23,000 auto parts, what would you grab?

23 November, 2014

 

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Win one of ten Repco gift cards worth $50 by telling us what you’d use it for

If you want to feel totally immersed in automotive products and parts just head to Repco’s new auto centre over at 79 Wairau Road on Auckland’s North Shore. They’ve opened the doors to their new store — which happens to be the biggest Repco in the country — and you’ll have more than 23,000 parts available to you over the counter as well as access to approximately 450,000 automotive parts to be ordered in if need be.

Repco’s first Auto Centre was opened in Lower Hutt three months back, and it wasn’t long until the concept travelled up the country to Auckland. Everything related to automotive parts, tools and equipment can be found under its roof. And while you’re in the store you can check out the interactive touchscreens, which you’ll be able to use to search for tips on such things as changing wiper blades, performing body repairs, and information on filters.


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To celebrate the opening of Repco’s new auto centre, we have ten Repco gift cards worth $50 to give away — all you need to do to go in the draw is to scroll down to the bottom of this post to the ‘comments’ section and share a comment stating what you’d spend your gift card on.

1975 Suzuki RE5

Suzuki had high hopes for its RE5 Wankel-engined bike launched in 1975. It had started looking at the Wankel engine in the mid-60s and bought the licence to the concept in 1970.
Apparently all of the big four Japanese makers experimented with the design, Yamaha even showing a rotary-engined bike at a motor show in 1972. But Suzuki was the only one of the big four to go into production. Like many others at the time, Suzuki believed that the light, compact, free-revving Wankel design would consign piston engines — with their complex, multiple, whirring valves and pistons, which (can you believe it?) had to reverse direction all the time — to history.

Westside story

For the young Dave Blyth, the Sandman was always the coolest car and he finally got one when he was 50. “I have always had a rule. When you turn 50, you buy or can afford to buy the car you lusted after when you were 20. I was 20 in 1979 and the HZ Sandman came out in 1978. It was the coolest of the cool — I just wanted one,” he says. “Back then a Sandman cost $4500 new and a house was worth about $20,000. I made about $30 a week so it was an impossible dream then.”
Dave was heavily influenced by the panel van culture of the time. “I started with an Escort panel van and upgraded to a Holden HD panel van with a 186ci six cylinder. I started a van club, Avon City Vans.