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New Zealand Classic Car contributors win big at MotorSport New Zealand Awards 2015

27 May, 2015

MotorSport New Zealand recognized our best and brightest at their recent annual awards ceremony, MotorSport New Zealand Awards 2015, which was held in Wellington on May 23. The evening began and ended with emotion onstage, as the motorsport community paid tribute to those who have excelled on the track, and contributed off it, in the past 12 months.

For Parkside Media and New Zealand Classic Car magazine, the awards were something of a hat-trick, with three regular contributors to the magazine walking off with awards.

Terry Marshall, who has been providing stunning motorsport images to New Zealand Classic Car for many years, received the President’s Award for the best single motorsport shot of the year. His winning image is pictured above.

Terry Collier was the proud recipient of the Lupp Trophy, awarded to those who embody the very spirit and values associated with the classic and historic racing movement. Terry has also written many features for New Zealand Classic Car — his ‘Kiwi Connection’ feature on the Maserati 250F still stands as the definitive history of these iconic racing cars in New Zealand. Terry was also presented with a Distinguished Service Award.

Once again, our very own Donn Anderson, was recognized as the Feature Journalist of the Year through his July 2014 ‘Motor Man’ column on Jack Brabham.

Also on the classic-car front, well done to NZ Festival of Motoring Chairman, Jim Barclay, who was a deserving winner of the Ron Frost Award.

Other highlights of the evening included Karen Paddon of the South Canterbury Car Club accepting the Distinguished Service Award for the more than 35 years that she has spent working behind the scenes to ensure events in several categories run smoothly.

To close the evening, immensely proud father Bryan Hartley accepted New Zealand’s premier motorsport award — The Jim Clark Trophy — on behalf of his son, Brendon, who is currently competing as a factory Porsche driver in the prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship.
 

MotorSport New Zealand Awards 2015

  • The Jim Clark Trophy: Brendon Hartley.
  • The Rally Founders Trophy: Richard Mason, the current New Zealand Rally Champion — a title he has won five times.
  • The Steel Memorial Trophy: New Zealand Formula Ford winner, James Munro.
  • The Lupp Trophy: Terry Collier
  • The MotorSport Media Personality of the Year Award: Hayden Paddon
  • Volunteer of the Year: Allan and Sue Baird
  • Technical D’Honneur Awards: Ron McMillan and Barry Carrington
  • The Ron Frost Award: Jim Barclay
  • Distinguished Service Awards: Karen Paddon, John Armstrong, Nigel Russell, Terry Collier, Jill Cowham
  • Awards of Merit: Steph Harris and Roger Laird.

The Certificate of Outstanding Achievement, Richard and Sara Mason Media Award winners:

  • News Journalist of the Year: Shaun Summerfield
  • Feature Journalist of the Year: Donn Anderson
  • Photographer of the Year (Portfolio): Bruce Jenkins
  • President’s Award (single shot): Terry Marshall

NZ Classic Car magazine, July/August 2026 issue 406, on sale now

21 June, 2026

Rebirth of a brilliant Grand Tourer –1973 Datsun 240Z
How often do we long for that ultimate dream sports car, and that dream comes true? This is about one of the most influential Japanese cars of all time, a car that changed the sports car market.
This is about much more than the restoration of an iconic classic sports car, the 240Z. It’s about the culmination of a dream over many years and the friendships made. It’s about the people who helped and the professionals whose approach ensured that the dream became a reality, an attitude typical of the industry we call ‘classic restoration experts’.
It is no surprise that the outcome after a lengthy search by Conrad Van der Geest for the right Datsun 240Z culminated in a trophy for the best Japanese car at this year’s Caroline Bay Beach, Rock N’ Hop at Timaru.
Originally a roadworthy car in running order, it was left-hand-drive and had been driven for several years by its Timaru owner, as Conrad explains.
“A neighbour, Dave Barron, knew I was looking for one and introduced me to the owner. I had seen the car being driven around Timaru. It was unusual for one of these coming originally from California, so it was a really clean car instead of rusty, as they are prone to rust. The story goes that the grandfather passed it onto his grandson, who decided to sell it, and that’s when it came over here.”
Every issue comes with our FREE huge wall poster; this issue, it’s our cover car for this edition, a 1973 Datsun 240Z

The butterfly effect

18 June, 2026

The man on the mountain bike pedalled over, taking it all in. Gazing in wonderment at this small Japanese coupe with butterfly doors, he said, “Wow, I have never seen one of these before. What is it?” When I told him it was a Toyota, he nearly fell off his bike.
The Toyota Sera is unique amongst ’90s Japanese coupes. The Sera, which is Italian for ‘evening’, can trace its roots back to Toyota’s AXV-II concept car. Launched as part of a trio of Toyota concept cars at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, it shared its underpinnings with the P70 Toyota Starlet. The similarities ended there, thanks to the AXV-II’s low-slung and rounded coupe styling with butterfly doors. These doors were held upright by gas struts when fully open. Glass covered the upper section of the doors and the rear hatchback.
These features, much to everyone’s surprise, were carried over to the production Sera in 1990. Toyota marketed the Sera, which means ‘will be’ in Spanish and ‘princess’ in Hebrew, as a funky alternative to the much-loved MR2.