Book Review - Petrolheads In Sheds

[Steve Holmes]

Bit of blatant self-promotion here. This is my latest book, called Petrolheads In Sheds. It goes on sale today! Petrolheads In Sheds is a Kiwiana coffee table style book, in which I travelled around New Zealand visiting motoring enthusiasts of all types, and taking photos of the insides of their garages at their car, motorbike, and automobilia collections.

The book includes everything from veteran, vintage, classic, and muscle cars, race cars, motorbikes, and various other fascinating oddities, including a couple of aeroplanes, and even a Bren-gun carrier! There are 28 collections in the book.

It was an incredibly enjoyable project to work on, and I met some amazing people. Its quite incredible whats out there in the backyards and sheds around little old New Zealand.

The book is 184 pages, and retails at just under $40,00. Its available from all good book shops.

My thanks also to The Roaring Season members who helped with finding suitable candidates for the book. Thanks guys!

I'll post a few images from the book.

[Steve Holmes]

This is one of the storage sheds at the Southward Car Museum. I was allowed to go through these buildings, which aren't normally open to the public. These are all cars that have been in the collection for years, and are awaiting restoration.

The guy with these Holdens owns whats believed to be the largest private Holden collection in NZ. He has everything from an FJ through to the latest Commodore. Whats interesting is that there are almost no high end models in the collection, its all the bread and butter stuff that used to be such a common site on NZ and Australian roads nobody ever took any notice. These days, its these models that are the hardest to find.

This is a photo inside a fully functioning workshop. Most days, this place has late model Japanese econo-boxes getting work done on them, but the hot rods, vintage vehicles, all the old tin signs and classic service station paraphenalia are permanent fixtures.

[Steve Holmes]

How many people have a Harvard in their shed? Amazing!

This is a 1000cc Militaire cycle-car. Its part motorbike, part car. It has a reverse gear, and when reverse is engaged, two additional trailer wheels drop down for stability.

Note the partially restored Sidchrome Mustang in the background here.

[Steve Holmes]

Some of the characters from the book.

This is Jim. Thats his Bren-gun carrier. It lives in one of his sheds, just like a Toyota Camry would live in someone elses shed. Its powered by a flathead Ford V8.

This is Francis. He runs a fully functioning museum from his home and out-buildings.

This is Peter. he also runs a museum from his home. It contains over 100 motorbikes, displayed in a large shed containing two levels. He owns more than 300 bikes in total.

[rogered]

You need to advise "Santa" this is avalible.

[Steve Holmes]

Race cars. Several of the collections had race cars in them, here are a few:

Connaught A5

Begg 650. The Begg is on loan to the Hayes family. They run a large department type store in Invercargill, with most of the floor space taken up by the Hammer Hardware outlet they own. In among their collection are numerous interesting motorbikes, both road and racing. Neville Hayes and his late father Norman were good friends with Burt Munro, and purchased much of Munro's collection of bikes and parts not long before he died, including his heavily modified 1920 Indian Scout, and 1936 Velocette. They also own one of the two streamliners created for The Worlds Fastest Indian movie. All of the collection can be viewed when visiting E. Hayes & Sons, in Invercargill.

Brabham BT4, ex-Denny Hulme. The Brabham is part of the impressive Rush family collection, which can be viewed by appointment.

[bry3500]

looks great Steve - Best of luck with the launch!!

[John H]

Race cars. Several of the collections had race cars in them, here are a few:

Connaught A5

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12702[/ATTACH]

Begg 650. The Begg is on loan to the Hayes family. They run a large department type store in Invercargill, with most of the floor space taken up by the Hammer Hardware outlet they own. In among their collection are numerous interesting motorbikes, both road and racing. Neville Hayes and his late father Norman were good friends with Burt Munro, and purchased much of Munro's collection of bikes and parts not long before he died, including his heavily modified 1920 Indian Scout, and 1936 Velocette. They also own one of the two streamliners created for The Worlds Fastest Indian movie. All of the collection can be viewed when visiting E. Hayes & Sons, in Invercargill.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12704[/ATTACH]

Brabham BT4, ex-Denny Hulme. The Brabham is part of the impressive Rush family collection, which can be viewed by appointment.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12703[/ATTACH]

This is the same car? Pukekohe 1962-63? Wet practice day

[hoco]

Thanks Steve for this amazing book, I walked into PaperPlus to purchase my Lotto tickets this evening and the shop assistant said you better have a look at this book, you happen to be in it. Congrats on a job well done. Kerry.

[David McKinney]

This is the same car? Pukekohe 1962-63? Wet practice day

Brabham used one BT4 in the 1963 NZ internationals and another in the Australian races. I believe the Rush car is the Australian one

I think the car in your picture is Hulme's 1964 mount so, yes, the same car

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Steve for this amazing book, I walked into PaperPlus to purchase my Lotto tickets this evening and the shop assistant said you better have a look at this book, you happen to be in it. Congrats on a job well done. Kerry.

Kerry, thanks so much for the kind words. It was great to meet you, your collection is truly fascinating. The book was so much fun to compile, and I met some really amazing people. Thanks again for allowing me to include you in it.

[Shano]

Looks terrific Steve. Isn't meeting amazing people the true fun of doing a project like this?

[TonyG]

What are the details of the bok Steve, as in ISBN number and Distributor so I can see if I can track it down over here.

[Michael Clark]

I have a copy and it is a credit to you Steve

[Oldfart]

ISBN number is 978-1-86950-988-0

[Steve Holmes]

Hey you guys, thanks so much for all the kind words, I really appreciate it.

[TonyG]

ISBN number is 978-1-86950-988-0

Cool thank you.
Now I can go and ask Santa for xmas.

[Yeah yeah na]

Had a text from a mate of mine, Chris, from Danniverke today. He said to buy a copy of your book as he's in it, thanks Steve, the man thinks he's more of a superstar now!!!!! Great book, it'll maintain pride of place on my coffee table for a while.....

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah Chris is a cool guy, I enjoyed meeting him. That Willys coupe of his used to be an old Allcomer racer back in the 60s, raced by Barry Pointon.

[Steve Holmes]

Few more pics form the book.

How cool is this, a car showroom in your backyard! This could be 1975, full of XU-1 and L34 Toranas, and Mini Coopers. Amazing!

This is the famous Sidchrome Mustang, which was well into a full restoration when I visited owner George. I was really excited to see this car for the first time in many years.

The book was all about the garages and collections owned by Kiwis, but there was one Kiwi no longer living in NZ. Tony Garmey runs Horizon Racing And Performance in Maple Valley, Washington, where he restores, race prepares and races various amazing historic cars for their owners. In amongst the cars in Tonys beautiful workshop is the one and only Pete Brock designed Triumph TR 250K. Look for an article on this car on The Roaring Season in the coming weeks. Tony put me in touch with its creator, Kas Kastner.