Top-shelf metal on display at Big Boys Toys 2015

29 October, 2015

Big Boys Toys is, without a doubt, New Zealand’s biggest mainstream ‘bloke-fest’ — a massive expo dedicated to all the things that make Kiwi blokes feel warm and gooey inside; chiefly, fast cars and power tools. There will be some amazing gear on display, but if the exotic supercars, showroom Euros, CrossFitters, and boats don’t tickle your fancy, we’ve got you covered.

On display we’ll have a range of cars — cars built and restored by regular Kiwi car enthusiasts — covering our three motoring titles, New Zealand Classic Car, NZ Performance Car, and NZV8, as well as a stream of our new TV show NAC Car Culture.

The NZ Performance Car boys have managed to sort out a pretty wild machine to show off this year — Daynom Templeman’s outrageous, and only just completed, BMW M3. This thing is a real deal, pro-spec drift car, powered by a nitrous-equipped 2JZ-GTE pumping out over 1000hp, and with a dozen Santa sacks full of top-shelf gear — think Wisefab steering and suspension gear, Kevlar body parts; the works. Make no mistake, you’ll want to see this weapon right up close.

Eight cylinder power is taken care of with Mike Bari’s brutal 1971 Chev Chevelle, as featured on the cover of NZV8 Issue No. 123. No stranger to tough street cars, having built a street-legal nine-second Ford Capri back in the ’90s, Mike’s latest creation is about as tough as they come. Not only has the Chevelle’s ample bodywork been massaged to perfection, it’s also been built 100-per-cent correct to run easy single-digit quarter-mile passes. They should come in due course, courtesy of a mammoth 598ci big block Chev, aided by a progressive port and plate nitrous system. The whole car is a masterpiece in engineering and finish, and one that you should see to believe.

Last, but not least — except in size — is the diminutive Fiat Abarth 500 on display for New Zealand Classic Car magazine. Roger Bourne purchased this example, a 1963 Fiat Abarth 500 with a full convertible roof, from Trade Me, before getting it completely restored. The boot lid covers a larger Fiat 126 engine, which has been rebuilt and modified by the team at Marsh Motorsport — while it won’t run four-second quarter-miles, it sure is a neat, and very cool, little cruiser.

In addition to the cars we have on display, you’ll also be able to watch episodes of our new TV show NAC Car Culture, usually broadcast from 2pm every Sunday on TV3, and you can pick up some pretty sweet subscription offers to our motoring titles while you’re at it.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.