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Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise is back!

16 May, 2017

Is your ride itching for a mid-winter cruise? Is your ride a hot rod, modified or a god damn big-rig?!? Well Meguiar’s have something coming up you’ll be into.

Alongside Meguiar’s Annual Car Crazy Charity Cruise, they will also be running a Rislone Big Rig Truckin’ Charity Cruise.

Saturday the 22nd July will be for the Big Rigs and Sunday the 23rd for the cars. All registration fees will be donated entirely to the Starship Foundation.

Both events will be departing at 8:30am on their respective days from Smit’s Group/Meguiar’s head office at 23 Greenmount Drive then taking a lazy scenic route through to CRC Speedshow.

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For the car cruisers, registration is $50 per car and includes a ticket to the CRC Speedshow for the driver and all passengers as well as a Smit’s Group voucher and plenty of Meguiar’s goodies as well as your chance to win the ultimate prize in the Show and Shine (every legitimate vote received for your ride will get 50c donated to the Starship Foundation by Meguiar’s). Check out meguiars.co.nz for more info.

The Big Rig’s registration is $50 and once again includes you and your passengers tickets to the CRC Speedshow as well as a Smit’s Group voucher and plenty of Rislone goodies to take home. Check out lovemycarnz.co.nz for more info.

The Meguiar’s Car Crazy Charity Cruise and Big Rig Truckin’ Charity Cruise are limited to well-presented vehicles only – which could be customs, classics, hot rods, imports and street machines (and of course, Big Rigs for Saturday’s cruise). So get them out and looking their best so you get lots of votes in the People’s Choice Award.
 
Due to the popularity of this charity cruise, places will not be confirmed until payment has been received, and is strictly on a ‘first in, first served’ basis.
 

Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

28 May, 2026

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.

Chrysler’s classy cruiser

22 May, 2026

I first saw our feature car, a 1970 V8-powered Regal 770 hardtop, towing a trailer carrying the tidy Ford Anglia classic racing saloon in Broadspeed racing colours that has featured in these pages. The coupe is comparatively rare here, which means anyone contemplating purchasing one of these big two-doors is sure to see prices continue to climb. The latter Charger has claimed much of the Aussie Chrysler limelight, but the simpler and classier lines of this car, which appeared dated soon after its introduction, now have a more timeless appeal.
Former owner, Balclutha motor engineer, Mike Verdoner, remembers the car well. He believes it came from Dunedin originally.
“I’m not sure about the car’s history, but I bought it off its owner at Kaitangata. Unusually, it was advertised in the local newspaper, the Clutha Leader, which was a surprise as these usually go for a lot more money on the internet. I had it for quite a few years. It needed a little bit of work to tidy it up, so I had to decide whether to spend the money on it to do it up, which could have been twenty grand. Its value at the time was not like it is now, so I sold it to Ewan. It’s probably now worth three or four times what I sold it for.”