Targa New Zealand: defending champions lead the way

27 October, 2015

Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn have made an early charge in their Mitsubishi Evo 8 to the top of the leader board after the first day of the 21st annual Targa New Zealand rally event on Monday, October 26.  

Information on both the main (six-day) 2015 Targa New Zealand and the two-day Targa Regional Rally events can be found in the latest copy (November 2015) of New Zealand Classic Car magazine.

Day one results:

Andrew Simms Allcomers 4WD

  1. Glenn Inkster / Spencer Winn (2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8) 00:18:04
  2. Tony Quinn / Naomi Tillett (2008 Nissan GT-R) 00:18:38
  3. Jason Gill / Mark  Robinson (2005 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO9) 00:18:47
  4. Nic de Waal / Guy Hodgson (2002 Subaru Impreza) 00:19:07
  5. David Rogers / Aidan Kelly (2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) 00:20:17
  6. Brian Green / Fleur Pedersen (2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) 00:20:20

Metalman Classic 2WD

  1. Bevan Claridge / Campbell Tannock (1992 Holden Commodore) 00:19:33
  2. Jason Easton / Campbell Ward (1966 Ford Mustang) 00:19:35
  3. Mark and Chris Kirk-Burnnand (1987 BMW M3) 00:19:37
  4. Bruce Farley / Glen Warner (1986 BMW 325) 00:20:17
  5. Ashton Wood / Chris Lancaster (1976 Ford Escort RS1800) 00:20:35
  6. Barry Kirk Burnannd / Dave O’Carroll (1989 BMW M3) 00:20:48

Instra.com Modern 2WD

  1. Clark Proctor / Sue O’Neill (1973 Escort MK1) 00:19:18
  2. Martin Dippie / Jona Grant (2007 Porsche GT3 RS) 00:19:37
  3. Marcus Van Klink / Dave Neill (2004 Citroen C2 Super 1600) 00:19:40
  4. Robert Darrington / David Abetz (2002 BMW M3) 00:19:53
  5. Grant Aitken / Caroline Cullimore (2013 Toyota 86 RC) 00:19:54
  6. Andre Cowan / Brett Cowan (1992 BMW 325i) 00:19:58

Defending Targa New Zealand title-holders Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 8) have taken an early lead in the 2015 Targa NZ event from Auckland to Palmerston North

Leading the Instra.com Modern 2WD class is Clark Proctor and Sue O’Neill (Ford Escort / Nissan V6)

Third in Metalman Classic 2WD are Mark and Chris Kirk-Burnnand in their BMW M3

Photo credit: Fast Company / ProShotz

 

 

 

 

Classics on the green

Many pretenders vie for the title, but the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance gets my vote as the biggest thing since sliced bread.
The 71st edition of the world’s pre-eminent and best-known concours event featured 28 classes, judged by a 180-strong jury, which also chose the recipients of 26 special awards.
The size of the event, the number of visitors, and, most mind-numbingly, the sheer number of amazing cars, is almost overwhelming. There are so many quality cars to gaze upon, and so many people gazing at those cars, that it is almost impossible to cover everything.
Notable among the many attractions were the centenary celebrations of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an elegant Talbot-Lago Grand Sport, Hermann Graber’s Swiss-bodied cabriolets and coupés, the jewels of Otto Vu Italian V8s, early Alfa Romeos, Lincoln and its centenary, and cars with unorthodox propulsion systems.

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.