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Kiwi F5000s heading to Laguna Seca

17 June, 2015

A contingent of 12 Kiwi F5000 racers will be heading abroad to represent New Zealand at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion meeting at the infamous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, in California.

The event takes place between August 13–16, and is a celebration of classic cars and motoring history. The F5000 division will include racers from the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, who will compete at the pre-reunion race meeting at Laguna Seca.

“It’s a big deal, alright,” says the president of the New Zealand Formula 5000 Association, Roger Williams. “Monterey is one of the three big historic race meetings they have in the States each year, but the last time the Formula 5000s ran there [Laguna Seca] as an SCCA category was in 1976.”  

Range Rover CSK — the original SUV

5 June, 2026

The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the SUV moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inch wheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with only a few minor touch-ups by the Rover styling team.
According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”

Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

28 May, 2026

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.