Quality entries for the Otago Rally are being confirmed daily, with defending classic rally champion Neal Bates the latest to sign up.
The four-time Australian Rally Champion won last year's Otago Rally in convincing style, and will return with co-driver Coral Taylor, and the same Toyota Celica he drove to victory in 2013.
They will be going head-to-head with a former world rally champion, Frenchman Didier Auriol, in a Ford Escort RS1800, at the May 10-11 event.
Auriol, an ex-Lancia and Toyota WRC star, competes regularly in his own Escort and is expected to be right on the pace.
Bates will be joined by fellow Australian and Otago Rally regular Jeff David, who has finished on the classic rally podium before. He will drive the Porsche 911 that took him to victory in last year's Alpine Rally in Australia.
''I think the attraction, apart from the incredible roads, is the depth of the classic competition in New Zealand,'' Bates said.
''The New Zealanders have been doing classic rallying for a lot longer, so they have a lot of really strong cars and drivers.''
Among the top New Zealand contenders will be Gore's Derek Ayson, who is one of only two drivers to win the event three times.
He scored a hat trick of victories from 2009 to 2011 and said he would be ''trying for the elusive fourth title'' in his Nissan-powered Ford Escort.
It has had a ''couple of wee tweaks'', and Ayson commended his ''amazing'' engine builder Peter Kennard, of Christchurch, for giving him such a competitive car.
Former classic rally winners Deane Buist and Brian Stokes have also confirmed they would enter again this year.
Dunedin's Emma Gilmour has announced her intention to compete in the second round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, at Otago, and joining her at the pointy end of the field will be Masterton's Richard Mason.
Other four-wheel drive entries in the national class include Palmerston North drivers Brian Green, in a Mitsubishi Evo X, and Lance Williams, in a Subaru WRX R4. David Holder, of Tauranga, has entered in a Mitsubishi Evo 8, and Timaru's Darren Galbraith in an Evo 6.
Christchurch's Marcus Van Klink intends to return with his Mazda RX7 to the NZRC's classic category.
