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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.

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.