Want to win yourself one of five double passes to one of Australasia’s premier motoring celebrations?

28 September, 2015

Melbourne’s annual Motorclassica event is almost upon us once again, with the Royal Exhibition Building set to be packed from wall to wall with more than 500 stunning exotic, classic, and collectable vehicles. Held over Labour Weekend (October 23–25), it is, without a doubt, one of Australasia’s premier motoring gatherings — and you can win one of five double passes!

If you’re already planning your trip to Melbourne for Labour Weekend, why not get yourself in the draw to tack on an extra activity to your overseas excursion? Want to win? Entering your name in the draw is as simple as can be. All you need to do is comment on the embedded Facebook post below with what your favourite classic car is. Easy! The more mates you can get to enter, the better your chances — and if you’ve got friends in Melbourne, be sure to get them on board too!

Want to win one of five double passes to Australasia's premier gathering of classic cars? Just comment below and tell us…

Posted by NZ Classic Car on Sunday, 20 September 2015

This year’s Motorclassica event will be celebrating a variety of different milestones accomplished in 2015. These include the first 50 years of the supercar, 50 years of Dino, 50 years of the Shelby Mustang, 70 years of MV Agusta, and 50 years of the Bugatti Club Australia — each milestone sure to be celebrated in emphatic style.

But the best way to appreciate the show will be to be there, witnessing the machinery first-hand. Entries close on October 5, so if you or some friends will be in Melbourne on October 23–25, get amongst it and get commenting!

Check out the terms and conditions here

Lunch with … Cary Taylor

Many years ago — in June 1995 to be more precise — I was being wowed with yet another terrific tale from Geoff Manning who had worked spanners on all types of racing cars. We were chatting at Bruce McLaren Intermediate school on the 25th anniversary of the death of the extraordinary Kiwi for whom the school was named. Geoff, who had been part of Ford’s Le Mans programme in the ’60s, and also Graham Hill’s chief mechanic — clearly realising that he had me in the palm of his hand — offered a piece of advice that I’ve never forgotten: “If you want the really good stories, talk to the mechanics.”
Without doubt the top mechanics, those involved in the highest echelons of motor racing, have stories galore — after all, they had relationships with their drivers so intimate that, to quote Geoff all those years ago, “Mechanics know what really happened.”

ROTARY CHIC

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.”