Indholdsfortegnelse for No 373 January 2022 i NZ Classic Car

Nothing quite epitomises Kiwi summer fun like this month’s featured beach buggy. Whether you owned one yourself, or knew someone who did, I’m sure you’ll have many fond memories of this quirky little bundle of fun. The season of joy, festivities, and good times is already upon us once again. It’s becoming clear time goes faster as our cars age. The lead-up to the festive season can be a stressful time for everyone, but this year has seen several layers of added anxiety and uncertainty for many Kiwis thanks to Covid. Unfortunately, many of us will not be able to spend Christmas with loved ones who are stuck overseas waiting for an MIQ spot, while the rest of us come to terms with the traffic light system, which will require…

GREAT MOMENT AT THE MOUNT Many will remember the great John Goss / Armin Hahne victory at Bathurst in 1985, backed up by Tom Walkinshaw / Win Percy finishing three laps down in third, the result convincingly silencing those who said the XJ-S would never make a successful racing car. It would be Jaguar’s only win at Bathurst, but the cars excelled in Europe until they were replaced by Rover SD1s. TRIBUTE Gary Johnstone’s striking green and white liveried XJ-S TWR Tribute Jaguar racing saloon, originally owned and raced by the late Doug Allen, is a tribute to the car raced by Armin Hahne and Denny Hulme. The Jaguar was badly damaged at Teretonga Park Raceway late in the 2016–2017 season when, shortly after the finish of the race, it…

The name McLaren is synonymous not only with Formula One but also with a higher breed of supercars. Some may know Bruce McLaren built a version of his McLaren M6 called the M6GT for the road. He wanted to get into the blossoming supercar market, but sadly Bruce died before this became a reality. The new managers at McLaren decided to focus on their bread and butter in the car racing industry, so development ceased. The world had to wait until 1982 for a change of heart and the launch of the now legendary McLaren F1 — the marque’s first official road car. The McLaren M6GT prototype was showcased in an earlier magazine (issue 354: May 2020) and in another issue, we looked at a later replica that was produced…

From the first Grand Prix held at Ardmore in 1954, until the penultimate event in 1961, the circuit had not only been rain-free but also had generally been baking hot, with minimal places to escape the relentless rays. We had the Americans to thank for the aerodrome located some 30km southeast of central Auckland and so, by extension, for a Grand Prix venue close to the largest population base. Constructed during World War II, it didn’t take long for enthusiasts to note that airfields at Goodwood and Silverstone in England had transitioned into speed facilities – and there were many others across the UK. In time Britain would become firmly established as the home of European motor racing, thanks in part to the number of readymade circuits that had quickly…

When one thinks of the Volkswagen Kombi, summer sun, surfboards, Simon and Garfunkel, and the mechanical chug-chug of an air-cooled engine spring to mind. Many who buy into the vehicle also dig the whole vibe, man. “It’s not just a vehicle; it’s a lifestyle. You can go camping with it; it’s small enough to be usable but big enough to be useful. They are also straightforward to maintain. It very much is a trip into nostalgia,” says Kombi fan and owner Stuart Hopewell. For Andrew Bayliss, Kombis are very much a way of life. “As a young guy in the ’80s, I went to the UK and travelled around Europe with a Kombi. Whether living in one or camping in one, it’s something that brought a lot of people together.…

Like a number of sensible young people tired of chasing the mirage of an affordable house in Auckland, Byron (Howie) Howard has moved to Clinton in South Otago. He has bought a property on the main street at a price Aucklanders would suspect had a zero missing. It comes complete with sheds and plenty of room to store and work on the cars Howie brought with him. It’s a tidy car collection, and they all run — except for the 1940s Hillmans, which of course are restorable. Howie has other projects to fund and the cars are all for sale for reasonable offers. They include Rovers, Triumphs, a Jaguar, and a rare Metro 1400 turbo. How rare is a super-quick Rover Tomcat? Howie has one and it looks in not…

Fancy a change of pace, with a local flavour? Check out Muscle Garage, which is now in its ninth season, filling a slot on CRC Motorsport on Sunday afternoons once again. As always, the show will present an in-depth look at the finest hot rod, street machines, and muscle cars on our shores, while also getting to know the talented Kiwis and characters who have put them together. The season runs for 10 consecutive weeks and thanks to the magic of the internet, the show is also hosted on The Motorhood YouTube channel so you can watch any previous episodes any time, anywhere. The show is made possible by sponsors Repco, Meguiar’s, Rislone, and Mount Shop. Events Diary Due to Covid-19 precautions, events may be postponed or cancelled. Please confirm…

On Sunday, 14 November the second annual Convertible Cruise was held under almost ideal weather conditions in Leithfield, North Canterbury. Assembling at the grassed oval at the Better Half Kitchen and Bar, a wide variety of vehicles registered to participate, from a very rare 1974 Volkswagen Type 181 to a 2021 Mazda MX-5. En route at Waipara the tour stopped to view a collection of mainly British ’60s vehicles in a variety of states of disrepair and a shop containing a large range of British car parts. Onwards we travelled through the Weka Pass and the lovely undulating Greta Valley scenic roads to lunch at the Scargill Domain. Rain was predicted — not ideal for open-top cars — but we lunched in sunshine and it held off until we motored…

A BUNDLE OF FUN Cars are great, obviously. But in the great tradition of the Kiwi summer holiday where you make your own fun — which we now need to like whether we like it or not — at least one of us has turned up extraordinarily well prepared. He’s always wanted a shiny Airstream caravan but after a long search, Nigel Teape managed to go one better and get the Rolls-Royce of alloy caravans — an Avion. In the meantime he’d picked up a classic mahogany lake boat and, to tow them, the summa cum laude of tow wagons — the American Range Rover — the Jeep Wagoneer. INTERCEPTOR The 1960s Jensen Interceptor was the right car for the right time, and its appeal to many is even stronger…

The dak-dak-dak of the beach buggy’s air-cooled engine spreads head-turning smiles wherever it goes. It has a timeless appeal but it also comes laden with more than a hint of nostalgia for the golden summers of youth, before ice creams — and suntans for that matter — became a guilty pleasure. The boom time for the beach buggy was the 1960s. They were invented then but volume manufacture screeched to a halt in the 1970s. New car legislation in the US outlawed things like open wheels and exposed engines, but the owner of this classic example, Rob Schrickel, says small-scale manufacture has bubbled along happily ever since. “They never really went away,” he says. Beach buggies reverted to being homebuilt from kits based on existing vehicle mechanicals. Homebuilds are supported…

To some, a Sandman is a pagan god who sprinkles sand on you to help you get a good sleep. Others will think of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. But to Holden fans, and classic car fans in general, a Sandman is first and foremost one of the coolest Holdens ever. To young Australian and New Zealand men of the day, the Sandman’s cocktail of sun, beach, camping, surfing, late-night yahooing and all the dusky promise of judiciously applied shag-pile carpeting, was too good to resist. When the original HQ Sandman was launched in 1974, Holden’s marketing team went all out to boost this image. Every Sandman that left the factory till 1980 sported a bright paint scheme, stripy decals, and a huge Sandman emblem in a psychedelic font blasted across the…

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It was to many the young mothers’ equivalent of a man in a van, and if it wasn’t exactly the boy racers’ first choice, it was still for many of them their first car. For every plain white example that was ferrying mum and the kids to the supermarket or play centre, there was another fitted out with a body kit, noisy exhaust, fancy wheels, lean back front seats, and back-to-front baseball caps. If you believe stories written by those dealers who were commuting from New Zealand, there were Japanese dealers who were throwing one of these into the deal for every five or six other cars purchased. All this went to make this car a very familiar sight on our roads. And, just as some former common and popular…

At first, I wondered if I’d driven up the wrong driveway. The car in the garage was an early Mustang resplendent in royal blue with two broad gold stripes, which was not what I was expecting. I knew that Rodger Anderson, who made his name in Minis and a BMW 2002, was a Porsche man these days — the other end of the spectrum from American muscle. I had no idea of his affection for Detroit iron. It didn’t take long to discover just how passionate this former Saloon Car Champion is about cars, as long as they’re interesting. Having turned 80 in June, he can look back at over six decades of having cars and motor racing as a central focus. I knew from his younger brother Donn (‘Motorman’)…

Have I mentioned before that I absolutely hate computers? Some of my previous employers had to ensure that my office windows never opened lest I tossed my computers out of them. Prior to penning this month’s column, I spent approximately seven hours trying to access my internet banking. I haven’t fixed the problem yet but I’m getting better: my laptop has not been defenestrated. Suffice to say I also prefer to avoid cars that have on-board computers, for a variety of reasons. In the good old days, when cars had ordinary odometers, clocking — i.e. winding them back — was easy to do, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of car retailers were caught doing exactly that to some imports. Digital odometers prompted hopes that clocking…

Today is Friday, 27 August 2021. We are in South Island lockdown day number 10. With a little time on my hands, which seems to be more rare these days as I get older, rather than the other way around, I have just read Ben Selby’s article in New Zealand Classic Car headlined Japan’s Rising Sun (issue 369: September 2021). Ben points out the rapid rising values of all model Mazda rotaries. I have first-hand knowledge of this. Let me explain. My son, Paul, went to Japan in 1986. This was before the multi Japanese imports invasion of all vehicles from The Land of the Rising Sun. He purchased a 1979 Mazda RX-7 Limited Edition series one. The limited edition has, in my opinion, a much nicer interior in three-tone…

Some positive news on the otherwise beleaguered motorsport front — Ultimate Rally Group boss Peter Martin is setting up an all-new Tarmac Rally Championship series to help focus both prospective entrants and fan interest on the three Targa events planned for 2022. Martin has also confirmed that the other major event on his books, the biennial international NZ Silver Fern gravel rally, will also go ahead later next year. The 2022 AASA Tarmac Rally Championship will consist of nine single-day rounds, two each at the two-day Targa Bambina (Hamilton, North Island, 12—13 March), and all-new Targa South Island (Nelson, South Island, 22—23 October) events, and five at the rescheduled 2021 Targa New Zealand (New Plymouth to Havelock North, North Island) event now set to run over a slightly modified course…

The Delta Rod and Custom Club’s Delta Break Out over Labour weekend was just what the doctor ordered after car shows were cancelled all over the South Island due to Covid. The Balclutha Showgrounds’ expansive grassed arena was an ideal venue. Club secretary Phil Mowat was pleased with the response and support from car clubs, despite testing requirements imposed by the current Covid-19 climate. “We came so close to cancelling but on the day it went very well. We had 97 entrants and 68 cars on the club run too,” says Phil. There was something there for everyone, no matter what your taste in cars, with some very impressive levels of workmanship on show. People’s Choice award went to Graham White’s 1968 Chevrolet Impala SS from Street Machines, Invercargill. Rodder’s…

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The classic Type 1 Beetle was designed to be the norm — the people’s car — but as it soldiered on, almost oblivious to rivals’ increases in performance, handling, space, comfort and equipment, it became a rallying point of car counterculture, acquiring a timeless appeal. The Herbie movies may have boosted its popularity in the US, where its contrast to mainstream vehicles was most marked, but around the world the car’s singular appeal produced a steady stream of buyers. Factories in Mexico and Brazil continued to churn them out with production in Brazil continuing until 1996, and the last of the original Beetles were produced in Puebla, Mexico, in July 2003. Toyota may claim to have sold more Corollas but those were really different cars that just happened to share…

“There seems to be something about our vehicles that introduces a sense of excitement like a wild animal. I believe we’re producing something that, if not alive, is the closest thing to it — it engenders a spirit of animation, agility, and pace” said Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Cars Ltd. The Jaguar marque turns 100 in 2022. Its reputation and legendary status were forged thanks to its achievements at the pinnacle of the golden age of motoring and motorsport in the mid 20th century. You don’t get far — I only made it to my second paragraph — before any discussion of Jaguar’s legacy invokes the marketing slogan ‘Grace, Space, and Pace’. It was the pace bit, and the value for money, that enchanted a whole lot of…

REX BENTHAM, JAGUAR MK II Rex Bentham’s immaculately presented car has been around the racetracks in New Zealand for some years, and Rex would like nothing better than to see a decent grid of Mark II Jaguars fronting up to race against him at the Historic GP at Taupō in January. Built in 1981 by Steve Thomson, LN1960, in its distinctive metallic brown paint, was raced at Manfeild, Ohakea, and Taupō. It passed through the hands of the late Mike Westall, then Mike Uhlenberg. Mike raced it until about 2006, when David Hunter of Rex repainted the body and fitted a rebuilt engine from an XJ6, now at 4.2 litres. Running three side-draught Weber carburettors, amongst quite a few other modifications, it now gives around 280bhp. Power is transmitted through…

Think Cadillac and most of us will picture its over-the-top ’50s models, with shark fins, bullet-shaped tail lights, curvy bodywork, and lashing of chrome and whitewall tyres, but the history of this luxury brand stretches back to 1902. A pint-sized piece of that early history lives right here in New Zealand. Laurie Cocker’s 1906 Cadillac Model M delivery wagon may be pushing 115 years, but it remains a proud reminder of Henry M Leland’s early ambitions. What would become a core General Motors brand rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of the original Henry Ford Company. Henry and a handful of key staff left the company in 1902, just a year after its founding. The Cadillac story began when Ford’s backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen had engineer Henry…

Breaking the magic 100 miles per gallon barrier, or 2.82 litres/100 kilometres, on a seven-day drive around the edges of mainland Britain was a challenge inspired by Dr Shigeru Miyano, a Japanese medical doctor who enjoyed a special connection with New Zealand. Shigeru had initiated successful fuel economy runs in the past, but his June 2000 attempt came with a significant difference. While today’s motoring world is now awash with electrically linked HEV, BEV, and EV vehicles, that seemed an unlikely alternative future 22 years ago. But Shigeru, a true pioneer of electric assisted motoring, pondered on the idea of using an early petrol/electric hybrid car to smash a fuel economy record as a pointer to the future. In August 1981, the good doctor visited Germany and the Nürburgring where…

I have just had the chance to read Rodger Anderson’s letter that was a reply to Henry Langguth about Mission Bay Motors’ Jim Green. As a teenager I knew Jim and his wife, Joan, when they ran a dairy in Kohimarama where I lived. I often talked to Jim about motor racing as we were in the same car club. My father leased the workshop, which became MBM, behind Westlakes service station in Mission Bay. I did my motor mechanic apprenticeship there. Jim asked me to help him modify his Mini and we bored it to 1100cc and did all the usual things for those days (648 cam, SU carbs, freeflow, etcetera), and when finished it went well. Jim, who, as Rodger said, was “hard to pin down” and a bit…

After purchasing this V-Special BRG Mazda MX-5 with tan interior and Nardi wooden steering wheel in October 2020, Kerry Gowan has been returning it to its former glory, starting with a full panel and paint job. While the car was stripped ready for respray, it was rust-proofed with wax in all internal cavities. Since then the MX-5 has received a new cambelt, radiator, and head gasket. Oil leaks have been repaired, shocks replaced with standard units, and SuperPro bushes fitted. Kerry has also refurbished a set of the correct wheels, as well as removed the bumpers and rust-treated all the metalwork. Rust was also removed from the front guards. Since purchasing this V-Special BRG Mazda MX-5, Kerry Gowan has been returning it ​ to its former glory Kerry has been…

The Repco Classic Car & Hot Rod Festival has sunshine and fresh air on its side in pushing ahead with the annual summer festival in Kumeu, north of Auckland. The event’s organisers also have guts and backbone, making it one of the only festivals left standing at the time of going to print. Let’s hope that as it is held outside and usually takes place on scorching summer days, it will give hesitant potential visitors confidence that it will go ahead safely. The 28th running will be held on 14–16 January 2022, and it will be as big as ever, with an expected 3500 cars and 100 bikes bringing, hopefully, around 25,000 people to the show, which now occupies the entire 16ha showgrounds site to capacity. More than 350 swap…

A fter cancelling the event in 2020, the Canterbury Mini Car Club was determined that Covid was not going to stop the 26th Mini Nationals. With some amazing organising skills and the lifting of the 100-person cap for outdoor events, the nationals were able to go ahead over Labour weekend in Christchurch. Registrations took place on Friday night with entrants being put into four coloured ‘teams’ for the weekend. This was done to manage large gatherings and encouraged plenty of banter and rivalry. The Minis were well spaced to allow for social distancing, the added bonus of this being the cars were well showcased instead of being packed in Saturday morning was designated for a variety of driving events at Mike Pero Motorsport Park. Entrants had the choice between the…