The best of the best: 2015 Ellerslie Intermarque Concours d’Elegance

4 February, 2015

Who would have thought that a small competition between a cluster of car clubs 42 years ago would one day become the largest classic and new-car event in the country?

In 2015 the Ellerslie Intermarque Concours d’Elegance and Classic Car Show will be held on February 8 at Auckland’s Ellerslie Racecourse. It features around 800 cars from clubs and leading new-vehicle dealerships, as well as an even stronger presence from those industries that support our motoring passions. New Zealand Classic Car magazine will once again host an amazing display of classic cars in the Newmarket Room.

This year’s theme for the Classic Cover Insurance Best Club Display award is The Big Screen, featuring cars as stars in films and TV shows. And you’ll see some of the country’s finest unrestored classics in RadioLIVE’s Best Survivor Class.

The show host this year is last year’s team event winner — the Auckland Mustang Owners’ Club — and you can expect to see a spectacular line-up of these iconic pony cars.

But it won’t just be classics that will captivate you. It’s hard to resist the temptations of new cars too — and this year Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jaguar, Jeep, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Lotus, Maserati, Mini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen, and Volvo all display a mouth-watering selection of models.

There’s also Maserati’s new hospitality area, in which you can decide what you’re going to buy with next week’s Lotto winnings. One option (apart from a few cars) could be a new motorhome and, for the first time, RV Super Centre has a presence, exhibiting six futuristic recreational vehicles at the show.

This year, background music — appropriate for a classic scene — is provided by The Sound 93.8FM, with a broadcasting team on-site.

You can also acquire books and motorsport accessories, and check out wheel refurbishing, rally tours, tracking-and-recovery technology, dashboard cameras, clothing, car bumpers, garage/showroom flooring and paint-protection technology, insurance cover and, of course, Meguiar’s car-care products.

We also hope you’ll support the Variety Bash vehicles that raise funds for Variety — The Children’s Charity — look out for their special display.

So, set your camera for some great shots — and recapture fresh memories of cars you might have dreamed about, owned, or grew up with.

We hope you enjoy the show — check out the event’s progamme in advance below to see where everything will be located on the day:

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