Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i NZ Hot Rod

MAL and Jill Hurrell of Christchurch Rod & Custom Club have built, owned and rebuilt many hot rods since his first (a T-bucket in the early eighties), and they all seem to have the right ingredients of good taste, sound engineering, great stance and vibrant use of colour. Mal has also built hot rods for others and currently has quite a collection of hot rods and classics. Back in 2020, Mal was checking online with a longing for a '36 Ford 3-window Coupe and discovered a gent named Keith Hefner from Garrett, Indiana, a former Chief of Police no less, had had one in his garage since the early sixties, having bought it from a guy who was building it into a drag car. After owning it for nearly sixty…

THE USA Day, organised by Stateside Streeters, is one of the country's longest-running events, which must be nearing 40 years. This year, there were 275 cars on display, and the entire weekend was weather perfect. The variation of vehicles was amazing and always attracts a lot of unusual vehicles. The weekend starts with the Friday night cruise, and the Saturday show always draws good crowds.…

LAST month, we broke coverage of the 75th Anniversary of the Grand National Roadster Show with Part 1. This month, we've extracted another selection of the outstanding hot rods on display at the milestone of the world's longest-running indoor car show. Over 500 show vehicles competed for awards inside the six Fairplex buildings. At the same time, another 400-800 cars participated in the 19th Annual Grand Daddy Drive-In and parked between the buildings each day as part of the show, while the hot rod industry was represented by 215 vendors. There was a strong contingent of Kiwi rodders on hand to absorb the finer details and the latest and greatest of American hot rodding on show. Kiwi hot rod fabricator Nakija Klaus attended and said, “I'm just a massive fan…

THE 1948 Ford Bonus was originally assembled at the Ford Plant in Lower Hutt, which opened in 1936. Lower Hutt, near Wellington, was the ideal choice for its location; it had a prerequisite port that was well-developed and had good road & rail connections, which gave it good access to and from all parts of the country. During the six years of WW II, Ford Motor Company, Lower Hutt produced 10,423 vehicles, including Bren Gun carriers as well as 5.7 million hand grenades and 1.2 mortar rounds! I wonder how Health & Safety was monitored within the factory in those times. In the summer of 1948, the Bonus Pickup rolled off the assembly line and was transported to its first owner in Dunedin. There, it was used on a local…

2025 MARKED the 20th Nostalgia Drags event organised by Bay Rodders. They are to be applauded for hosting this popular event that has proved so popular that the kids and grandkids of those who competed 20 years ago are now well and truly behind the wheel and competing themselves. But experience comes with age, and at the end of the day, there were a number of “mature” winners stepping up at prize giving to collect their trophies. Numbers were down slightly this year due to the horrendous weather on the Thursday and Friday prior. The forecast for Saturday was fine, but there were still scattered showers that slowed proceedings and sent a few of the spectators home early. But the event T-shirts still sold out, and there was plenty of…

CAN you get too much of a good thing? Apparently not. To celebrate the 25 years of the Beach Hop and the official “end of an era” for Noddy Watts and several others of his hardworking team that had been there from the start, entries were opened for up to 2035 cars. He is not disappearing completely and has stated he will become an entrant from next year. Yeah right! As per normal, everything ran like clockwork with unconfirmed news that $42,000 worth of t-shirts were sold on Tuesday before the official start. There seemed to be large crowds right from the start. Wednesday was the regular Waihi Warm-Up party, which was hot in every way, with most of Hawaii's population in residence to view the cars. The destination for…

HOSTED by Matamata R&CC on a fine Sunday, March 23, the event is usually a forerunner to the Beach Hop and uses the more spacious venue of Bedford Park. Due to many committee and club members being out of town for various reasons, it was decided to hold a smaller swap meet at the clubrooms on the state highway 24 approach to Matamata. But that didn't stop a brisk changing of goodies and notes from a 7 am start till way past lunch/beer time. Many old faces had a good catch-up and the traditional showing of car candy.…

Footprints RAY Carter's Road Hog from 1972 is one of a few New Zealand hot rods that seemed to strike a chord with many rodders past and present over the years. One such man was Mark Stokes, who remembers seeing the pinup feature of the car in the June 1972 issue of NZ Hot Rod Magazine and thought it was one of the coolest things he had ever seen. Mark was 15 years old at the time and never imagined he would actually get the opportunity to own the real car many years later. Road Hog was based on a shortened Model A 4-door sedan with the front doors removed and wildly raked. The Road Hog name came about from the car as it was being mocked up on the…

THE 2025 Hot Rod Blow Out hosted by The Scroungers would have been the biggest since being held at Meremere Dragway. Almost shoulder to shoulder, walking amongst the cars. It is a full day of entertainment featuring bands, DJs, the fundraising auction and, if you stayed long enough, free Panhead beer. Four bands took to the stage, and the DJs included one of last year's honourees, Murray Cammick. Being on the Sunday of Beach Hop, many people from down South and overseas called by to check out the cars at the iconic venue. A group from Australia were really impressed by the lack of fenders, open exhausts and most likely assumed that all were driven there. South Islanders said it was great to see the likes of Baloo and Road…

WELL-KNOWN Ford flathead lover and builder of many hot rods over the years, Jim Hanham from Cambridge passed away aged 72 years on 23rd December 2024. He had been an original member of the Stragglers and other clubs before that and was known for importing and rebuilding a fair number of 50s classic cars, but he also had a penchant for ‘34 Fords. He has previously and still owned a number of them up until his passing. Of note was his 241 Dodge Hemi powered ‘30 Model A roadster pickup and his blue ‘34 Roadster that he chased after and purchased from Brian Clements a few years ago. It was an original car built in the ‘60s by Keven McGreal and found alongside the Dave Mischewski ‘36 Ford 5-Window Coupe.…

THIS was the 6th annual Model A Day and a memorial day acknowledging the passing of Chris Hornblow. Held on his spacious grounds at Oratia, West Auckland, Sixty-three Model As of all styles, from stockers to high-end hot rods, attended the event, which will be billed as Hornie's Memorial Day from now on. Trouble Bound Club has stepped up to man the potluck BBQ for the last few years. There is one award, Hornys Pick, and it's a trophy originally from the 1970 National Model A Meet in Milwaukee that Squeak Bell donated. The winner was the ‘29 Sedan “Raymondo”, which is jointly owned by Steve & Ange Miller and Shane & Mary-Rose Adlington.…

WHEN Boris Johnson recently described Donald Trump as being “like an orange-hued dirigible exuberantly buoyed aloft by the inexhaustible primus stove of his own ego”, I couldn't help but notice he has a similar way with words as Christchurch rodder and Garage regular Shane Oldfield, son of long-time rodder Roger Oldfield, which could be considered unfortunate for Roger. Shane can be uncomplimentary about many things in the car scene, including high tech, big buck, large diameter wheels, the smooth look, the billet look, bling in general, and for that matter, most cars that aren't Model A Coupes. Shane owns a Model A Coupe. Always quick with an insulting one-liner, even directed at himself on occasion. “When I first met Wendy, she didn't like me. But I grew on her. Like…

THIS all-steel, unchopped 1932 Ford 3-window Coupe was purchased a few decades back as a driving flathead powered car imported from Australia by Auckland hot rodder Roger Hancox (Frog) R.I.P. Although a complete, driving car, it was apparent that it had a few issues. At some stage, a new floor from a 5-window coupe had been welded in, vastly different from a 3-window floor. Eventually, the coupe ended up in Masterton, owned by Kevin Topham. He owned it for a long time and basically just kept having fun with it. The car was as imported with a well-used flathead V8, early ‘30s Ford top loader 3-speed gearbox and flathead rear end. Enter Mark Barton; he was browsing through a bunch of classified advertisements at the 2019 Rebel Roundup and spotted…

IF YOU happen to attend Squeak Bell's Annual March Meet, you can always be guaranteed to be the first to see the latest, something that won't have been displayed anywhere prior. It is often more than one vehicle. This year, guests were treated to the first appearance of the meticulously restored Road Hog. This car has a special meaning for Whakatane R&C, as three members had previously owned it. Two of those owners, Sard Gosden and John Fenton, were there along with Ray Carter, the original owner/builder. It was parked next to Terry Furness T-bucket which was built at the same time 52 years ago. It was great to ask Terry and Ray about aspects of the Road Hog build. Terry explained that he dropped the rear wheels off at…

THIS was the seventh year the Caroline Bay Rock and Hop run by the local Timaru Hospice, and it's one of the slickest operations out there. It now consistently attracts over a thousand cars. This year was no exception, and it sold out quickly—the breathtaking array of cars set up at the jaw-dropping Caroline Bay venue in Timaru. The event kicked off on Thursday with “Laps of Levels” Raceway, then on Friday, the entrants went to Geraldine, where there were several museums and cafes to visit. Friday night, the main street of Temuka was closed for a twilight display. Saturday was the main show day, with lots of stalls, live music and a pageant for the ladies. Enjoy these photos of a few of the new cars and some old…

THE tail-end of winter weather reached into Papakura Rod & Custom Club's annual Spring Swapmeet. Grey skies and cool temps meant warm clothes and a hands-in-pockets lap around the sellers and carpark, searching for thet elusive part or new hot rod on the scene before settling into socialising.…

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