Big guns head to Hampton Downs

24 November, 2015

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“The new-look motor-racing season in New Zealand got off to a great start with the first Premier Motorsport event at Taupo Motorsport Park in October, before the big classes then moved on to the ITM 500 V8 Supercar event at Pukekohe.
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Over the weekend of November 28–29, the country’s major racing categories are in action once again, at the V8 Festival at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. And if the racing at the first two meetings is anything to go by, then fans who head along to the North Waikato track this Saturday or Sunday are in for a real treat.

The revitalized BNT NZ Touring Cars are already finding their feet as a combined class of V8 SuperTourer, TLX, and TL-spec cars, and have produced some epic encounters already, most notably the first race at Taupo, which was regarded by many as one of the country’s best touring-car races for some time. Won by former Bathurst winner Jason Bargwanna, and packed with close racing and the odd controversial incident, the series now has everything touring-car fans hoped for. It can only get better, and with a full pit lane of the racers at the upcoming Hampton Downs event, the action is set to continue.

Youth vs maturity is the story of the epic climax to the UDC V8 Ute Racing Series, which will be played out at Hampton Downs during the V8 Festival. After a long, competitive, closely fought, and challenging championship, either Sam ‘Bazza’ Barry or Brett ‘The Scud’ Rudd will likely lift the series crown, and for either it will be hugely well-deserved.

The exciting Toyota Finance 86 Championship heads to Hampton Downs for the second round of its own bigger and better 2015 series. No fewer than 16 of the good-looking rear-wheel drive racers took to the track at Pukekohe, and we should see a similar field at Hampton Downs. Close racing is guaranteed.

Another crowd-pleaser heading for the North Waikato is the Ssangyong Actyon Ute Racing Series, where you can see some of the brightest young stars of the future show their skills at a large race meeting. The racing is nose-to-tail and the lap times incredibly close. It’s hugely entertaining and a great showcase for those competing.

The two TradeZone GT grids will wow the fans over the weekend, with the awesome GT1 and GT2 machinery likely to be amongst the very fastest machines racing. With sports prototypes, old supercars on steroids, and ex-factory GT cars, the class is petrolhead heaven. GT3 and GT4 combines slightly slower ‘home-grown–type’ machinery, and whilst the grid does not have the outright speed of its big brother, it nevertheless provides big fields and very close racing.

The classic Kumho Pre-65s are always a very popular addition to any race meeting, and the category is back for its second Premier Motorsport event at Hampton Downs, while the NZ Sports Cars (combined with a Formula Libre element for this event) bring modern aerodynamics and technology, and are more like baby Le Mans–type cars than anything else.

Action on Saturday, November 28 begins at 8.30am, and on Sunday, November 29 at 8.35am. General admission is just $20 on Saturday and $30 on Sunday, with kids under 12 going free. You can buy in advance at hdticketing.co.nz, or purchase at the gate.

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.”

The Pininfarina 230 SL

14 May, 2026

It’s October 1964, and imagine you’re an automotive journalist covering that year’s Paris Auto Show (Mondial de l’Automobile). As you approach the Pininfarina booth, you come across a car that looks a bit like the Mercedes-Benz 230 SL introduced the previous year at the Geneva Auto Show, a car then arriving at Mercedes-Benz dealerships around the world.
But looking closely, its styling and proportions seem to be a bit different. And it has a fixed roof, unlike the Pagoda-style greenhouse of the removable hardtop seen on the production 230 SL. While today, the styling of the W113, under the supervision of Head of Styling Friedrich Geiger, with lead designers Paul Bracq and Bela Barenyi, is considered a mid-century modern masterpiece, acceptance in-period was not universal. Some critics called out the concave design of its removable roof, which ultimately gave the car its “Pagoda” nickname.