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Tony Quinn picks up Hampton Downs

3 June, 2015

It’s the start of a new chapter for Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, as it has recently been purchased by Highlands Motorsport Park owner and Australian pet food magnate Tony Quinn.

Hampton Downs opened in 2009, and Quinn has expressed an interest in purchasing the facility for a number of years — it was only after extensive negotiations that he was able to purchase, becoming Hampton Downs’ new owner on June 3.

Tony Quinn (R) purchases Hampton Downs Motorsport Park

For the first six months, Quinn will sit back and firm up his plans, but some plans are already in the works.

“A lot of what we want to do is pretty obvious, like finishing off the pit lane, extending the track, and building another skid pan down the bottom,” Quinn says. “By the end of the summer, maybe March–April next year [2016], a lot of those plans will be finished. Then I can see a grand opening of the track in November, 2016.”

Though nothing is set in stone as yet, it is thought that this grand opening may also play host to a New Zealand double-header finale to the Australian GT series. There is also speculation around an Asia-Pacific GT Cup at the event. Only time will tell, but it sure sounds as though Hampton Downs really will be stepping up to the international stage.

NZ Classic Car magazine, March/April 2025 issue 398, on sale now

23 February, 2025

An HQ to die for
Mention the acronym HQ and most people in the northern hemisphere will assume this is an abbreviation for Head Quarters. However, for those born before the mid-’80s in Australia and New Zealand, the same two letters only mean one thing – HQ Holden!
Christchurch enthusiast Ed Beattie has a beautiful collection of Holden and Chevrolet cars. He loves the bowtie and its Aussie cousin and has a stable of beautiful, powerful cars. His collection includes everything from a modern GTSR W507 HSV through the decades to a 1960s Camaro muscle car and much in between.
In the last two Holden Nationals (run biennially in 2021 and 2023), Ed won trophies for the Best Monaro and Best Decade with his amazing 1972 Holden Monaro GTS 350 with manual transmission.
Ed is a perfectionist and loves his cars to reflect precisely how they were on ‘Day 1,’ meaning when the dealer released them to the first customer, including any extras the dealer may have added or changed.

You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

21 February, 2025

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.