Keen to get involved in October’s Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise?

24 September, 2015

The Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise is back for the second time in 2016 on October 31, with organizers teaming up with Big Boys Toys in support of the wonderful work undertaken by CanTeen around cancer awareness and support. The cruise will be held on the Saturday of the Big Boys Toys event, starting off with a 9am sign in at Smits Group / Meguiar’s headquarters at 59 Greenmount Drive, East Tamaki, where entrants will receive their gift packs, their cruise route, and their official cruise sticker.

The cars will be under way at 10am sharp, following a scenic route to Big Boys Toys (held at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane), where entrants will perform a lap of the live action arena before parking their machines in the VIP car park for show goers to admire.

Registration for the Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise costs $45 per car, with the Meguiar’s VIP entry pack including a selection of products, a further discount voucher for use at the Meguiar’s / Smits Group stand at Big Boys Toys, and, of course, entry to the show for everyone in your car. The Big Boys Toys team have come to the party here, and best of all your entire entry fee will be donated to CanTeen.

The Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise is limited to well-presented vehicles only — including customs, classics, hot rods, imports, and street machines. Those who do enter will go in the draw to win a People’s Choice Award, worth $700 in cash, as well as many other prizes, so get your registration in quick to avoid missing out.

Organizers want to raise as much as they can for CanTeen, so in addition to the 100-per-cent donation of the entry fee, Smits Group / Meguiar’s will donate 50 cents for every legitimate vote in the Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise Peoples’ Choice Award. Voting forms will be provided to every person entering the showgrounds via the event guide, plus spare copies will be available at the gate and at the Meguiar’s stand. The better your car is presented, the more votes placed, and the more dollars raised!

To join the charity cruise, get your car ‘show and shine’ ready and register for the Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise at the Meguiar’s website. Good luck, and we’ll see you there!

NZ Classic Car magazine, January/February 2025 issue 397, on sale now

Having dominated the world motorcycle championships of the 1960s, Honda had a crucial decision to make in 1969. Would Soichiro Honda heed his engineer’s pivotal advice?
“Very few examples of the early Civic, a car that set Honda onto the path to becoming a giant of the car world, remain road registered in New Zealand.
Retired Tauranga owner of this example, Graham Inglis is thrilled with his classic little Honda Civic, the first of eleven generations built so far by the company. The Civic became a household name.
“It’s quite amazing the number of people who not only wave, but come up to me in the street and tell me how much they like the little Honda and its colour, and then they want to start talking about it. A guy in our vintage car club wants to buy it and he has been pushing me a bit. It’s not for sale,” he laughs.
Graham bought his 1977 Honda Civic from Wellington enthusiast Julian Foster, who was the instigator of its restoration.”

A star in their eyes – 1968 Ford Galaxie 500

“Everyone asks that until they take a closer look,” says its owner today, Brent Harris of Auckland. “They also ask if I’ve done the restoration myself, and I have to tell them no, it is 100 per cent original. It’s the paint listed in the handbook.”
It was the original condition of the car that won Brent over from the moment he first saw it — that and the fact “it just looks stunning”.
Brent had owned a 1968 Mark II Cortina for four years. It was in need of some work and the question arose whether to spend the money or get something different. You don’t get much more divergent than Ford’s different approaches to its markets in the UK and the USA.