A place to call home: Caffeine & Gasoline

14 October, 2018

 


 

As many car enthusiasts from the upper part of the country are likely to be aware, the organizers of Caffeine & Classics, a free monthly car meet at Smales Farm Business Park in Auckland, have had to implement some changes to keep things viable. Due to the massive numbers the event was pulling, a general cut-off was introduced — cars either older than 30 years, or that are scratch-built, an obscure or exotic model, or one that wouldn’t generally be seen used as a daily driver.

But the news we’re writing about here concerns an all-new event, catering towards those vehicles that may have been displaced by these updates.

“We have made some changes to our current Caffeine & Classics meeting and it has created a lot of discussion,” explained Colin Marshall, from Protecta Insurance. “There was already a need and desire from the Caffeine & Classics faithful for another event south of Auckland City. The time is now right for another event to start at Hampton Downs.”

The event in question is the new Caffeine & Gasoline meeting, following the same formula as Caffeine & Classics — held on the morning of the last Sunday of every month, beginning 28 October.

As Colin mentioned, the location for Caffeine & Gasoline is Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, and features extra coffee and food vendors, in addition to the Hampton Downs café.

The event will be managed on the day by Hampton Downs staff, and is open from 10am to all special-interest vehicles of any origin or style. Even better, being located where it is, the track attractions are right there for anyone keen to make the most of the Sunday!

Keep an eye on facebook.com/CaffAndGas to stay up to date.

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Thirty years ago I spent a day with Chris Amon driving on lower North Island roads and I can remember those informative few hours as vividly as if they were yesterday. In 1983 Chris accepted a challenge from Toyota New Zealand to improve its locally assembled cars in a relationship that extended well beyond the end of New Zealand-built Toyota vehicles in 1997.

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Standouts included an $8 million LaFerrari, the latest Aston Martin Vanquish, and a fleet of dream machines from Rolls-Royce, Bentley, McLaren, and more. The event’s unique blend of elegance and accessibility attracted both seasoned collectors and casual admirers aplenty.