Fancy a classic car? You could have one next week

12 October, 2018

 


 

Never mind waiting for inspiration to strike, mulling over the marques, or deciding on the decade.

You could short circuit the whole process by popping along to this year’s biggest and possibly most eclectic car auction in Christchurch this weekend.

Thirty cars from one collection are going under the hammer this Saturday 13 October and with so many desirable cars being offered at once the old laws of supply and demand might make some of them bargains.

The collector’s tastes were nothing if not broad. The offering includes an Auburn Speedster, a Stutz saloon from the 20s, and a pair of Wolseley 1300s.

American roadsters dominate but coupes and four-door saloons also make the grade. All the big names are there – three Lincolns, three Packards, three Cadillacs, and the odd Dodge and Buick. There’s another Jag, making three in total, two Rolls-Royce’s and a Ferrari. There’s an MGTF, a Standard 8 and a Model T Ford. The vast majority are roadworthy but a brace of Mk 1 Jags are a little forlorn.


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Classic or vintage? Choose your decade: Every decade from the 20s to the 80s is represented with several cars. 1920s 4; 1930s 7, 1940s 3, 1950s 4 1960s 4, 1970s 6 and 1980s 2.

The cars are on view at Castle Park Museum, Leithfield, on Thursday and Friday and the auction takes place at 2pm at 1 Detroit Place, Christchurch. For more pictures, google McVicar Classic Auction.

Back from the brink – 1968 MGB GT

Auckland classic car enthusiast Kerry Bowman soon realised he had a massive job on his hands in restoring his classic 1968 MGB GT. When Kerry and his MGB first appeared in New Zealand Classic Car in March 2021, in “Behind The Garage Door”, the stripped-out shell had revealed some nasty surprises. Once the true extent of the hidden damage was discovered, the work would normally have been handed over to a professional fabricator. However, with the assistance of experts such as MG specialist restorer, Paul Walbran, Kerry has completed an impressive restoration and saved this car from the scrapheap.

1975 Suzuki RE5

Suzuki had high hopes for its RE5 Wankel-engined bike launched in 1975. It had started looking at the Wankel engine in the mid-60s and bought the licence to the concept in 1970.
Apparently all of the big four Japanese makers experimented with the design, Yamaha even showing a rotary-engined bike at a motor show in 1972. But Suzuki was the only one of the big four to go into production. Like many others at the time, Suzuki believed that the light, compact, free-revving Wankel design would consign piston engines — with their complex, multiple, whirring valves and pistons, which (can you believe it?) had to reverse direction all the time — to history.