SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

Watch the Race to the Sky action on the big screen

8 April, 2015

There’s nothing worse than being at a hill climb, racetrack, or rally circuit and only being able to take in the action as it soars past your nose. Fortunately, Race to the Sky organizers have taken note — they have arranged a big screen that will show live and replayed in-car footage, interviews with competitors, and much more during this year’s event being held at Cardrona Valley, Central Otago, on April 18–19.

The footage will all be produced by an on-site television production team, who are also making a one-hour television highlights package, which will be screened during TV3’s CRC Motorsport show on May 10.

Some other exciting additions have been added as the event’s event marketing manager, Melanie Kees, explains.

“Make sure you’ve got a good spot in sight of the big screen for Sunday’s top-20 shoot-out — yes, we’ve expanded the traditional top-10 shoot-out to enable the fastest 20 competitors from any class to enjoy a little extra time in the spotlight.

“Spectators can enjoy a range of activities and entertainment in the event village on the plateau. The pit area is open and free to walk around so you can talk with your favourite drivers and check out their awesome cars, bikes, and quads.”

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

29 September, 2026

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”