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A Classics Museum carnival

9 December, 2015

Waikato classic car enthusiasts, and those of us who have passed through Hamilton, will have undoubtedly stopped off at Classics Museum to step back in time and reminisce about the gorgeous classics on display. 

Tiffany Curtis Photography

Now, three years on, Classics Museum celebrated their 3rd birthday on Sunday, November 29 with great fanfare. The carnival-themed atmosphere attracted car enthusiasts and families for an afternoon of great fun. Everyone got to look at all those great cars, before relaxing back and enjoying a free drive-in-movie, which was Cry Baby starring Johnny Depp.

If all this wasn’t enough, there was a live band playing to get those hips swinging, as well as carnival games and a best-dressed competition presented by Miss Pinup New Zealand. 

Tiffany Curtis Photography

All this fun created quite an appetite and The Jukebox Diner was soon crammed with families enjoying their burgers, shakes, and fries. 

Tiffany Curtis Photography

Visitors also enjoyed free admission to the museum for the day, and just when you thought you’d seen it all, the Hamilton Roller Derby team came along to show off some tricks on their skates.

For more information on the Classics Museum birthday event, visit classicsmuseum.co.nz.

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.”