SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram
Search
Close this search box.

Day in the dirt

16 June, 2014

 

Sunday, March 2 saw the running of the City Hire South 4th Annual Vintage Speedway and Hot Rod ‘Day-in-the-Dirt’ out at the Ellesmere Raceway in Leeston, Canterbury.

It was billed as a family fun day and was hosted by the Canterbury Vintage Speedway Enthusiasts Club. It gave a chance for all classes of motor vehicles to enjoy running on a speedway circuit. Open to rat-rods, vintage race cars, vintage speedway classes, and motorbikes, a good number of races took up the challenge.

Scrutineering started around 9am and the dirt started flying at 11am. A good-sized crowd turned out to enjoy the racing, and with the sun out, many took the opportunity to picnic trackside. An area was set aside for dedicated parking of hot rods, classics, and vintage cars. Kids were taken care of with a bouncy castle and Mr Whippy.   Check out the gallery below to see exactly what happened throughout the day.

1975 Suzuki RE5

1 November, 2024

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

25 October, 2024

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.