Interest in the Undie 500 has been lower than usual this year, a change the organisers have put down to shifting the date of the annual rally.
The rally, in which Canterbury University students travel from Christchurch to Dunedin in themed vehicles worth less than $500, has been held in the August mid-semester break since it began in the late 1980s.
This year's event is being held on Friday. Registration was held yesterday.
Carl Shrimpton, president of the Engineering Society of Canterbury University, which organises the rally, said organisers hoped to change the focus of the event by rescheduling it away from the August university mid-semester break in a bid to reduce drunken behaviour after the 2006 and 2007 rallies, and an unofficial event last year, all descended into disorder.
