SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram
Search
Close this search box.

Will Hampton Downs finally be completed?

27 March, 2015

Is Tony Quinn New Zealand motorsport’s Bruce Wayne? It would seem so if the current rumours are true, and the VIP Petfoods giant has finally been successful in his quest to purchase the financialy crippled Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. In two recent interviews, Quinn has been very vocal about trying to fix what he sees is wrong with New Zealand Motorsport, and he knew he needed two tracks to do it. 

Image source: downforce.co.nz

His quest began back in 2012 when he made his first attempt at purchasing Hampton Downs, and around the same time took over the Highlands Motorsport Park project. With his first offer on Hamptons turned down, he then made inroads to purchasing either Queensland Raceway or more recently Taupo Motorsport Park. Both deals failed to see pen put to paper. Little did we know that he had again made a bid for Hamptons and if the rumours are true then the deal has been made.

Hampton Downs is New Zealand’s busiest motorsport park, operating 320 days a year; but despite this, it hasn’t been without its financial issues leaving the venue unfinished and with a for-sale sign out front basically since it opened. 

So what does this mean for you and me? The facility could now see the completion of the 1.2km club circuit, giving Hampton’s three possible track layouts, the longest of which would be 3.8km. There will no doubt also be other additions to make the venue more financially viable 

It is said current management will remain in place, and I highly doubt Quinn will mirror the business model of Highlands. Which I would like to point out is the only way that venue would exist, due to the strict resource consents allowing only minimal events per year;  Quinn is after all a business man, and from an outsider’s view seems to have New Zealand motorsport’s best interests at heart. This is why I liken him to Batman/Bruce Wayne; a well-to-do business man trying to do good, but often grossly misunderstood. 

We will keep a close eye on the deal as details unfold.

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.