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The wait’s nearly over: NAC Car Culture is coming soon!

14 October, 2015

We’re less than a week out from NAC Car Culture hitting a TV near you this Sunday, October 18, at 2pm on TV3. It’s been a long time coming and we can’t wait to show you what badass content we have in store for you. NAC Car Culture is a magazine-style TV show, which means that each episode you’ll see stuff similar to what we feature on The Motorhood and in our magazines, like a couple of feature cars, an insane dream-worthy garage, or an event we think worthy of showcasing to New Zealand and the world.

In this first episode we take a close look at Johnny Burkhart’s ProCharged hemi-powered ’69 Plymouth Road Runner; we have a chat with Malcolm Sankey from Matamata Panelworks, and we soak in the crazy action that the Mothers Chrome Expression Session had to offer.

With 10 episodes per season, and three seasons locked in, there’s plenty to look forward to! If you do happen to miss an episode (because you’re out at an event or in the shed building a monster), we’ll have them uploaded online for you to watch here at The Motorhood, so save this page to your bookmarks as we’ll tack them all here.

Meanwhile, check out the trailer for the first episode below …

Britannia rules the roads – Royal Tour Cars – part 1

30 May, 2025

Today we take royal tours for granted, but once upon a time, or at any time before the 20th century, it was impossible for our monarchs to visit their downunder dominions because of the distances involved and the unreliable transport.
The advent of steam power for ships and trains, the evolution of the motor car and, finally, the arrival of passenger air travel shrank their world, and ours, considerably, and the royal tour became a feature of the empire and the Commonwealth.
The first British royal visitor to Aotearoa, New Zealand, was Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1920. During his 28-day tour, he travelled mostly by the royal train, which was both safer and more convenient for royal personages. A variety of best-available cars were used locally. Ideally, these would be Daimlers.

Motorman: Blame it on Rio!

22 May, 2025

Following the third polite advisory, I figured there had to be a fair degree of substance to the warning. “If this is your first visit to Rio de Janeiro, please be careful,” came the personal hushed dialogue from the pleasant hostesses on a far from crowded Varig flight from Los Angeles to the famous Brazilian seaside city.
The previous evening I had flown into LA from Auckland en route to the 1985 international launch of the Fiat Uno Turbo. I was prepared for another long haul of just under 12 hours across Mexico, central America, Colombia, and central Brazil to that nation’s third largest city. Surprisingly the 10,500km run from Los Angeles to Rio is actually longer than the 8800km LA-London air route.
With the journey including a brief stopover in Honolulu I expected to travel just under 44,000km for the return journey to sample what was to be a low-volume version of a popular Italian car that would sell in even lower numbers in New Zealand. I like to think this shows nothing more than my deep commitment to my craft. In fact, even though I became lost on the homeward journey my total air miles would be little different.