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The Targa Bambina approaches

3 May, 2015

The Targa Bambina is just around the corner — held over May 14–17 — and teams will be putting in the last-minute hard yards to ensure their cars are competitive and ready.

Racing begins on May 15, with the Targa Bambina Welcome Function and Charity Auction commencing at 7pm on Thursday, May 14, at the Simunovich Olive Estate in Bombay. The Welcome Function provides a fantastic opportunity to meet the Targa family, sponsors, enjoy a three-course meal, and support the Kids in Cars charity.

Targa NZ raised $25,000 for the Kids in Cars charity last year, and hope to match, if not exceed, that benchmark. Auction items can be donated by contacting the Targa office, or you can purchase a ticket, or make a contribution on the night. The purchase of tickets is open to all of the Targa family and past competitors.

And, of great importance, Targa NZ are still in desperate need of timing teams. Three weeks out from racing, volunteers are needed to avoid having to cancel any stages. If you know of friends, family, or competitors who aren’t competing at this event, who’d be interested, please get in touch with the Targa office.  

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”