Waterview connection takes flight

12 May, 2015

 

As motoring enthusiasts, I’m sure we’re all intrigued by the new tunnel that’s being built underneath Auckland. The tunnel connects the Southwestern motorway to the Northwestern motorway, and will hopefully ease a lot of traffic during Auckland’s morning travels. What I’m sure many of us are looking forward to is the 2.5km-long tunnel that we can blast through and rattle the tenants above. We can’t wait to shoot a car through the tunnel — just picture 2.5kms of rolling action-shot glory. 

Check out the video above to see a little drone fly through the soon-to-be-completed tunnel. 

Image: NZ Transport Agency

A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.