The best of the best: 2015 Ellerslie Intermarque Concours d’Elegance

4 February, 2015

Who would have thought that a small competition between a cluster of car clubs 42 years ago would one day become the largest classic and new-car event in the country?

In 2015 the Ellerslie Intermarque Concours d’Elegance and Classic Car Show will be held on February 8 at Auckland’s Ellerslie Racecourse. It features around 800 cars from clubs and leading new-vehicle dealerships, as well as an even stronger presence from those industries that support our motoring passions. New Zealand Classic Car magazine will once again host an amazing display of classic cars in the Newmarket Room.

This year’s theme for the Classic Cover Insurance Best Club Display award is The Big Screen, featuring cars as stars in films and TV shows. And you’ll see some of the country’s finest unrestored classics in RadioLIVE’s Best Survivor Class.

The show host this year is last year’s team event winner — the Auckland Mustang Owners’ Club — and you can expect to see a spectacular line-up of these iconic pony cars.

But it won’t just be classics that will captivate you. It’s hard to resist the temptations of new cars too — and this year Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jaguar, Jeep, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Lotus, Maserati, Mini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen, and Volvo all display a mouth-watering selection of models.

There’s also Maserati’s new hospitality area, in which you can decide what you’re going to buy with next week’s Lotto winnings. One option (apart from a few cars) could be a new motorhome and, for the first time, RV Super Centre has a presence, exhibiting six futuristic recreational vehicles at the show.

This year, background music — appropriate for a classic scene — is provided by The Sound 93.8FM, with a broadcasting team on-site.

You can also acquire books and motorsport accessories, and check out wheel refurbishing, rally tours, tracking-and-recovery technology, dashboard cameras, clothing, car bumpers, garage/showroom flooring and paint-protection technology, insurance cover and, of course, Meguiar’s car-care products.

We also hope you’ll support the Variety Bash vehicles that raise funds for Variety — The Children’s Charity — look out for their special display.

So, set your camera for some great shots — and recapture fresh memories of cars you might have dreamed about, owned, or grew up with.

We hope you enjoy the show — check out the event’s progamme in advance below to see where everything will be located on the day:

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.