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Hayden Paddon announces New Zealand–based Hyundai

24 March, 2016

Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard  announced on March 24 that they will contest two rounds of the New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) in a newly built Hyundai i20. 

The car that Hayden will be pedalling is an AP4-spec i20, run under the newly formed Hyundai Motorsport Team. The car was built at Force Motorsport (Andrew Hawkeswood), and is the second AP4-spec car to be built in New Zealand behind Hawkswood’s Mazda 2. The i20 wears World Rally Championship (WRC) body panels identical to the car that Hayden and John are currently contesting the WRC in. 

The two cars also share the same WRC 1.8 turbocharged Hyundai engine. The AP4 car, however, is backed by a Sadev six-speed sequential transmission that is rated to 920Nm of torque. The majority of the suspension components are built here in New Zealand, including billet uprights, and chromoly and billet suspension arms and cross members, with all suspension parts designed to be interchangeable across differing chassis. The cars all run Australian-built MCA coilovers, AP Racing brake packages, Racetech seats, and a Woodward steering column. 

“I’m very excited to be part of this programme with Hyundai New Zealand as we enter a new phase of our partnership to bring our rally exploits back to New Zealand, and to introduce Hyundai New Zealand to the NZRC,” says Paddon.

While WRC will still take priority, the team are able to contest firstly the Rally of Otago, followed by the International Rally of Whangarei. Paddon says, “Otago and Whangarei are my two favourite rallies in the world. The car is still early in development, but has a lot of potential and we look forward to working closely with Force to help develop it into a rally-winning car. Like any new formula, it will take a little longer for this car to catch on, but I believe that value for money is the key with this sort of car. While not at the same level, it has the same design principles and look of a WRC car.” 

Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.

Range Rover CSK — the original SUV

5 June, 2026

The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the SUV moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inch wheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with only a few minor touch-ups by the Rover styling team.
According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”