Taking a mini break at Whangamata’s Brits at the Beach

15 October, 2015

The mini break that is Classic Cover Insurance Brits at the Beach festival — held at Whangamata over October 9–11, 2015 — is always much more than just a car show, even if that is the main reason behind why classic car people enjoy it so much. It is also the first real event of the spring reminding us summer is not long away.

With 125 cars revving up for early registration, the organizers knew that the sixth running of the event was going to be something special.

The festival kicked off with the Great British Quiz on Thursday night, and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all about the cars and Britishness.

Friday morning saw the cars heading off to historic Grahamstown in Thames. The road was closed for the festival, and around 150 cars packed the street with the crowds turning out to see the incredible line-up on display.

Each mini event in the festival had its own prize-giving, and the Grahamstown-gathering winner was Colin Fabish’s 1939 Morris 8 Series E. After this excursion the cars headed back to Whangamata, where the official registration was open and entries soon passed the 400 mark.

The afternoon saw a ‘Port Road Park Up’, giving the folk of Whangamata their first close-up look at these magnificent machines. The winner of this section was an immaculate 1964 Austin Healey 3000.

That night, the big musical event was the Gee Bees, New Zealand’s top Bee Gees tribute band, and Col McCabe, the Brits at the Beach organizer, said he’d never heard a crowd having such raucous fun! There was foot stomping, table thumping, and singing along to all the Bee Gees greatest hits.

Saturday was the biggest day of the event, where, once again, entries climbed, hitting a total of 476, all of which took part in the Classic Cover Great British Parade of Motoring. The queue of cars filled the 7.2km route, and cars returning from the parade were passing those still to start!

When the cars arrived back at Williamson Park, it was time for the Sunlive Village Fete. This is what makes the Brits at the Beach Festival unique. Four hours of fun and silliness, including the crowd favourites, Gurning (the ancient art of face-pulling), the Scruffs Dog Show, and the brilliant British Costume competition — this year won by the well-known driving sensation, The Stig. It was a great crowd turnout, and McCabe mentioned that that should mean a record collection made for the Whangamata Gymnastics Club, this year’s local junior sports club, of which the proceeds from the fete were donated to.

The final act at the Village Fete was to present the Best Car of Show, which this year was quite rightly won by Nigel Hayman with his gorgeous racing-red 1970 Lotus Elan (Plus 2).

As the Fete wound down, the cars started heading north for the Tairua Day Tripper, where entrants lined the stunning Pepe Reserve. The winner of this car gathering was a very special 1939 MG — the only of its type in New Zealand, and one of only 15 in the world. Even Larry Barnett from Classic Cover Insurance — as a major car enthusiast of 40 years — was blown away to see one.

In Tairua music from a variety of artists was enjoyed, including music from the festival’s own Vera Lynn, singing those nostalgic hits from the war years.

Later, on Saturday night, the big show of the weekend was Into The Pink, the Pink Floyd tribute act, who played to a packed house and were very well received.

When the sun rose for the fourth day of the event, the cars went off on their ‘Sunday Drive’ to the delightful Pauanui Shopping Centre. The team at Pauanui had decorated the centre and closed off the parking area, making for a fantastic spectacle for the locals and visitors alike. Alan Stanley’s Jowett Jupiter was chosen as the winning car of the Sunday Drive.

If anyone has photos they want to share, McCabe would love you to post them to the Brits at the Beach Facebook page. He says he hopes to see you all back next year between September 29 and October 2.

Check out the winners below:

Brits Best Car — 1970 Lotus Elan Plus 2; Nigel Hayman

Best Car Grahamstown — 1939 Morris 8 Series E

Best Car Port Road Park Up — 1963 Austin Healey 3000

Best Car Pauanui Sunday Drive — 1951 Jowett Jupiter

Make sure you check out our massive event gallery below:

Images: Stretch-Storer Photography

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.”

Taking a mini break at Whangamata’s Brits at the Beach

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