The Roaring Season

Rod Grimwood wrote:Remember the first festival, cars from all over the world there in the huge marque. would have been 90 to 100 million bucks worth just in the big marque. Juniors, F1, Can Am, F5000, sports cars, and out the back HMC, Sports Sedans, your groups. huge, and people loved it.

Bringing in cars and drivers from overseas can be done - it just requires a bit of commitment and organisation.

In 2017 we organised about 30 Formula Juniors to come here from UK, Europe, Australia, US, Canada etc. They ran at most of the North Island and South Island tracks so there was container transportation to be organised, marquees at the tracks etc. It all turned out OK and we even ended up with a small cash surplus. We are planning to do it again in Jan/Feb 2019. We don't seem to fit in with Mr Quinn's plans so we will probably end up running our own historic event.

More power to your elbow Roger! Pity that future planning by HD seems to largely ignore the Classic/Historic sector and what they contribute via their enthusiasm and obvious ability, to what makes a meeting worth travelling to.

Whenuapai would still be the ideal location for a motorsports/aviation venue and its closeness to the major population hub makes it even more suitable. HD may well be half way between Hamilton and Auckland, but that doesn't seem to have made it attractive to spectators in any great numbers and with zero public transport facilities, it doesn't help.

Wet, miserable and stormy so not working outside on fibreglassing or decking...
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Nice Ray, owned a 500 a few years ago and been for a ride in a 308GT.

The trouble today is that we have so many events on and in direct competition as well and that dilutes the grids.

We have a similar event down here like your classics in the park, called the breakfast club, and it is always full to the brim.

It is hard work even just organising a grid let alone a meeting and I take my hat off to those who do.
I did not attend the Bathurst Festival so I really can’t comment but I am heading off to Taupo in the morning so will report back.
HMC/HSC have a healthy grid of 26 so far without the late withdrawals.

Seriously considering selling my GTV and getting a drive on the road classic and go and enjoy the more traditional classic car groups.

touringcarfan wrote:And I would volunteer to help you guys create something of our own

Anthony

Anthony you are always welcome to help us in HMC/HSC,

Cheers

Bruce

My boss at Moss Motors in California, was in NZ last year and he was amazed at the quality and workmanship put into the classic cars he saw such as what you show here Ray.
And he knows what he is talking about.
So well done you Kiwis it does not go unnoticed!
(Ken H)

Nice to see some classics & hotrods Ray. I go to lots of those events myself and have heaps of images of some fantastic cars.

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Three totally different takes on what made an American car over the decades. Ford, Cadillac, Chevrolet.






Three totally different takes on what made a British performance car over the decades. Buckler, Sunbeam Tiger and McLaren.





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Oh drat! Headed for Hampton Downs this morning (couldn't make yesterday as the ready mix concrete truck was booked) only to arrive and find that they'd condensed the two days into one... Ho hum.

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Not an area I'm interested in, but just to show the variety.






As you may be able to tell, these are in the 'overflow' area. There is no designated parking for specific makes, but some groups seem to grab 'their' area each month.





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Wow, just as well I didn't go [from Tauranga]. After being in the sun all day at Taupo yesterday I decided not to go - but I did plan to go.

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One of these Vauxhalls very nearly killed my brother when it took a left hand corner too quickly, spun, then rolled right in front of him, as he was walking to Sunday school. In those days, it was a derestricted speed limit area and in later years, it always puzzled me how anyone could possibly have spun there - but I was driving Minis where corners like that weren't an issue. It was pre MoT/Wof days too, so maybe the tyres were rubbish? Rather put me off Vauxhalls.




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Next 'Caffeine & Classic' meet is Sunday. I might take the Magnette if I can make more progress on the bonnet panels. I keep changing my construction methodology and am now on version 4...

I love that Thunderbird ^^

Several Thunderbirds there too Steve. Obviously the uploading of multiple images issues in one hit hasn't been fixed?

I'll go back to my tech guy Ray and see if he can come up with a solution.

Bathhurst Festival

Adrian Reynard's Reynard






Tony Quinn's Reynard

The rarely seen Dome 6 wheeler...




Mark Petch looks on




Simtek F1 - Tony Quinn's I believe

Car #31 - one of 3 in that race... Trevor Crowe BMW 635 Group A 1983 - that is the sum total of Programme info.

Eleven pages of the programme promoting Hampton Downs/Highland Park though...

D'you know x 2?

Sorry, Juno x 2... Strange sense of humour some of us have.


Holden 1


Holden 2


Holden 3