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Beach Hop 2014: Castrol Edge Thunder Cruise to Onemana

16 June, 2014

 

With the much-needed rest from the previous day not as long as it could have been, we were woken up for day three by what sounded like a series of long burnouts.

Thankfully it wasn’t, it was actually the Woodstock Thunder Club hunting out the noisiest cars, and the drivers in the line up for the Castrol Edge Thunder Cruise to Onemana were doing their best to give them what they were after.

Entrants were already lining up from 5.05am due to the cruise being so popular and parking spots at the Onemana Beach Reserve so sought after. Considering the cruise didn’t leave until 11am, that was pretty dedicated.

The trip to Onemana from Williamson Park is only 10km, but the parade loops weaves its way around town first to make sure all bystanders get more space to check it out. The extended loop was much appreciated by drivers at the team from Tip Top were giving out Strawberry Toppas at ‘Toppa Corner’ along the way. With the sun doing its best to melt the tarmac, the ice cream went down a treat.

The beachfront reserve went from peaceful and calm one minute and action-packed the next as the cars flowed in. It was great to see the local food vendors making the most of the huge crowds but it would have been nicer to see a few more mobile vendors present to ease the load and shorten the queues. But there was plenty to look at during the wait, and plenty of people to talk to, trade stands to check out, and bands to sit down and relax in front of.

Look out for coverage in our next issue, on sale Monday April 7, and our full 122-page coverage in our 2014 Beach Hop Annual, on sale late April.

 

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.