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Going South: Otautau Car Show

2 April, 2018

 

 

Otautau promotions organized another great annual show along with other local community organizations to once again cap off a successful Otautau Car Show for 2018

Southland’s Ford Falcon Club has enjoyed a long association with the show and it was pleasing to see the Otautau Car Show still so well supported.

A quiet drive out west from Invercargill, this year attracted 197 entrants who arrived at Holt Park to enjoy live entertainment, food, and a host of stalls. Alan Sadler’s amazing take on a 1949 Ford made its mark with the top show award while Graham Baird’s Plymouth Suburban scooped the runner-up slot and People’s Choice award, adding to a long list of awards at shows over the past few years.Top Bike went to Ernie Tyler’s 2002 Boss Hoss and Top Commercial went to Colin Bailey’s Land Rover.

Continuing sunny conditions encouraged over 2000 people from around Southland to turn out for another enjoyable country event. With activities such as wood chopping and plenty of competitions for the kids, the show raised in excess of $8000, with $7045 going to the Christmas street parade and $1000 going to Otautau Plunket and Community Gardens projects.

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The winner is: Alan Sadler’s amazing customized 1949 Ford was top car at the show

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Interior of the winning '49 Ford

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Graham Baird is seriously on the lookout for a trophy cabinet as his amazing Plymouth Suburban scores another two awards: People’s Choice and runner-up, Best in Show

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Ann-Maree & Brent Robinson’s impressive Ford Mustang Mach 1

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‘Suite1’— Brenda Mathers and Scott Flynn’s appropriately named Ford Anglia panel van

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Very well done extended Holden pickup

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Cool cruiser: subtle blues for David Haywood’s mint Chevrolet Impala

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Cute mini convertible

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Lovely rebuilt caravan complemented by a 1949 Chevrolet

Picking over the past – 1940 Ford V8 ½-Ton Pickup

12 February, 2026

Jim and Daphne Ledgerwood have been around Fords most of their lives. They love their Ford coupés and two door hardtops, while also making room for an occasional Chevrolet. Their Wanaka based ‘Originals’ collection, featured in New Zealand Classic Car’s July 2022 issue is headed by an outstanding time-warp black 1940 Ford Coupé, its original factory assembly markings and documents offering something of a nostalgia trip.
Jim’s early days in hotrodding in Dunedin were spent building up a number of early Ford pickups and he became a prolific builder of modified pickups.
“I had lots of early Ford V8s in those days and once I had finished them I often sold them on. I would run out of garage space. I had up to a dozen restored Fords at most times then.”

Motorman – The saga of the Temple Buell Maseratis

30 January, 2026

Swiss-born Hans Tanner and American Temple Buell were apparently among the many overseas visitors who arrived in New Zealand for the Ardmore Grand Prix and Lady Wigram trophy in January 1959. Unlike Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Ron Flockhart, Harry Schell and Carroll Shelby who lined up for the sixth New Zealand Grand Prix that year, Tanner and Buell were not racing drivers but they were key players in international motor sport.
Neither the rotund and cheery Buell nor the multi-faceted Tanner were keen on being photographed and the word ‘apparently’ is used in the absence of hard evidence that Buell actually arrived in this country 64 years ago.