Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club Annual Car Show and Swap Meet

8 December, 2015

Held on Sunday, November 8 at the Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club’s Cliff Road HQ, overlooking the upper reaches of Tauranga Harbour, this annual show has now become a popular fixture with the local classic car scene.

With around 70 classic motorbikes, cars, and trucks on show, plus an interesting swap meet, all surrounded by local rose gardens, this is one event visitors to the region should definitely add to their diary.

With the sight and sound of classic vehicles, the smell and the beauty of the roses, the taste of sweet and savoury in the tearoom — the show’s organizers once again should be well satisfied with their efforts, and if asked they would be able to say that everything had come up roses.

You can see a gallery of the event below:

For a full event report, pick up a copy of the January 2016 edition of New Zealand Classic Car magazine from Monday, December 14.

To finish first, first, you must build a winner

Can-Am royalty
Only three M20s were built, including the car that was destroyed at Road Atlanta. This car was later rebuilt. All three cars were sold at the end of the 1972 season. One of the cars would score another Can-Am victory in 1974, driven by a privateer, but the M20’s day was done. Can-Am racing faded away at the end of that season and was replaced by Formula 5000.
These days the cars are valued in the millions. It was unlikely that I would ever have seen one in the flesh if it hadn’t been that one day my editor asked me if I would mind popping over to Taranaki and having a look at a pretty McLaren M20 that somebody had built in their shed.
That is how I came to be standing by the car owned and built by truck driver Leon Macdonald.

Lunch with … Roly Levis

Lunching was not allowed during Covid 19 Lockdowns so our correspondent recalled a lunch he had with legendary New Zealand racing driver Rollo Athol Levis shortly before he died on 1 October 2013 at the age of 88. Michael Clark caught up with Roly and members of his family over vegetable soup