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Nationwide events: Targa Hawke’s Bay 2019 (17-19 May)

29 April, 2019

 

 

Welcome to another Targa Hawke’s Bay event. This year, we have combined the best roads from the Rotorua, Matamata, and Waikato areas with those from the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay regions to create an awesome route made up of more than 440kms of special stages and around 700kms of touring crammed into an action-packed three-day course.

This event is brought to you in association with the Piako Group, and we welcome Darrell and his team into the Targa family of event partners. The Piako Group is a well-established vehicle and rural machinery sales and service business with branches around the Waikato region.

We have also made a few changes to the running order of vehicles during the event, with the competition vehicles now leading the Tour group, so, when spectating, please get into a safe place early and wait for the announcement that the road is open before leaving your position.

As always, we appreciate the support from the local communities we travel through and the numerous groups that help along the way. From timing crews to safety marshals, service parks to car washes, we thank you all for your time.

The event will start from Rotorua, and teams will gather on Thursday afternoon on the Village Green to prepare for the official start on Friday morning. They will head north towards Matamata for a morning service before lunch at Lake Karapiro, returning to Rotorua that afternoon. On Saturday, the teams will head south towards Turangi for lunch and then over the Gentle Annie before arriving in Havelock North. Sunday will be around Hawke’s Bay, with lunch in Waipawa and finishing outside the Porters Boutique Hotel in Havelock North. Full event details and maps are listed below. Please check the Targa website for updates on the day: targa.nz.

Peter Martin
Managing Director
Ultimate Rally Group

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You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

21 February, 2025

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.

The originals – the Ledgerwood Collection

14 February, 2025

Thanks to Central Otago’s dry climate, it’s no surprise to find that Wanaka couple Jim and Daphne Ledgerwood are steadily developing an incredible collection of amazing coupes. ‘The Originals’ they have are as per factory new condition, and their aim is to keep them for everyone to see how it was done back in the day—pure nostalgia.
An occasional email from Jim usually reveals another gleaming addition. The collectors also have an impressive display of American pickups. It’s our gain and US enthusiasts’ loss, as car agent’s adverts proclaim, “Sorry you missed out. Gone to New Zealand!” Some of Jim and Daphne’s cars are almost part of the family, hence their nicknames.