SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram
Search
Close this search box.

Power on water: ENZED 2018 Jetsprints Stadium Cup

14 January, 2018

It might just be New Zealand’s gnarliest motorsport event on water, and it’s back for 2018 — yep, we’re talking about the jetsprint circus returning to ASB Baypark in Mt Maunganui on Saturday, January 27, following a two-year hiatus. 

There is nothing quite like stadium jetsprints, in which these lightweight and crazily powerful boats race against the clock around a tight network of islands, with rounds completed in as little as 50 seconds. Now imagine that with covered stadium seating and up-close viewing of the purpose-built aqua track — and the noise is just unreal!

View fullsize

IMG_0351.jpg

View fullsize

IMG_1364 (2500x1668).jpg

Watch as three classes of jetsprint boats battle it out for the ENZED 2018 Jetsprints Stadium Cup — that’s 30 or more of the best boats and drivers in the world squirting 745kW and more as they’re pushed to the limit, including current NZ SuperBoat champ Peter Caughey, and the likes of Rotorboat Racing’s quad-rotor boat on meth — and fitted with a supercharger set-up — alongside Stinger Sprint Boats’ twin-turbo VK56 example.

The kids will love it too, with the Altherm Window Systems Family FunZone providing a waterslide, bouncy castles, face painting. They’ll also have the chance to meet current superboat class world number one Glen Head and check out the Altherm Jetsprint Team’s twin turbo small block 1500hp menthanol-munching monster superboat up close.

View fullsize

IMG_0231 (2500x1667).jpg

View fullsize

IMG_0233 (2500x1667).jpg

This event has almost sold out in previous years and draws crowds of more than 15,000, so get in quick — find more info at jetsprintbop.com, and eventfinda.co.nz for pricing and to secure your ticket.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.