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Good deeds: Dunedin cruising for charity

16 November, 2016

The terms ‘boy racer’ and ‘Skyline’ seem to be synonymous in the eyes of johnny law and the general public. Wanting to shift such outdated attitudes to prove once and for all that such things are untrue, and also do a good deed for his community, Andrew Webster started the Otago Community Hospice Charity Cruise (Dunedin) in 2010.

This year’s Otago Community Hospice Charity Cruise event will be held on Sunday, November 20, at Tahuna Park, St Kilda, Dunedin. It kicks off at 10:00am, but organisers have asked if those entering could arrive earlier to set up — gates open at 8:30am. The one-hour long cruise starts at 1:00pm, before returning back to Tahuna Park before 5:00pm.

The Otago Community Hospice Charity Cruise welcomes all persuasions of cars, be it Japanese, American, British, Australian, or European; modified, classic, muscle, or exotic — you can even bring along your mildly modified daily-driver too. These guys don’t discriminate and it’s all in the name of charity. Trophies and prize packs are awarded for Judges’ Choice of the aforementioned categories. 

Each driver and passenger(s) is asked to donate $5 or more to Hospice (collected at the event), which grants them entry to the show, a place to display their car, and participation in the cruise later in the day.

The inaugural event back in 2010 raised $2235.50 with an impressive 155 cars in attendance on a wet day. This has been topped year on year, with 2015 the best year yet, raising $5100 and seeing 245 cars and motorbikes on display. To date, the events have raised more than $18,000, which all goes directly to Hospice.

At the very least, the Otago Community Hospice Charity Cruise makes for a good excuse to donate a bit of money to a worthy cause and get plenty of enjoyment out of your car — hopefully the weather plays ball!

Head to the Otago Community Hospice Charity Cruise event for further information.

Lunch with … Cary Taylor

11 September, 2024

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

6 September, 2024

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.”