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Take a trip down Route 66

2 February, 2017

 

The road is something we take for granted in day-to-day life, but for those of us who use them for more than just the daily grind — as a conduit for automotive passion — there can only be one that matters. 

It’s not the oldest road in the world, and it certainly isn’t the busiest, but Route 66 can’t be defined by numbers. It is the mother road, at the heart of America, and its immense historical legacy remains. Winding its way through immense cities, desolate plains, beautiful scenery, ghost towns, neon-lit diners, historic American motels, and the stuff woven tight into the fabric of America, Route 66 is a journey like no other.

If you haven’t, at some point in your life, dreamed of driving Route 66, you may be on the wrong website. But for those who are willing to entertain the idea of the automotive dream, Southern Classics has just what you want — the chance to cruise Route 66 in a late-model Ford Mustang, crossing through eight states spanning 2500 miles, taking in the best the road has to offer. Live it up in Las Vegas, marvel at the Grand Canyon, venture onto the Skywalk, and experience a slice of America that modern life can’t extinguish. 

Tours depart in June 2017, and include airfares, Mustang rental, all accommodation, and breakfast most days. If this all sounds like a bit of you, more information can be found on southernclassics.co.nz, or by emailing [email protected].

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.”