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Big jump at Cromwell

27 April, 2023

The Cromwell Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival 2023 made a welcome return on the weekend of 20–23 January
By Quinton Taylor
Photographs: Quinton Taylor

Classics as far as you can see

Kicking off the event, the Alpine Street Machines’ Friday cruise to Bannockburn and back on the Friday was easily the biggest in the event’s history. Some 380 cars created a wondrous spectacle for unsuspecting fellow road users that day, potentially tempting some to take a closer look in Cromwell over the weekend.
Club member Shane Bingham was thrilled to announce the cruise alone raised more than $200 for the Cromwell volunteer fire brigade.
Saturday’s car show, organised by the Southland Ford Falcon Club at the Alpha St reserve, drew perhaps a thousand or more gleaming examples of interesting cars and applied restoration skills. Chrome and flashing paintwork dazzled the eye in the bright Central Otago light everywhere you looked. It really looked as if everyone with a classic or a hot rod from across the island had seen the forecast for great weather and headed for Central Otago.
Secretary Tena McCarthy said “the disbursement of money raised from the event for four Cromwell organisations was yet to be decided. Cromwell is such a great site for the car show and the locals love it.” 

Spectacular Hispano-Suiza, aero engine Delage of Alan Dippie, and Rolls Royce Silver Ghost
George and Tesh Payn’s 1931 Ford pickup

The event had been postponed for a couple of years, which no doubt prompted more families to head to the venue for a real taste of Southern nostalgia, providing a solidly welcome financial boost for the region.
The date for the next show is Saturday 20 January 2024. 

PRIZE WINNERS
Judge’s choice: Maas Geluk –1950 Cadillac Fleetwood
People’s choice: George & Tesh Payn – 1931 Ford Model A pickup

Picking over the past – 1940 Ford V8 ½-Ton Pickup

12 February, 2026

Jim and Daphne Ledgerwood have been around Fords most of their lives. They love their Ford coupés and two door hardtops, while also making room for an occasional Chevrolet. Their Wanaka based ‘Originals’ collection, featured in New Zealand Classic Car’s July 2022 issue is headed by an outstanding time-warp black 1940 Ford Coupé, its original factory assembly markings and documents offering something of a nostalgia trip.
Jim’s early days in hotrodding in Dunedin were spent building up a number of early Ford pickups and he became a prolific builder of modified pickups.
“I had lots of early Ford V8s in those days and once I had finished them I often sold them on. I would run out of garage space. I had up to a dozen restored Fords at most times then.”

Motorman – The saga of the Temple Buell Maseratis

30 January, 2026

Swiss-born Hans Tanner and American Temple Buell were apparently among the many overseas visitors who arrived in New Zealand for the Ardmore Grand Prix and Lady Wigram trophy in January 1959. Unlike Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Ron Flockhart, Harry Schell and Carroll Shelby who lined up for the sixth New Zealand Grand Prix that year, Tanner and Buell were not racing drivers but they were key players in international motor sport.
Neither the rotund and cheery Buell nor the multi-faceted Tanner were keen on being photographed and the word ‘apparently’ is used in the absence of hard evidence that Buell actually arrived in this country 64 years ago.