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Who’s running the numbers? New Zealand’s quickest street and drag cars

12 November, 2015

 

In every issue of NZV8 magazine we feature a list titled New Zealand’s Quickest Drag Racers (as seen below). The list isn’t so much one to celebrate historical achievements, but to give those who are currently competing the credit they deserve. As such, it’s updated on a monthly basis to not only include new entrants, but also to show which drivers have improved their PBs.

Included on the list is any V8-powered vehicle that runs 8.99 seconds or quicker, regardless of which class they race in. The only exception being streetcars, which fall into our separate Quickest Streetcars List, that we also run, assuming they meet the legal criteria. For the streetcar list, the time cut-off is 9.99 seconds or quicker, since nine seconds seems to be the new benchmark for what quantifies a quick streeter these days. You can see who’s currently on that list here.

As a general rule, we’ve always asked for drivers themselves to keep us informed of their times and progress, but we’ve also made an effort to hunt out the information as much as possible. However, that’s where we now need your help.

With so many new cars running into the eight- or nine-second zones, it’s now more important than ever to remove those no longer competing, to give those that are the room they require.

If you’re on the list, but have parked the car up for a few seasons, or sold it, we’d love to hear from you. Likewise, if you’re not on either list and should be, then please do let us know. The easiest way is by emailing [email protected]. Even if you’re not on the list, but have it on good authority that someone should/shouldn’t be, we’ll take your word for it. 

So get emailing!

ROTARY CHIC

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

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.”