SURROUNDED by hundreds of the nation's best looking and most skilfully engineered cars isn't where you'd expect to find a humble Maryborough-built car.

But among 1700 other cars at this year's Summernats in Canberra was Tony Carter's daily drive.

Mr Carter, who owns Carter's Customs in Tinana took 10 years to build his 32 Ford Roadster.

Designing and then building the car by hand, Mr Carter's Roadster is one of a kind.

But in an incredible achievement, the car, which even drew compliments from the Summernats founder, was allowed in the "elite" category.

"Chic Henry (the founder) came over and looked at the car and he was just gobsmacked," Mr Carter said.

"He said 'mate, we need to get this into the elite class'.

"It's what I've been working towards for 30 years," Mr Carter said.

With the cars around him costing about $300,000, the quality of Mr Carter's work was proven with his only costing about $60,000.

He finished three-and-a-half years ago and has driven the Roadster to work almost every day since.

In a good news business story, the Maryborough man hopes to employ more staff to his booming custom car shop.

Booked solid until October, Mr Carter completely restores pre-1967 cars and motorbikes.

Mr Carter said he had to thank his mates and tradespeople for helping to complete the car.