Innehållsförteckning för No 164 January 2019 från NZV8

ARE YOU A THRILL SEEKER? Chances are that, by now, you’re well aware of the Route 66 tour hosted by Beach Hop frontman Noddy Watts — after all, we ran a series of tour diaries a couple of years ago. If not, the concept is simple: book the trip, which includes accommodation, vehicle hire and insurance, a fully-programmed GPS unit and US mobile phone, and simply arrive and enjoy the fully escorted self-driving tours. To date, many of those who’ve attended haven’t stopped at just one but have headed back stateside to undertake one of the different tours on offer. Noddy and Andrea have taken 21 tours and are heading into their 10th year, making them the most experienced Kiwi-based US tour guides, with over 700 people onboard. And now,…

NZV8: So, what attracted you to the pickup? Lee Robinson: Well, that’s quite a long story that starts from back when I was a young fella and my dad had a ’34 pickup [pictured inset]. Dad had it as a shop truck for his business, the Four Wheel Drive Centre in Glen Eden, when I was a kid. But, even before that, he always had these trucks, and I remember many of my influential years being driven around in one. His ’34 was literally his shop hack, which, looking back, is pretty cool. He would drive back and forth to work in it, and, during the day, the mechanics would be out picking up bits and pieces in it. I would often be run to school in it too, so…

A-9-X — three characters that, without context, could have been strung together by a cat walking across a keyboard. Yet, to any petrolhead of a certain generation, those three characters will conjure up memories of ‘The Great Race’ on grainy television, excited commentary over an AM radio, and the ultimate battle between Ford and Holden. The A9X was immortalized on 1 October 1978 when Peter Brock and Jim Richards piloted the 05 HDT Torana A9X to victory in the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 Bathurst touring car race, turning the Marlborosponsored Torana hatch into one of the most famous Australian racing cars ever. What you’re looking at here, some 30 years later, is not an A9X. It’s not even a replica. However, it may well be the modern-day equivalent. “It was a genuine…

Growing up in Wanganui in the ’70s was great for a car fanatic. Hot rods and street machines were everywhere. Chopped tops, extravagant paint, and Friday-night cruising were in. Rake jobs, requiring everyone to sit in the front to keep the fat rears off the guards, were the look to have, as narrowing the rear end was something only achieved through diet and exercise in those days. My first car was a ’56 Ford, purchased for the princely sum of $250 from a farmer’s daughter, who seemed unsettlingly happy with the deal, considering I’d beaten her down from $350. I drove the car all the way home from Waverley to Wanganui with the handbrake on — my first of many mistakes. My cleverer high-school mate, Brett Guthrie, had a ’57…

The Tui Brewery has always had a close affinity with the automotive world, and through the monthly Mangatainoka Motors events, it plays host to automotive meets for everything from trucks to bikes to V8s. October’s theme was ‘Hot Rod Sunday’, and the small town of Mangatainoka in the Tararua District reverberated to the sound of everything that is V8. Despite the day starting out a bit wet, this wasn’t going to put a damper on the meet, and as the clock struck 10, the first eager owners were already lined up at the gate of the world famous–in–New Zealand Tui Brewery. Cars flowed in, and the first morning coffees flowed out of the coffee machine. As many sipped on their flat whites, others gave their cars a final touch-up after…

Each year, it’s not just a highlight for the racing fans but also for the teams. When the drivers suit up and roll out to the hallowed tarmac of Pukekohe Park Raceway, there is always a feeling of nervousness and excitement. It’s that kind of track. Add to it the flavour of the Virgin Australia Supercars and you have something extra special on hand. The spectacle of the Supercars is top tier. Only two other categories have the same crowd engagement: F5000 and Enzed Central Muscle Cars (CMC). It’s something that the drivers and their teams are proud about, as they seem to spend more time polishing their beasts than doing anything else. That’s a positive, though — we mean, the less you’re on the tools the better. It’s a…

WHERE IS IT NOW? WEEKS BROTHERS 1971 PLYMOUTH CUDA Is there anything cooler than a tubbed Plymouth Cuda with a Hemi so big up front that it fills the engine bay to capacity? We think not — and clearly we’re not alone. The tough-as-nails ’71 Cuda began life in the hands of Jack Cooper, who put in the hard yards getting the bones of the car sorted before life plans saw it put up for sale before completion. Luckily, the Weeks family could step in to get it finished. Mind you, they’re hot rodders at heart, so, as cool as the car was, and still is, it wasn’t really them, and it was back for sale within a year of being finished. Rob McBride, on the other hand, he’s somewhat…

REDEYE EXPRESS Just to prove that they’re crazier than other OEMs, Chrysler has launched yet another high-power Challenger: the 2019 Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye, along with a slightly less potent sibling, the 2019 Challenger Scat Pack Widebody. Essentially, the Redeye is a Dodge Demon that can turn corners and run over 200mph, while treating its occupants to the luxury of heated leather seats and a decent sound system. Of course, that stereo should be off with the whine of a 797hp supercharged 6.2-litre Hemi sitting up front. The Scat Pack Widebody looks the part with the flares and last year’s Hellcat hood and front grille, along with the same 20×11 wheels and 305/35ZR20 tyres, but packs a standard 392 Hemi under the hood. Still, that gives it 485hp and 475lb·ft…

Dick Johnson, John Bowe, Jim Richards, Steve Richards, Paul Radisich, and the Stone Brothers are set to headline the Legends of Bathurst at Hampton Downs on 12–13 January, behind the wheels of some seriously iconic machinery, with all but Johnson lining up to race in their respective categories as well as in the planned V8 Legends Exhibition session, and a special exhibition area at the event will also showcase the Stone Brothers achievements at Bathurst. The festival will celebrate Johnson and Bowe’s wins in the Bathurst 1000 in 1989 in a Sierra Cosworth and in 1994 in a Ford EB Falcon. A recently restored Sierra Cosworth in the 1989 livery will race in the Historic Touring Cars category. Bowe is hoping to be reunited with the #44 Volvo 240 GT…

TON OF FUN Waihi’s Daniel Walden is currently undertaking a major rebuild of his wild Holden One Tonner. Built on a much-modified HQ Holden ute chassis, the radical pickup is certainly polarizing, with its monster mud tyres and the 6-71 blower poking through the hood. The 400ci small block Chev is coupled to a trusty Toyota 60-series five-speed and transfer case, which send the power to the Ford nine-inch rear and Chevy Blazer front diffs. However, after close to two decades of hard use, both on and off the road, ‘Fiona’, as it’s known, was starting to show her age and in need of a bit of TLC, so the old Holden has been stripped down, with rusty panels being replaced or repaired before being resprayed in a similar colour.…

The legacy of the Ford GT40 started in the early 1960s, when Henry Ford swore sweet revenge on Enzo Ferrari for reneging on a deal … blah blah; never mind the petty bullshit that could only have sprung up between two rich entrepreneurs in the middle of the 20th century, because the GT40 you’re looking at here shares nothing with the Le Mans icons of 1966, save its shape and name. Instead, it is the crowning glory of the Ford-mad father-and-son team that are Nigel and Nick Andrews. Nigel and Nick have both done the supercharged thing, both in Falcons, both of which have been featured in this magazine. As Nigel had wanted to build and own a GT40 for as long as he could remember, and they each wanted…

Number-eight wire, Kiwi ingenuity — call it what you will, the industrious ability of our country’s inhabitants remains alive and well, despite the progress of technology rendering it less than necessary. Fortunately, necessity isn’t the only driving force behind why people do the things they do. Some fancy a challenge, doing things the hard way in order to learn. As far as that all goes, Joel Arcus is in a class of his own — something we can also say about his stroppy late-model Camaro. Yeah, it looks tougher than a well-done steak, but it is impossible to overlook the meticulous planning and execution that have made it what it is. It’s the rowdy kid that somehow always aced all the tests, and the total opposite to the man behind…

What were you doing in 1992? If you were anything like Rodney Heads, you would have been lusting after one of the most jaw-dropping Toranas ever built. Debuted at Summernats in December 1991, the LH was packing a whole lot more heat than your average SLR 5000. Built and owned by Howard Bell, the car’s graphics gave the game away a little — gone was the Holden five-litre engine, and in its place an eight-litre (479ci) Keith Black big block Chev. The car set a young Rodney on a path of Torana love, a path that eventually saw him establish Heads Racing Supplies, the business responsible for building this month’s cover car, among many others. While, over the years, he’s built, owned, and been involved with more Toranas than almost…

If there’s one thing that you can take away from most of the cars we feature, it’s that the ‘do it once, do it right’ philosophy tends to yield better results than the Kiwi classic — ‘she’ll be right’. If you were to ask the owner of this ’55 Ford F100, he’d tell you exactly that. Having had a car featured in NZV8 before, he’s no stranger to the process of rebuilding an older car or the pitfalls of basing decisions on cost alone. “Within a year, that car had upgraded steering, front suspension, and brakes — all that could have been done in the initial build,” he explains. “These lessons were well learned, and the plan [for the F100] was to make sure homework was well done, so nothing…

ALL-FORD FIELD DAY Ford fans are celebrating, while GM lovers are pinning their hopes on Grant Dalton and Clarke Hopkins to set the world right with a Ford whitewash of Group 1 following round one of the 2018–’19 Enzed Central Muscle Cars (CMC) series. Andrew Anderson led the charge in his XE Falcon, very closely followed by Dean Perkin’s similar car, while Greg Honor, Craig Boote, and Bruce Anderson all piloted their ’69 Mustangs. John Midgley was very unlucky not to be at the pointy end in his Falcon, as was Angus Fogg, also in a ’69 Mustang, both being involved in car-to-car contact that slashed their points haul for the weekend. Can anyone stop the big Fords from running away with all of the points? FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK:…

I OWNED IT TOO Hi Todd, The featured Monaro of Pete’s in your October issue [No. 161] looks great. I used to own it for approx. 21 years down here in Invercargill. It was originally a red HT with a 186 and a four-speed manual. I then fitted a Chev 350 with TH350 trans and a nine-inch diff. The Monaro was then painted Orchid Metallic with black stripes. Then Brian Chisholm built another tunnel-rammed 350 with forged internals, solid cam, and Dart 2 iron heads that went into the Monaro. This combo was good enough for low 12-second quarters at 113mph here at Teretonga. The car was raced for a number of years at various local events. I then sold the Monaro to Tony Latta in Te Anau who on-sold…

TYRE-FRYING FUN Masterton Motorplex’s Smokefest brought out all the big-hitters from the lower North Island for a tyre-destroying battle on Labour weekend. The weather was great, and spectator turnout couldn’t have been better. Around 40 or so cars entered, with some coming from as far away as Auckland, and some lined up at the gate before opening on the day. With three rounds, though, there was plenty of time available on the pad. Check out a full gallery and results by searching ‘Smokefest’ on themotorhood.com. SLICKER THAN SLICK While John Medcalf has told his tale of a well-spent youth in this issue, it’s far from the first story of the ‘good old days’ that we’ve told. A few years back now, we managed to capture Tom Slick, one of the…

1 DECEMBER CULTURE — BACKSTREET CAR MEET Culture — Backstreet Car Meet hit the calendar back in 2016, and the laid-back day out has once again arranged to take over all of Boyes Park / Founders Theatre, Hamilton, on 1 December, for a celebration of Kiwi car culture. There’s a solid focus on low-riders, kustoms, hot rods, bikes, and pre-’87 Japanese and European cars, with a dedicated cause of bringing different car scenes and like-minded people together. There will be a range of prizes on offer, and the day will end with a casual cruise. Entry is via gold-coin donation, and all proceeds will go towards the Dream Chaser Foundation. The show begins at 12pm, and any queries can be directed to the Culture — Backstreet Car Meet page on…

BLACK BELT BATTLE The weekend of 8–9 December will see round one of the Masterton Motorplex comp season kick off, and regulars to the track will not only be greeted by the welcome sight of absolutely gigantic timing boards, which where installed over winter, but also round one of the newly formed Outlaw 71 class, we mentioned in Issue No. 162. A full field of 16 racers are expected to run the five-round nationwide series, vying for their share of the $15,000 prize pool, which begins and ends at Masterton. Outlaw 71 is the brain child of Gavin Doughty and Tod Aitken, and as the name suggests, welcomes any type of race car as long as it runs a belt-driven roots or screw blower with a dial-in between 6.5 and…

The story of how this pro-street / show-winning ’59 Impala came to be goes back further than when the Carmichael family from Dunedin got their hands on it in 2006. While the bones of the car remain the same, the vehicle is a far cry from the way it was when they bought it, and not at all what it would have been had they never stumbled on it on Trade Me. Imported to New Zealand in 1995, the Impala spent a fair amount of time within the walls of Terry’s Chassis Shoppe. The stock patinaed car was rolled in original and rolled out far from it. As those in the know will explain, the stock Impala frame is somewhat the shape of the letter X, and offers about as…

To say that John Murray is a bit of a Ford nut is kind of like saying the Pope’s a bit keen on Catholics, as John lives and breathes all things Ford and has been collecting cars and bits for them for pretty much all his life. No surprises then that the rustic collection in and around his sheds plays homage to vehicles of the Blue Oval variety. John’s so dedicated to his Fords that his blood probably runs blue, albeit with a bit of Heineken added. During his lifetime of hoarding, John has amassed more cars and parts than he can currently store. Big extensions to the main shed are about to be started, and will create some clear workshop space to enable work to progress on some of…

Eight hundred and fifty horsepower of carburetted 18-degree V8, zero driver aids, 14-inch-wide rear slicks, and a silhouette body draped over a purpose-built tubeframe chassis can mean only one thing — Trans-Am racing is back! Once the headliner circuit class for many fans, the roaring thunder of a full Trans-Am field has been sorely missed from our shores for over a decade. While some of the cars themselves have seen race time mixed in with the likes of the Open Saloon Car Association (OSCA), Sport Sedans, and GTRNZ series, these events have never delivered the same excitement as a full field of matching-spec 800hp monsters thundering down the straight. But, thanks to a few very passionate racers who just could not shake the bug, the NZ Tranzam Challenge was formed…