Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club Annual Car Show and Swap Meet

8 December, 2015

Held on Sunday, November 8 at the Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club’s Cliff Road HQ, overlooking the upper reaches of Tauranga Harbour, this annual show has now become a popular fixture with the local classic car scene.

With around 70 classic motorbikes, cars, and trucks on show, plus an interesting swap meet, all surrounded by local rose gardens, this is one event visitors to the region should definitely add to their diary.

With the sight and sound of classic vehicles, the smell and the beauty of the roses, the taste of sweet and savoury in the tearoom — the show’s organizers once again should be well satisfied with their efforts, and if asked they would be able to say that everything had come up roses.

You can see a gallery of the event below:

For a full event report, pick up a copy of the January 2016 edition of New Zealand Classic Car magazine from Monday, December 14.

A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.