Innehållsförteckning för March 2025 från NZ Hot Rod

CHRIS “Starry” Malcolm is a well-known Kiwi hot rodder who built a clone of the original Roger Devlin “Wild Honey”. Many years earlier, in March 2005, to be exact, he bought a ’57 Olds from a family in Porterville, California. They’d owned it for 20 years. When Starry and fellow Kiwi hot rodder Steve Keys went to purchase it, it was under an old canvas cover, and its 327 Chev mill wasn’t running. They were surprised at how good a condition the body was in. It even came with its original J2 engine, complete with triple carb set-up and air cleaner. Due to the engine having sat outside for so long, it wasn’t saveable. Another Kiwi hot rodder, Duane Jones, picked up the ’57 Olds and trailered it to Starry…

Part 3 - The Life of Brian AT this stage, this is the final part of the incredible Falkner story. As this goes to print, I got a call from another well-known Wellington rodder who informed me he had two photo albums of these old Falkner days. I’m welcome to publish some of these never-before-seen photos, so there may be more to come. This part has several funny stories involving the notorious Oddjob, Grahame Berry, and other sketchy characters! We would love to print a picture of the infamous Holden Panelvan Gasser. I know pics do exist, but they elude me at present. FLASHBACK STORIES Shocking One thing that I have been able to do to test old-style ignition systems is to grab a spark plug while the engine is…

PETER ‘Bread n Butter’ ‘McQuay’ Bredenbeck’s hot rod story has the old sayings, “passing the torch” and “prouder than punch” written all over it. Sadly, Peter passed away in February 2024 (see Flying Farewell in April ’24 mag) while his second and final hot rod was on the transporter back from Redneck Fabrication in Hawera. Peter’s sons Kurt and Ryan committed their time and energy to complete their dad’s dream posthumously, according to his wishes. Peter got into hot rodding in 1981 with a fully fendered Deuce Roadster with a 350 Chev engine that came with the car. The roadster was sold, and it gave way to life’s demands of raising his family and the boys sporting commitments, so consequently, he’d been out of rodding for many years. His passion…

LARRY and I have something in common: the obsession with collecting toys from our childhood, some of which we had when we were youngsters. These toys created lifelong memories, but many examples shown here were way out of our reach, and most were never available in New Zealand. We didn’t even know of some of them until later years. To be fair, Larry had the disease way worse than me, and a few decades back, he even had a full-time shop buying and selling old toys. These days, his main subject matter is slot cars, and from what I see, he’s only buying; selling was far too stressful.…

THE 34th Annual All American Car Day was held at the New Plymouth Raceway and hosted by the Scenic City Rod & Custom Club. In previous years, the event was held just 100 metres away at the TSB Stadium Car Park, but this year, the NPDC wanted a large fee for using the car park. The NPR offered the horse stables area free of charge. The event donates money raised to charity each year, and if they had to pay the NPDC fee, this would have cut well into the amount raised. Entry is a Gold Coin donation, and a raffle is held for a wheelbarrow of food items. Scenic City R&CC’s 90 members responded with donations, and the wheelbarrow overflowed with food goodies. The new layout worked quite well…

ALLAN Brindle’s passion for hot rods was kickstarted at age 17 when he owned a hot Mk 1 Zephyr. It was white with flames, had flared guards, rode on Jolley Wide wheels and had a hotted inline six fed by triple 1-1/2 SU carbs under the hood. It was good enough to hold the record in the local hillclimb. That car was crashed and it made way for a new NZ RHD 1960 Bel Air sedan powered by its stock 283 V8 and 3-speed manual trans. Allan took a break from cars for a while and went boating in a sleek ski boat powered by a 308 Holden V8. Perhaps it was a hot rod on water and had enough power to pull six skiers at once. There was another…

KUMEU’S annual Classic Car and Hot Rod Show is a rite of passage, and this year’s event was another brick in the wall. Over 1000 cars from around NZ plus entertainment, a Hot Rod Show, Trade displays, a huge Swapmeet, kids fun and live bands made for a great family event. Show organiser Ken and Desma Galvin and their team reported: We’re all done for another year! Thank you so much to everyone who participated and helped create a fantastic vibe throughout the event. Our Saturday night party with The Shane Cortese Band was rocking!! What a night!! Absolutely packed! Have a fantastic year, and we’ll see you all in 2026!. Awards People’s Choice 1971 Chev C10 Pickup - Todd & Tash Collins 2nd People’s Choice 1957 Porche 356a -…

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, we attended the awesome National Rod Run hosted by Surf City R&CC. Fast forward 25 years, and the club decided it was time to run another Nationals and make it just as amazing as the one back then. It was held in January from Thursday 16th until Monday 20th, around the same time they run their very popular “biennial” run. It was so popular the entries sold out in around eight weeks. Thursday was a cruisy day with registration later in the afternoon, so many groups got together and did their own thing, sightseeing and making small trips around the area. Because we had had an issue in Napier with Lady A, we were helped by members of Eastside and, in particular, Jody Bishop, who lent us…

THE Jalopy Dust Up was held on January 4th at the Waihi Beach Dirt Track Club. There were 12 “Jalopys” entered for the first time alongside 10 historic stock cars and 12 cars from the Auckland Vintage Speedway Club. The crowd was treated to some entertaining racing. None more so than NZ Touring Car Champion Dean Perkins chasing Jesse Birkett around the course. Two of the new builds that impressed were Chris Piaggi in his “two-week wonder” and Sam McCullough in his rapid channelled ‘29 Chev sedan. Chris built a real steel track type T roadster two weeks out from the event using parts lying around his workshop. One of the more intriguing new cars was Ken Phillips’ Model T Roadster powered by a twin carb early OHV 4 cylinder…

WITH a father heavily into the old car scene, Brent Terrill spent his formative years growing up around a lot of cool old steel. Greg Terrill (Brent’s Dad) was, and still is, an active member of the Waikato Vintage Car Club, and in the late ’80s, Greg and his wife Gaynor purchased the Model A Tudor gracing these pages. The back story is that in the ‘70s, a restorer found the car parked under a tree in Nelson, fitted with a flattie V8. The V8 was removed and the AR was put back to 100% stock, just as Henry built it. Note the 1927 plate on the car: this is a very early Model A, late ’27 production. The early versions were known as ‘AR’, and there are several components…

IN October 2018 Wozzo purchased the ’30 Ford Roadster body and chassis only from Jill Chisnall in Upper Hutt. Jill’s partner Pete Maka from the Moonshine R&CC had passed away, with the roadster being his next project The Roadster’s previous history isn’t that well known, except that it was partly built in Auckland. All Wozzo could find out was that it had a Hemi engine, but it never ran. Later on, it was sold off to a guy in Waikato who just garaged it and then ended up in Wellington until Wozzo purchased it. It wasn’t until February 2019 that Wozzo collected it from Jill and trailered the body and chassis to his garage in Wanganui. The Roadster was an ‘around-to-it’ project until motivation finally kicked in to build and…