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Wait no more, Leadfoot Festival is here — watch it live on The Motorhood

5 February, 2015

While we’re gearing up to make the trip down to Leadfoot Festival in Hahei for the weekend of February 6–8, 2015, we understand not everyone has the time or budget to make the trip to Leadfoot Ranch. Lucky for those not attending the event, Rod Millen and the Leadfoot team have arranged a special live stream for you to enjoy the action from the comfort of your own home for as low as USD$20 — and we’ve got it right here for you to watch:

Although the festival is perceived as having mostly vintage and classic racers from the golden era, there will be plenty of up and comers to keep us turbocharged petrolheads enthused. For starters, Sloan Cox will be contesting the driveway in his Mitsubishi Evo VIII, which is built on a custom tube frame and sports a 600kW+ 4G63 mated to a Hollinger six-speed sequential gearbox. The centre diff ratios have also been changed which should suit the driveway perfectly allowing for an extremely competitive package and one to look out for.

Three times Pro7 (RX-7) champion and SS2000 champion Andy Duffin will be bringing along his 20B-powered Mazda RX-7 FD, which was on the cover of Issue No. 214 of NZ Performance Car. With a measly 1000kg of weight, a wild 10,000rpm 20B engine, an Elite Racing six-speed sequential gearbox, and some serious driving talent, Andy Duffin should be able to pilot the RX-7 at a competitive rate during the festival.

Host Rod Millen will be contesting three vehicles during the festival, first of which is his Toyota Celica, which he used to break the famous Pikes Peak hill-climb record back in 1994.The Celica is powered by a 671kW (899hp) four-cylinder engine and runs a staggering 45psi of boost. It’s not just the engine that makes it go fast however, the body is made from carbon and the aero is still impressive even by today’s standards. The second is his 2000 Toyota Tundra off-road truck, which was designed and built for competition to support the launch of the vehicle at the time. An extremely light and nimble vehicle, this should be exciting to watch. Rod’s third car that we’ll get to see is his 1973 Mazda RX-3, which he used to win the New Zealand Rally 1975–1977 — a great piece of history.

A swag of competitive drifters will be in attendance including several of New Zealand’s best. ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett will be bringing along MADBUL, Cole Armstrong will be bringing the Nissan 250GT, ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse in his Holden Commodore VE, Curt Whittaker in his Nissan Skyline R34, Shane Allen in his Ford Falcon, and Jodie Verhulst in her 1993 Toyota Supra.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”