Cruisin’ for Canteen

11 October, 2016

You’ve really gotta admire the folks that go out of their way for charities, and especially the large organizations that can make big things happen, changing the lives of an unquantifiable number of deserving people. Saturday, October 29 will be one of those days, with the Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise supported by Big Boys Toys and Smits Group in support of Canteen. 

The cruise will host a wide range of vehicles, and will attendees will be provided gift packs and a unique told-on-the-day cruise route, finally ending up at Big Boys Toys. 

Upon arrival, those involved in the cruise will take part in a VIP lap through the live-action arena, right before parking up in a VIP area created just for the cruise. For those interested in taking part in the charity cruise, your car must be presented at a very high level, including customs, classics, hot rods, imports, and street machines — as this is a show after al!

What’s also a really cool aspect of the cruise is that Meguiar’s is donating 50 cents for every vote submitted in the People’s Choice Award competition, as well as donating the entry fees to Canteen. 

If you’re interested in entering your car into the charity cruise and supporting an amazing cause, click here. Entries cost $45 per car. 

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

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

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.