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Will this weekend see New Zealand’s first four-second pass?

27 November, 2014

This weekend (November 29–30) is going be a big one — the second round of the IHRA NZ National series will be hitting Meremere Dragway following the first round at Ruapuna in October.

The big news for Auckland Harley Davidson’s Spring Nationals 2014 is that the Marsh Motorsport/Mountshop Team will be in attendance with their Top Fuel dragster, meaning New Zealand’s first four-second pass may be just a few days away!

As always, there will be the usual exciting drag racing that Spring Nationals never fails to deliver, and awesome cars on display.

The Saturday is a test and tune day and gates will be open at 9am. The track opens at 11am with one round of non-compulsory qualifying at 3pm.

Make sure you’re ready at the track at 9am on Sunday, November 30 for Spring National, and if you’re up and about early head along for when the gates open at 8am. Gate entry is $10 for the Saturday, $20 for the Sunday, or $30 for the whole weekend. 

Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

28 May, 2026

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.

Chrysler’s classy cruiser

22 May, 2026

I first saw our feature car, a 1970 V8-powered Regal 770 hardtop, towing a trailer carrying the tidy Ford Anglia classic racing saloon in Broadspeed racing colours that has featured in these pages. The coupe is comparatively rare here, which means anyone contemplating purchasing one of these big two-doors is sure to see prices continue to climb. The latter Charger has claimed much of the Aussie Chrysler limelight, but the simpler and classier lines of this car, which appeared dated soon after its introduction, now have a more timeless appeal.
Former owner, Balclutha motor engineer, Mike Verdoner, remembers the car well. He believes it came from Dunedin originally.
“I’m not sure about the car’s history, but I bought it off its owner at Kaitangata. Unusually, it was advertised in the local newspaper, the Clutha Leader, which was a surprise as these usually go for a lot more money on the internet. I had it for quite a few years. It needed a little bit of work to tidy it up, so I had to decide whether to spend the money on it to do it up, which could have been twenty grand. Its value at the time was not like it is now, so I sold it to Ewan. It’s probably now worth three or four times what I sold it for.”