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Sundays just got better with NAC Car Culture!

27 August, 2015

Looking to extend your motoring fix beyond the glossy pages of New Zealand’s leading motoring magazines, and the on-the-run convenience of The Motorhood? Well from this October, you can, with the debut of our new motoring-magazine television show NAC Car Culture on TV3! Set to premiere on Sunday, October 18 at 2pm, the show pools the minds, the knowledge, and the passion of the people who make up Parkside Media’s three big motoring magazine titles: New Zealand Classic Car, NZV8, and NZ Performance Car.

Despite being such a small, isolated nation, New Zealand has always had an incredible affinity with the automobile. We produce some of the best replicas and restorations, some of the wildest and most inventive car builds, and a large chunk of the best race drivers on the planet. NAC Car Culture promises to travel up and down this fair country of ours to investigate why, and expose the machines, the men, and women who make it all happen. We’ll tour private garages and expose the marvels that they conceal, we’ll take a look at grass-roots motorsport and motoring events, and we’ll shine a light on some of the nation’s greatest builds — big and small. Can you tell that we’re a little excited?

Extending our excitement is the knowledge that the equally passionate Cal Thorley will be directing the show. You might recognize the name from his previous work while at the helm of NZV8’s 2014–’15 Beach Hop coverage, as well as his fellow car publications; The Red Shift and Hot Rod Revue. For the low-down on Cal, check out our in-depth interview with the man behind the camera.

We were also delighted to recruit NAC Insurance as our partners in this journey. They’ve been a loyal supporter of the New Zealand motoring community for more than 18 years, and were thrilled to come on board to help bring the project to life. The series is a good fit for NAC’s involvement in supporting initiatives that grow and develop the scene — as well as providing something great to watch on a Sunday afternoon!

Keep an eye on The Motorhood, where we’ll be posting more details closer to the broadcast date. You will not want to miss it!

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.