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A jumbo-sized toy shed celebration

6 June, 2016

Rotorua’s well-known performance workshop, The Toy Shed, has recently moved to larger premises at 106/112 Riri Street, to be shared with parts supply business Proparts. With both businesses belonging to well-known Rotorua petrolhead and drag racer Russell Lowe, the move to combine them made sense and offered the opportunity to increase workshop size at the same time. 

Part of that increase in space was required due to Russell also acquiring Carburettor Motors, which has been incorporated into The Toy Shed. The result is a massive 1700-square-metre complex housing all three related businesses under the one roof. With more workshop space, a dedicated dyno area, and parts supply all at the same place, the business has become the perfect one-stop shop. 

To celebrate the move, The Toy Shed is hosting an open day on July 16, the day before the annual Rotorua swap meet. The event will run from 9am through till 5pm and will feature top doorslammer and funny car fire-ups throughout the day. 

Apart from the address, all contact details for the business remain the same — phone: 07 348 5314; email: [email protected].

Grand Routier — in the french tradition

10 July, 2025

Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Lago-Record Factory Berline sedan, to give its full name. Daughter Cath let us know how proud she was of her dad, who had been tinkering away in his garage on this car for so many years.
Without exaggeration, it has been a mammoth task. I first saw this Talbot-Lago in mid 2019. The long-nosed, sweeping, curved four-door saloon, clothed in its misty green metallic paint, was quite breathtaking. There’s more than a little English influence in it, too, harking back to company owner Tony Lago’s involvement in the Clement-Talbot-Darracq era. The long front wings and bonnet, usually multi-louvred, highlighted with artful touches of chrome bling, are typical of the era, but these were indeed luxury length. Interiors provided leather-clad, armchair-style seating and ample legroom, with touches of wood and surprising details such as dainty childproof interior locks — a far cry from today’s lozenge boxes.
Paddy, a retired civil and structural engineer, knows his way around a lathe. He has a well-equipped garage-workshop to assist in any machining tasks along with his other passion for restoring classic motorcycles.

The Great River Road

4 July, 2025

A few years ago my family, knowing my fondness for driving, gave me the book Unforgettable Road Trips: Thirty-Six Drives of a Lifetime by Martin Derrick. Most of the road trips listed take less than a day in places like Scotland, Monaco, and Australia, plus one in New Zealand. Most of these places were too far to go just for a short drive but four of them would take several days. My interest was piqued, and those four drives were added to the bucket list. To date, I have done three of them: ‘Route 66’ (USA 21 days), ‘State Highway 6’ (NZ 10 days) and ‘The Great River Road’ (USA 22 days). You can drive all of them in less time, but you could also fly over them. We wanted a decent immersion in their charms.
The great river referred to is the Mississippi. While the name conjures the deep south, the river actually starts at the bottom of the great lakes, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 3800km later. The great road is more of a concept than a specific strip of tarmac, as you can drive down either side of the river on various routes. Regardless of which side you drive, time should be kept aside for detours to places such as Nashville, which is famous for something or other.