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Escape to the far north for Autospectacular

9 December, 2015

Classic car enthusiasts planning to head to the top of the North Island for their summer holidays should be planning to visit this year’s Autospectacular — once again organized by the Far North Vintage Car Club. With classic and vintage cars, motorcycles, and trucks on display — plus hot rods, a swap meet, food and craft stalls — there’s enough on offer to keep the entire family happy.

And if you’re touring in your classic or vintage car, entry to the show is free — and visitors can also enter the draw to win a two-night stay at the Reia Taipa Beach Resort. The show takes place on Saturday, January 9, 2016 and will be held at the Eastern Rugby Football Grounds, East Street, Taipa. Gates are open from 8am to 2pm, public entry costs $5 per adult, and $2 per child.

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Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.

Range Rover CSK — the original SUV

5 June, 2026

The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the SUV moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inch wheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with only a few minor touch-ups by the Rover styling team.
According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”