SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

McMillin turns to nitro!

25 November, 2015

 

NZV8 columnist, and well-known drag racer, Morice McMillin has driven some fast cars during his drag racing career, but last Sunday the Hamilton-based driver had his first taste of nitro whilst completing licensing passes at Sydney Dragway, and, for him and his crew, the Aeroflow Triple Challenge can’t come soon enough.

When quizzed about how the ‘One Bad Kiwi’ nitro funny car compared to other cars he had raced, McMillin beamed with excitement. “Honestly, it’s like nothing I can compare at all, there’s just no comparison.
 
“If I had to put it into words – I suppose one is a bit of hail and one is a thunderstorm. It’s just the whole experience; the noise, the smell — the whole experience is just amazing!

“As soon as I sat in the car at the race shop, it just fit like a glove, everything was set up perfectly and it was just perfect for me.”
 
McMillin took his own crew with him so that they could also get to know the new car.
 
“For us, it’s a steep learning curve but the boys picked it up quickly under the guidance of Aaron Hambridge and the boys in the Aeroflow race shop — it was a great day.”

It was also the team’s first trip to Sydney Dragway, the venue for the massive December 12 event where the team are set to make their competition debut.
 
Morice added, “To race on a world-class facility is like nothing that you dream about. It will be great to see the huge field of funny cars all lined up in the staging lanes for the event.”
 
After the licensing, McMillin and his crew returned to the race shop to get the car ready for competition.

“We went back to the shop and serviced as much as we could today. Now we get the logistics in place for the event and make sure everything is good to go. Oh, and we will nervously wait,” he laughed.
 
But McMillin is not making the trip for enjoyment alone, he is looking for fast passes and win lights.

“Driving a funny car for Graeme Cowin was amazing, to run my first five is something you can’t put into words, but to race against the best in the business at the best funny car event you could imagine – we’ll that will be the dream come true!”

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.