Motoring pics Vintage cars - early years, events from 1960's 70's and 80's

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 7:25 am

Have quite a collection that don't fit in other threads, so will gather them in one place;
here ;

Thread started in January 2016 and has had other car photos attached to it - more modern events, though the cars are still old-ish. The " 30 Year Rule " more or less.

2021 on, will use the thread going forward for a lot of photo's that don't fit with other threads,Pukekohe the early years, Northern Sports Car Club, and Dunedin ..etc..

2022 A bit of a story on New Zealand Number Plates and Registrations has started 1st April 2022
A no it is not a joke as written after Mid-Day ..

Seen before on Yards and Yarns the 1971 Hunua Hundred, Auckland Vintage Car Club event.
The 1971 Hunua Hundred was held on 24th October 1971
- I have just found another SIX photos which require scanning ; they will be posted in due course. Includes a couple more of the Model A Ford.

One of the Official " CHECK " signs - borrowed from the VCC Organisers - with permission. - which I still have in my collection of motoring memorabilia.

The Model A Ford I was navigator in.. complete with the thugs involved - thanks Ken H .. note no shotguns.

I am "The man in the Middle "- as the song goes, and my best Mate at the time Peter Firth on the left and the owner Charles " Charlie " Liddell on the right.
2020 ; have found out that the car still exists but has been repainted and is now two tone " Duotone "

My Mini a 1966 Austin Mini - petrol cap just in view

Charlies Car - the Model A again.

Charlies Model A the Official VCC photo.

Not a true vintage but bits of it are. Actually all of the car was 1930's except for a couple of parts - the central section of the chassis was 1950's construction - the original BSA front and rear suspension was attached the the chassis rails / tubes.
Lyle Chambers BSA Special - the Ford 8/10 powered one.

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 6:29 am

Enough of the Ford Model A, Charles " Charlie " Liddell's car in which I navigated with Peter Firth as assistant.
some of the other cars -

the Huge Renault - believed to be George Mihaelivic's [ spelling ?? ].

Hispano - Suiza

Chevrolet

Bentley's

Not the Hunua Hundred, but my Father, Mac Dowding's, Austin Seven - well was jointly owned by Ed and Mac - photo from family archives taken in early 1940. Dad's girlfriend Eily in the car [ my mother, they married after the war in 1945.] Ed [ Eddie ] Dowding provided a lot of information for the Northern Sports Car Club thread.
The car was modified with cut down doors and a raked windscreen to make it more MG -ish.. had a modified exhaust with copper tubes inside the main pipe to make it sound better.. seems familiar.
No wonder I was into cars

Have recently seen a whole lot more photos of this car, with Mac my Dad, Ed my Uncle and their mates taken in the period 1938 - 1940.
My Uncle Ed had a huge collection of photos which his son, my cousin, is scanning to keep for me.

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 9:41 pm

During a trip around East Cape and down to Hawkes Bay in 1972 came across the competitors in a Vintage Rally, photo's taken in Napier from memory

Vauxhall Hurlingham

Rolls Royce and trucks at the Park - was " Parc Ferme " for the night while in Napier

Don Osborne - whom I knew well at the time - he had a 1960's Ford Galaxie convertible as well, here is his 1919 Dodge

Not on the Rally, seen at the roadside a Chevrolet truck which appears to be a cut down car, looking at the door edge.

Our transport was more modern a 1966 850cc Mini, the sprint, hillclimb trial and gymkhana car on the weekend, daily driver during the week.

2020 - have now acquired the Entry List / Programme and also the Booklet issued about the event in 1972
Thanks to Tony Haycock and Russ Cunningham

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sun Jan 10, 2016 6:54 am

More pics from the Rally, interesting vehicles in the background, trucks a Bedford and in a previous shot a Landrover and a Flat nose Morris Commercial ?? Cocoa Cola truck.

As shown later in the thread the programme - the event was 1972

Our 1966 Austin Mini on the road to a wharf on the East Coast, near Mahia Peninsula I think.. Lucas Square 8 driving lights, very de riguer, even Rolls Royce used them, my second set as the first got stolen off the previous car an Austin A40 Farina.. this Mini was the get me to work, daily driver, Trials car, then Sprints Hill Climbs and Gymkhana's -

mechanically standard but later had widened wheels for sprints etc and the standard front wheels had Town and Country tyres for trialling.

In sprint mode driving lights removed, wider wheels on and by now some chrome trim removed. the grille had 2 turn buttons instead of the 20 or so screws to hold it on.

rf84 · Post by **rf84** » Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:36 am

Roger
The port you mention was probably Waikokopu on the Mahia Peninsula. It was a thriving port in the days of the little 'Coasters'-small vessels that served small coastal settlements.
There is little left of it now, but the shed in the photo looks familiar-I suspect it may still be there.

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:21 pm

rf84 wrote:Roger
The port you mention was probably Waikokopu on the Mahia Peninsula. It was a thriving port in the days of the little 'Coasters'-small vessels that served small coastal settlements.
There is little left of it now, but the shed in the photo looks familiar-I suspect it may still be there.

rf84 have a photo of the " wharf " a very basic one.. will post it, thanks for the details, we stayed with my then wife's relatives in a small village near Gisborne and they told us about the Mahia area

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 6:54 am

Roger Dowding wrote:rf84 have a photo of the " wharf " a very basic one.. will post it, thanks for the details, we stayed with my then wife's relatives in a small village near Gisborne and they told us about the Mahia area

The shed again as commented on by rf84, quote
" The port you mention was probably Waikokopu on the Mahia Peninsula. It was a thriving port in the days of the little 'Coasters'-small vessels that served small coastal settlements.
There is little left of it now, but the shed in the photo looks familiar-I suspect it may still be there. "

the wharf at the end of the road that goes through the shed ' warehouse / cargo shed ' ..

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 7:54 am

a few pics from a stop at I believe Mangonui, Northland in late 1978 or early 1979 [ pic date is Mar '79 ], and the TR is yet to get its racing Roll Bar.

rf84 · Post by **rf84** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 8:49 am

Roger,
Thanks for that. Yes-definitely Waikokopu. The shed is still there but not much of the wharf remains. Were you a surfer "back in the days" as there are some great surfing spots around this area.

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:22 am

Rally, as in a gathering, at Western Springs Speedway, some driving done but mostly static display.
Hopefully these vehicles are still around today ;.
any unnamed ones please add to the thread and / or correct any wrongly named. the naming was done many years ago [ 1968 ] as I wrote on the back of the pictures.

some are slightly blurry, couldn't tell until I enlarged them.

Please identify !!

I knew Graham Craw well back in the 1980/90's - understand his collection is now housed in a Museum in Northland and is the best collection of Packards in the Southern Hemisphere .. unsure if this was his

More to follow ;

John McKechnie · Post by **John McKechnie** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 5:32 am

Rodger- dont think this is one of Grahams. I worked on 12 of his Packards and dont remember this.
This actually looks like the one Mark Ball owned, as I redid the top and side curtains.
As a fellow Packard lover I always enjoyed spending time examining the cars especially the Packard Merlin motor -with log books......

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 7:15 am

Mixed collection of English and American - includes Riley's which were a favourite in the Dowding families immediate Post War ;.
Back in the day when Vauxhall rivaled Bentley with big engined cars a 30/98

The Americans - Chrysler

Chevrolet

Those Rileys - an Alpine ?

Riley again

Riley Kestrel 6 or Monaco ?

The family had one of these and a Monaco at another time - one a Kestrel, I think was heavily modified in the engine and had to use aircraft plugs as the head was planed too much.

** The Rileys - the names on the photos of the models may not be correct - have posted elsewhere and been corrected so will check

Other cars there [ background in the photos - the huge 1960's Plymouth and a Daimler Limousine.

more to come

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 7:17 am

John McKechnie wrote:Rodger- dont think this is one of Grahams. I worked on 12 of his Packards and dont remember this.
This actually looks like the one Mark Ball owned, as I redid the top and side curtains.
As a fellow Packard lover I always enjoyed spending time examining the cars especially the Packard Merlin motor -with log books......

John M, any pictures of your work and the cars ??, would like to see them posted !!

John McKechnie · Post by **John McKechnie** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 9:12 am

Roger- I have 5 photo albums of cars covering 38 years.
Posting them would take so long.
Currently have Jaguar XK140 Roadster in for full trim,
Just finishing a Ford Jailbar that was/ still is Bitumix truck
Also doing a Triumph TR4 with the type 1 seats.
Before Xmas did a MGTC- full resto. It had TR4 Type 1 seats with the original material underneath-great for a correct pattern
Please keep posting your pix , the b/w gives them a real historical feel.

markson · Post by **markson** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 3:44 pm

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 8:00 am

John McKechnie wrote:Roger- I have 5 photo albums of cars covering 38 years.
Posting them would take so long.
Currently have Jaguar XK140 Roadster in for full trim,
Just finishing a Ford Jailbar that was/ still is Bitumix truck
Also doing a Triumph TR4 with the type 1 seats.
Before Xmas did a MGTC- full resto. It had TR4 Type 1 seats with the original material underneath-great for a correct pattern
Please keep posting your pix , the b/w gives them a real historical feel.

John M, thanks for the request," Please keep posting your pix , the b/w gives them a real historical feel." have lots more B/w's then we will get to colour even for the Vintage as have about 36 from the 1972 VCC International Rally, proper vintage Rally unlike the Western Springs gathering.. and I wrote details at the time so hopefully my notes are accurate, a friend of mine was an entrant in it.

Would like to see a picture or two from you.

Re' Graham Craw, I was his Bank Manager in the period 1988-92 at ANZ Bank in New Lynn, Graham was a valued customer but a farmer to the core, came to see one day, arrived in his London Taxi an FX3, I think still the Austin engined version, had a piece of rope to keep his trousers up [ lost the belt ], and was sitting outside my office waiting, my manager a very conservative and negaitive person saw him and came into my office as was concerned with this " scruff " sitting there, so I introduced my manager to Graham and after the interview the boss wanted his file, he was probably our biggest value customer .. don't judge a book by its cover !!,
Graham was terrific, I wanted some firewood so he sent his son around to my home with a truckload at a very good price ..
Remember he owned the old Montana Winery site on the scenic drive in West Auckland at one time, and of course interesting cars always,

cheers

John McKechnie · Post by **John McKechnie** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 8:23 am

Graham Craw showed me his collection of weapons and invited me to have a session with his Thompson Machine gun.
Very heavy, aim low as when it keeps firing the nose comes up.-
EXCELLENT
Dont believe any stories of guys strutting around with one in each hand.
Definitely a bucket list moment along with sitting in a Suhoi in Ukraine.
The time with the Bofors would be best in a pm. More on Graham and Packards.soon

Roger Dowding · Post by **Roger Dowding** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 3:12 am

An English selection - with plates to match the cars year on one ..

Bentley and its motor,

Those SU's didn't change much from the 20's to the 60's ..

A large car from MG, an SA 4 seater cabriolet ..

Lagonda

from the motoring words of the day, " You buy a car but you invest in an Austin " - their advertising slogan.

My father had Austin Sevens including a two door early 1930's Ruby, was the first car I remember in the mid 1950's , he went to Fords for a while with an E94A Prefect, then a Mark 111 Zephyr, then back to Austin with a 1968 Austin 1800 " Landcrab - a good car, and then a 1300 cc Allegro, it lasted him well but was not a good drivers car.
I think he believed in their advertising - the Zephyr was the best in my memory and he had that when I got my licence in 1965.