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V8 SuperTourers and NZV8 Touring Cars — merge or be banned

16 June, 2014

 


BNT V8 SuperTourers 2014 series champion, Greg Murphy, being handed his trophy by MotorSport New Zealand President Shayne Harris.
Photo credit: Andrew Bright

An unusual email was received by bosses of New Zealand’s premier racing categories, V8 Super Tourers and NZV8 Touring Cars, suggesting a unanimous decision had been reached that V8 SuperTourers, NZV8TC TLX and TL should come together and compete as one race otherwise find the categories banned from race tracks New Zealand wide. 

The email was sent by Shayne Harris, MotorSport New Zealand’s (MSNZ) president, on Thursday, May 22 after attending the Circuit Owners Group meeting at the Motorsport Annual General Conference. MSNZ and track owners meet at this AGM.

V8 SuperTourers CEO Ray Noonan was shocked to believe that, as suggested in the email, circuit owners had unanimously decided that the categories should merge as a single V8 race otherwise there wouldn’t be a track available to compete.

However, the response back from track owners suggests this isn’t the case with several track owners already denouncing the email and saying it didn’t correctly represent what had been discussed and decided at the AGM.

Noonan said many of the track owners had been in contact with V8 SuperTourers to confirm existing contracts are still valid with many seeking multi-year deals.  

“The tracks are mostly private businesses which are not under the control of MSNZ,” says Noonan. “The MSNZ executive needs to understand that its role is governance, and should get out of trying to operate as a promoter and controlling the actions of people that have invested their own money.

“MSNZ’s feeble attempt to try to ban us from tracks is laughable,” says Noonan. “They have become irrelevant to us all, and are desperately trying to prove that they still have some power. The MSNZ circuit commission, of which Shayne Harris is the leader by virtue of being president of MSNZ, absolutely passed a resolution to ban us from all tracks in New Zealand.”

The stoush is the latest chapter in an ongoing saga that started back in 2011 when, in the absence of any leadership or planning from MSNZ, the new V8 SuperTourer category emerged and went on to quickly dominate the V8 landscape in New Zealand.  The split away from the then tier one NZV8 category by most of its teams and drivers to join V8ST ignited what has been reported as a ‘war’ between the two parties. Noonan is adamant there is no war.

“The ongoing belief, held by a small, uninformed, but vocal minority, that there is an ongoing ‘war’ between V8 categories is simply nonsense,” says Noonan.

“Before the MSNZ meeting even occurred, NZV8TC and V8ST had already agreed on calendar cooperation, in the absence of any leadership from MSNZ, going back many years — we simply got on with it.

“MSNZ have simply become irrelevant to the sport at tier one level. There are many V8 categories in New Zealand, including V8ST, TLX, TL, Central Muscle Cars, Formula 5000, and so forth. They all have their own strengths but are fundamentally different. V8ST is about controlled cost parity highlighting the emergence of drivers, but with limited engineering difference, TLX has a significant focus on engineering and design which we genuinely respect. For anyone to suggest that any category should abandon its core reason to exist is arrogant and simply unfair. All car owners, and in the case of SuperTourers, the category itself, are privately owned. It is inappropriate for anybody to try to dictate to owners how they should spend their money.”

Noonan thanked circuits that quickly confirmed their support for V8 SuperTourers and stated for the record that the sporting philosophies of NZV8 Touring Cars and V8 SuperTourers are completely different, and that V8ST will not entertain NZV8s running in the same races, nor would having muscle cars, GT1s, nor F5000 in the same race be considered.  However, V8ST’s position for well over a year has been that all categories are welcome at its meetings.

V8 SuperTourers resume competition from 27 September 2014 with the start of a new seven round season, beginning at Taupo’s Motorsport Park.

2014/2015 BNT V8 SUPERTOURERS CALENDAR

ENDURANCE ROUNDS (Endurance portion of Championship)

ROUND ONE:     September 27/28             Taupo 400

ROUND TWO:    November 1/2 Waikato 400 – Hampton Downs

ROUND THREE:                 November 28/29/30       Fuchs 500, Pukekohe

 

SPRINT ROUNDS (Sprint portion of Championship)

ROUND FOUR: TBA        Either Pukekohe or Manfeild

ROUND FIVE:     March 7-8 2015                 TIMARU 250, Levels Raceway

ROUND SIX:        March 21-22       CHRISTCHURCH 250, Mike Pero Motorsport Park

ROUND SEVEN:                 April 24-26           GRAND FINAL: PUKEKOHE, with V8 Supercars

NZ Classic Car magazine, September/October 2026 issue 407, on sale now

16 August, 2026

We love bugs!
A bit of TLC that became a major restoration
The 1302S, or ‘Super Beetle’ as it became known, was built for two years before it, too, was replaced by a further-enhanced Beetle, the 1303, continuing an amazing 65-year lineage for one of the World’s best-known shapes.
The world’s best-selling single-model vehicle, the VW Beetle, possibly established another record for the amount of controversy it has created since the inception of the Type 1.
In a meeting with Hitler in June 1934, Ferdinand Porsche was contracted to build a ‘People’s Car’ that could accommodate two adults and three children, was air-cooled and simple to maintain, and could cruise economically at moderate speed along Germany’s proposed new Autobahns.
Our feature car, a 1972 1302S ‘Super Beetle’, was found by Dave and Michelle Dickie in Mosgiel a few years back. It was a runner, but like most VWs of this age, it needed a little TLC. They were looking for a daily driver for Michelle when they first came upon the VW being sold locally on behalf of its owner.
“The owner offered it to his grandchildren, and they didn’t want it, so he got the guy out at Mosgiel in the Mobil petrol station to sell it for him, and he put it on Trade Me for them. We never met the owner, and we were always dealing with the guy at the petrol station. We put a bid on it, and we were the only people that bid on it.”
Their bid was eventually successful, eight years ago. Not knowing much of the history, in situations like that, it’s always a risk buying a car, but they were in for a bit of a surprise.

The other Q car

12 August, 2026

Say the word ‘bond’ to anyone in the street and around 80 per cent straight away think of pop culture’s least-secret secret agent. The other 20 per cent may think of the wad of cash required to secure a flat or hire equipment that one gets back providing the fixtures and fittings stay much as they were.
However, mention ‘bond’ in specialist classic car circles and people will spin a very different yarn. If you dig deep enough, you will find an eccentric British carmaker that, throughout its 23 years in business, spawned some quirky and charming little cars.
The company was founded by Paul Sharp in 1922 under the name of Sharp’s Commercials Limited. However, the company did not start producing cars until 1948. The first car to carry the Bond name was the Bond Minicar. A three-wheeled, soft-top, two-cylinder eco car, the Minicar was a big hit at the time as the desire for an economical urban runabout that didn’t attract four-wheel car tax was strong in post-war Britain. All in all, 34,285 Minicars were produced over 26 years in a variety of variants.