in the Classic competition which has been matched by the Early Modern entry and that is significantly more than the other eight.

There are 18 different marques in the Classic field ranging from the 1955 Austin A30 of long-time competitors Simon and Amanda Davison to the 1985 BMW E30 of Peter Gluskie and Samantha Winter.

Others in the line up include a 1960 Aston Martin DB4, a rare Studebaker Avanti, XC Falcon Cobra Coupe, Fiat 131 Abarth, Ferrari 308 GTB, Volvo 122S, Holden Monaro, Ford Escort, Triumph P1, Mazda RX7 and various Porsches and BMWs.

The Paul and Christine Freestone Aston Martin would be worth over $600,000 and has previously been campaigned by the long-time Targa Tasmania competitors.

The Classic competition is the only category determined on handicap with a number of factors taken into account to establish a Vehicle Performance Table from which each car has a specific time added to the base time for each stage.

Last year the winner was the six-cylinder GMC Jimmy Special of Graham Copeland and Josh Herbert, but for this year they have been moved to the Vintage category.

That will leave the door open for Ashley Yelds and Charlie Hughes in the Volvo 122S who finished second and David Gilliver and Nigel Shellshear in the Ferrari 308 GTB who finished third.

The Studebaker Avanti made its debut in Targa Tasmania last year and created a great deal of interest, not just because of it's most unusual styling but also because of stunning build quality and presentation.

It looked far to good to be competing and was a credit to long-time competitors Peter and Sari Ullrich.

Another very interesting entry is the Fiat 131 Abarth Rallye replica of Nik Prieston and Dylan Braithwaite which was based on the car that carried the great Walter Rohrl to his world rally championship win in 1980.

Theoretically, with this handicap system, everyone has a chance to win which is not the case in the other categories.

In the very competitive Early Modern category there are eight different marques from the period 1986 to 2007 and they include Mazda MX5, RX7 SP and RX8, Holden Commodore, Porsche 964, GT3, Cayman, 968 and 996 turbo, Nissan Skyline, BMW Z4, Renault Megane, Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru WRX.

This looks set to be a very competitive category with a couple of major very successful teams making the transition to Early Modern.

Peter Nunn and Keith Johnstone have more recently been competing in the outright GT2 category in a Porsche Cayman GTS and have worried the big guns with their performances.

They have now moved into a 2001 twin turbo Porsche 996 which has more recently been campaigned by two-time Targa Tasmania winner Tony Quinn.

This car has had quite a chequered history having been previously rallied by 2016 Targa Tasmania winner Matt Close and his wife Cass.

Nunn and Johnstone start favourites to win Early Modern and are definite contenders to finish well inside the top ten overall.

Craig Haysman and Julie Boorman have previously competed in a Triumph TR8 with success and more recently in a late model Chevrolet Corvette but now they have moved to an R33 Nissan 400R.

If we get a wet Targa Tasmania, which is quite on the cards, these two teams will have a distinct advantage by having four-wheel drive.

Former race driver turned gravel and tarmac rally driver Adam Kaplan and co-driver Aleshia Penny will be in the mix in the BMW M3 CSL based on previous strong performances and like the two teams above are very familiar with the roads.

Guy and John Lilleyman finished third last year in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and must be considered podium finishers again.

At the time of writing father and son Howarth combination were not listed in their very successful R33 Nissan GTR, but if they are competing they will certainly be in the mix.