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TV3 to broadcast Silver Fern Rally 2014

23 January, 2015

The Silver Fern Rally holds a special place in New Zealand’s motoring scene — it was there as rallying began to take off in New Zealand in the late 1960s, and it has remained an integral part of New Zealand’s rallying scene ever since. In April of 1969 the Wellington Car Club organized the Shell-sponsored Silver Fern Rally — the country’s first true high-speed, special-stage rally.

In those early days, few events other than the Silver Fern Rally and Heatway International Rally were held. That would all change by the mid 1970s, with many car clubs beginning to run rally events.

The popularity of rallying in New Zealand, both at grassroots and top-tier levels, has survived through the decades and still remains strong. The last Silver Fern Rally was held last year, attracting the talents of both local and international rally drivers. Coverage from last year’s successful epay Silver Fern Rally 2014 will be broadcast at midday on Sunday, January 25, on TV3.

There is also a DVD available from Black Magic Media which runs for a further 40 minutes and contains more footage than the abridged version for television airing.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”