Club Corner: Porsche Club of New Zealand

21 July, 2016

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The Porsche Club of New Zealand was established in December 1975 and had its 40th-anniversary celebrations in 2015. The club is number 54 of nearly 700 official Porsche clubs recognized in the world and has a strong relationship with the Porsche factory and Porsche in New Zealand.

The Porsche Club of New Zealand has members in all regions of the country and has a membership of around 700, with all the family welcome to participate in a wide range of events. Members share a passion, and Porsche ownership is not required; all are welcome: members share a strong camaraderie as well as experience and knowledge.

The benefits of membership include picnics, winery and café lunch and brunch drives, weekend social events, gymkhanas, and autocross — low-speed competitive driving and driver training — learning to safely exploit the performance of your Porsche on the track, competitive sprint events, the club race series, technical evenings, an annual picnic and Christmas function, a Concours d’Elegance annual dinner and awards evening, membership of an exclusive Facebook group, the bimonthly high-quality club magazine Spiel, and much more.

The club is for all Porsche enthusiasts — even if you are yet to purchase or are for any reason in between Porsches, you are welcome. It is about having a passion for all things Porsche.

This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue (304) of New Zealand Classic Car. Grab a print copy or a digital copy of the mag now:

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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.

Club Corner: Porsche Club of New Zealand

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