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Don’t get lost! October’s Caffeine & Classics has a change of venue

20 September, 2016

For those partial to a good cup of joe and a few hundred classic cars packed into one place, Caffeine & Classics is where you want to be.

Proudly brought to you by Protecta Insurance, Caffeine & Classics is held on the last Sunday of each month at Smales Farm, Takapuna, and has been going strong for the last three-and-a-half years. However, the October event will see a temporary relocation to the NorthWest Shopping Centre due to the surrounding streets of Smales Farm being closed for the Auckland Marathon the same weekend.

Don’t sweat, though — although our expertise may not be marathons, we do know that the runners will only block the way to Smales Farm for one event, and the move is a one-off. As for the finer details, the date and time remains the same as always, with the October event held on the 30th at 10am — in case that wasn’t clear enough, Caffeine & Classics will be back at Smales from November onwards.

If you haven’t already pulled the old girl out of the garage and headed out on a beautiful Sunday morning, you really ought to mark it down on the calendar. Numbers are frequently upwards of 500 cars and bikes, with like-minded enthusiasts to shoot-the-sh*t with. It’s a laid-back, family-friendly environment that you can bring the little ones to, and one of the few events that are open to all types of classic and collectible vehicles. Entry is free for vehicles and spectators — for more information click here.

  • October 30 (one-off event)
  • NorthWest Shopping Centre
  • Gunton Drive, Westgate
  • 10am–12pm

Motorsport Flashback –The right racing recipes, and cake

17 September, 2025

If a top-fuel dragster sits atop the horsepower list of open-wheel racing cars, then cars designed for the massively successful Formula Ford category are close to the opposite end. Invented in the mid-1960s as a cheap alternative to F3 for racing schools, the concept was staggeringly simple: introduce the Ford Kent pushrod to a spaceframe chassis; keep engine modifications to a minimum; same tyres for all; ban aerodynamic appendages; and you get the most phenomenally successful single-seater class of racing car the world has ever seen.
The first-ever race for these 1600cc mini-GP cars took place in England in July 1967, but it quickly took off. The US and Australia were among the earliest adopters. It took us a little longer because we had the much-loved National Formula, comprising predominantly Brabhams, Ken Smith’s Lotus, and Graham McRae’s gorgeous self-built cars, all powered by the Lotus-Ford twin-cam. After a memorable championship in 1968/69 the class was nearly on its knees a year later. The quality was still there with Smith winning his national title, just, from McRae, but the numbers had fallen. Formula Ford was the obvious replacement and was introduced for the 1970/71 season as ‘Formula C’.

Angela’s ashes

28 August, 2025

In November 2018, Howard Anderson had a dream of finding a 1964 Vauxhall PB Cresta to recreate the car he, his wife, Ruth, and three friends travelled in from London to Invercargill in 1969. The next night’s dream was a nightmare. He dreamed he would find the original Angela but it was a rusted wreck somewhere in Southland.
Howard’s inspiration came from reading about a driver in the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon who was reunited with his Vauxhall Ventora 50 years later. He, Ruth, and her parents had watched the start of the rally from Crystal Palace in South London. The fashion at the time among the rally and race set was to paint bonnets flat black to avoid the sun’s reflections flashing into the driver’s eyes, thus saving them from certain disaster. Howard admired the flat black bonnet on the Ventora so much he had Angela’s bonnet painted dull black.