SMOKING A GREY PIPE
BY ALLAN DICK
Random thoughts of car matters from Allan Dick, the Editor of Classic Driver. Please feel free to comment — editor@classicdriver.co.nz
100 YEARS OF ALFA ROMEO
There’s an old joke I once read in an old car magazine — what is the definition of Alfa Romeo? Half a famous Latin Lover. . . Yes, I know.
I was initially surprised when the blokes at Top Gear insisted that you can’t call yourself a decent car enthusiast until you have at least one affair with an Alfa Romeo. Yes, the brand has some romance about it and probably boasts the best looking badge in the business, but it’s also a brand that lost its mojo, and its way, more times than most other car makes have.
Usually government ownership of anything means disaster, but ironically it was government ownership in the early 1930s, when Mussolini stepped in to save the ailing company, that created inspiration and some of the greatest cars to ever claim to be Alfa Romeos.
But after the war and after Mussolini and his mistress had been hanged upside down in a public square, things started to go wrong.
There was the Matta in the early 1950s — a sort of Italian Trekka, that was made before the Trekka. So rare you probably don’t know what I am talking about. Then there were the totally underwhelming boxy sedans of the 1960s, created at a time when most of the designers at Alfa were employed before they completed kindergarten.
Dare I draw your attention to the Arno? Yes.
For a while Alfa suffered brain damage and thought that their future lay at the back of the bottom drawer of the mass-market, so they created the Alfa Sud. This was real socialist engineering, government ownership stuff. Not only was Alfa Romeo going to become the bottom end Toyota of the Italian market, but a new factory would be built in the impoverished and mafia-controlled south of the country to create jobs.
A very effective recipe for complete disaster.
The people employed there had had a lifetime of being on the Italian version of the dole and had absolutely no work or quality ethics.
The name says it all Alfasud — it was the Alfa Romeo you were having when you weren’t having an Alfa Romeo. “Let’s keep enough of the name to fool the gullible.” This was meant to be a cheapjack car for the masses — diametrically opposite to everything that Alfa Romeo had ever stood for. But there were rebels in the company who refused to believe than any Alfa was a mere transport device and secretly endowed the Sud with brilliant steering, ride and handling. It was so good that they managed to sneak through some sporting versions like the Ti and then the sleek and sexy Sprint Veloce coupe versions.
But the plain-is-best revisionists were determined to stamp out this nonsense and did a deal with Nissan to build the Arno — essentially a 1983 Nissan Pulsar N12, but with the engine, transmission and front suspension from the Alfasud. And of course, they stuck that gorgeous Alfa Romeo badge on the thing.
In the history of Alfa Romeo lemons, this is the most bitter and sour of them all.
They built this cruel joke of a car from 1983 until 1987.
And through all of this, there was a common thread — it was called rust. Not something that was exclusive to Alfa Romeo, but they made a specialty of it.
Rust was a built-in feature of all Alfa Romeos and Alfasuds.
In 1986 I returned from a six week holiday in Europe, flashing about the place in a Ford Fiesta — 998cc and four speed — and that was enough to convince me that small was best. On my return home I sold my Rover SD1 V8 and my Rover P6 3500S and bought an Alfasud Sprint Veloce. I knew it wasn’t a “real” Alfa Romeo, but it was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and it did have that fine chassis — and it did have “the badge”.
It was a two-owner car and I paid $20,000 for it — considerable money at that time. It was a pre Cloverleaf model with chrome bumpers and the fine-ribbed alloy wheels and it looked good in black.
Initially I loved it — it was brisk, seated four in some comfort and had a big boot — all parceled up in a good looking body.
I bought it in Christchurch, but two years later I was living in Auckland and it literally rusted before my eyes in the moist, humid atmosphere.
I sold it in 1991 for $2,000 before it disappeared, leaving only the alloy wheels and bought a brand new Suzuki Swift GTi, which had all of the things I liked about the Sprint (except the looks and the badge) and it didn’t rust.
The Arno really was the lowest point in Alfa Romeo history and the surprising thing was that it had taken almost 50 years of government ownership to drag the company down so far. There had to be a reason why it took so long for government ownership to inflict that sort of damage. And that reason became apparent when, in 1986 Fiat, or more properly F.I.A.T., who had rediscovered themselves, bought Alfa Romeo. Despite vehicles like the Matta and the Arno and the terminal rusting, there were still people who believed in the truth of Alfa Romeo.
Fiat ownership unleashed that pent-up passion for Alfa Romeo.
The comeback of Alfa Romeo after the bleak days of despair is one of the great automotive stories of all time.
MORE ALFA
As we all know, New Zealand was where most old racing cars came to spend their last racing days. People of my era fondly remember when we had three Maserati 250Fs here — but we also had two of the legendary Alfa Romeo P3 cars that were the 250Fs of the early 1930s. One of the P3s that came here was the car in which Tazio Nuvolari won the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring — something that just wasn’t supposed to happen. An Italian winning the German Grand Prix in an Italian car had Hitler purple with rage. But the circumstances surrounding how that car arrived in New Zealand is a great yarn.
In 1950, when it became obvious that motor racing in New Zealand was coming off the beaches and onto sealed circuits, Christchurch racer Les Moore was dispatched by a wealthy sponsor to go the UK to buy a racing car — Moore was to drive the car — and he was set a sizeable budget.
He went to the racing car sales emporium in London operated by up and coming driver, the suave Roy Salvadori. The P3 was in the showroom and because the history of the car was not at all important at that stage, and the price was so cheap that Moore was left with a significant amount of his budget.
Realising he had a willing buyer, Salvadori suggested Les come to the cellar with him and look at another car. The P3 was a single seater Grand Prix car, but in the cellar was the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300L sports car that former Bentley Boys Tim Birkin and Lord Howe had won the 1931 Le Mans 24 hours race in.
It was also very affordable and so Les Moore arrived home with two cars for the price of one.
The P3 was for Les to drive at both the Mairehau and Wigram races while 17 year old son Ronnie Moore, was to drive the 8C, but he’d had a speedway accident and had a broken shoulder, so that was that. The drive, instead, went to Don Ransley. Les showed that the P3 was still a fast car by winning at Wigram in 1951 and again in 1952 before it passed on to Ron Roycroft and then John Mansel.
The 8C sports car was sold to Bruce Webster from Hastings who was later to run the Porsche engined Cooper 500. Webster ran the 8C into the late fifties, the car getting slower and less reliable.
David McKinney and Eoin Young both tell the story that one night, over a few beers in the tractor shed, one of Webster’s mates said that the engine in his new Ferguson tractor was pretty much the same as in the Triumph TR2 sports car, so the tired old Alfa engine came out of the 8C and in went the Ferguson engine, complete with supercharger off the Alfa engine! Webster ran it a couple of years at North Island events with it entered as the Fergie-Alfa!
The next owner patched up the Alfa motor and sold it to someone in the USA.
THE NURBURGRING
I watched the TV coverage of the efforts of some of the New Zealanders who competed in the 24 hour race at the Nurburgring again this year and was inspired. The next day I was sent an Email with a link to a YouTube video of someone driving a restored, 1964 Holman and Moody prepared Ford Fairlane “Compact” around the ‘Ring. In the words of my mate Tel’, this really made my willie tingle.
I first drove the Nurburgring in 1986 when I went to Europe for six weeks and did 14,000km in the Ford Fiesta I wrote about in the Alfa bit above.
I knew you could go to the Nurburgring and drive around it and I was blundering around the Eiffel Mountains on a blustery mid-week day looking for the blasted place, without a map. I knew I was in the area and I saw a big high mesh fence with an access road and the gate was open. I poked the nose of the Fiesta up the road and next minute I was on the track.
I can’t remember if the entire 14km of the place was lined with Armco on that visit, or only parts of it, but I do know that this was before driving the ‘Ring became parts of the rites of automotive passage globally, so it wasn’t as commercialised, or as widely known outside Germany as it is today.
I did two or three laps of the “Ring that day, without paying and without seeing another car. I left via the main gate and headed off to find Spa — in Belgium.
I found it easier than I found the ‘Ring. This was three years after the shorter circuit had been opened, but it was still possible to drive the entire 14km of the original circuit — only the new interconnecting section was off-limits.
I’ve been back to both the ‘Ring and Spa several times since. Spa circuit was closed to public traffic in 2000, but you can still find the old lower section that takes in Burneville, Malmedy, Stavelot — and the incredible Masta Kink — an even more deep-breath challenge than L’Eau Rouge.
But you can still drive the “Ring on most days. Just arrive, pay your money and off you go. New Zealand authorities wouldn’t understand this — it’s personal responsibility that determines whether you drive beyond your ability, crash and perhaps die, or crawl around looking at the scenery.
On one visit, I had the Navigator sitting in the passenger seat and had paid for half a dozen laps — you have to “pit” at the end of each lap — and I was driving taking photographs with my arm out the window of the car. Yes, I know, it was silly, but I wasn’t going all that fast . . . . Anyway, when we “pitted”, the Navigator shrieked — “let me out!”
Actually, photography is one of the things they do insist on banning on these days, because, even in Germany where personal responsibility is such a big thing, the Nurburgring doesn’t need any bad publicity. I get the impression that German authorities pretend the ‘Ring doesn’t exist.
But everyone who cares about driving should make at least one trip and do one lap of the Nurburgring before they die.
You don’t have to drive fast — but you will, because that is the unbelievably heady nature of the place.
Here is the link to inspiration:
http://www.dogfightmag.com/2010/08/a-1964-fairlane-hits-nurburgring/
THE CHEV BOW TIE
I confess that in all the years I have been involved in the culture of the car, I have never really thought about what the Chevrolet “bow tie” meant. It’s always just been there — a symbol of the second best car brand in the world when I was a teenager — the Ford blue oval was the best — and one of the most easily identified logos in the world. The Chevrolet bow tie has so much cachet that since GM bought Daewoo, it has been slapped across the front of all manner of cars in a badge-engineering exercise that’s reminiscent of the worst excesses of British Leyland.
I did wonder about the name Chevrolet and why it was that the most popular car in the United States for so long had a “French” name. More correctly, Louis Chevrolet, along with his brothers Arthur and Gaston were Swiss and the bow tie was Louis’ idea when he was asked to design a luxury car for William Durant in 1910. The car was called “Chevrolet” and the logo is a stylised Swiss cross — squeezed flat and squeezed sideways.
Louis was a smart man — a clever engineer and a daredevil racing driver. Between 1905 and 1920 he had so many racing injuries he spent a combined total of three years in recuperation. He survived, but several of his riding mechanics didn’t.
Because he had so many crashes, Chevrolet erected a stake in the centre of the car so he wouldn’t be squashed in a roll-over — this was later developed into the first roll bar.
In 1914 he stormed out of the Chevrolet car company after an argument with Durant and designed an Indianapolis racing car called the Cornelian for the Blood brothers who ran a major machine shop — I am not making these names up. The Cornelian was unique in that it was the first racing car to be built using monocoque construction — something that Colin Chapman was credited with when he unveiled the Lotus 25 in 1963.
The Cornelian still exists, in one piece, in a speedway museum in the USA.
Apart from inventing the rollbar and the monocoque racing chassis, Chevrolet was also the first to mount the gearlever in the centre floor of the car, tuck the handbrake lever away under the dash, fit a car with four wheel brakes and invented the flexible steering wheel.
Brother Gaston won the 1920 Indy 500 driving one of Louis’ straight-eight Frontenac cars — the first win at Indy by an American designed and built car since 1912.
While a clever engineer and an heroic racing driver, he was a terrible businessman, making and losing several fortunes in his lifetime.
He suffered a stroke in 1937, three years after rejoining Chevrolet as a “consultant” and died in 1941.
I hadn’t a clue about the “bow tie” and I knew very little about Louis Chevrolet until I did some quick research. And what sparked that research was a story I read about the eccentric French automotive designer and builder Gabriel Voisin who constructed a monocoque racing car in 1923 that was initially claimed to be the world’s first — until someone remembered Chevrolet’s Cornelian.
WRONG WAY MUSTANG
Denzil, who knows an extraordinary amount of detail about every Holden ever built, has come up with an amazing story.
When the Ford Mustang was being put into production, it was planned to have the galloping horse in the centre of the grille with its head on the left hand side of the car and the tail on the right, but someone got it wrong. The car was in production before someone noticed the horse was galloping the other way — away from the driver. By that time it was going to cost too much to change it — so it’s stayed that way ever since.
TOO MUCH
A few years back I went to Australia for a Holden event and one of the side attractions was to drive of a number of their concept cars. This took place in a large carpark at Flemington race course where a sort of “track” had been laid out. Among the concepts was a Commodore that had been fitted with a monster 7.0 litre engine. After a lot of “will-we, won’t we”, the car finally made it into limited production as the W427, but it was a diluted effort compared to the concept. The F1 race at Monaco is often referred to as like speedboat racing in the bath — driving this 7.0 litre Commodore was exactly like that. It was one of the few occasions where I have felt a bit intimidated by a car. It wasn’t the power — close to 400kW I understood — but the torque. You just could not use the accelerator pedal at all otherwise you were in trouble.
BAD TASTE
There are times when I wonder why I ever bothered to tell people what was good, bad and indifferent about new cars. Most people don’t care — bigger, shinier, faster, more gadgets, are what is important.
The bean counters at the New Zealand branch of a major international corporation recently came up with a short list of just two cars that would be offered to the company’s 41 area managers. They got to choose whether they wanted a Ford Mondeo — a car designed and built in Europe; just like a BMW or an Audi — or a “Holden” Cruze — a car designed in and built in Korea by Daewoo (our versions are merely badged as a Holden).
I am reliably told that every last one of the area managers — all 41 one of them — chose the Daewoo, er, “Holden”.
I don’t know whether they were sucked in by the leather trim or the “Holden” badges, but whatever the reason, they all made dumb decisions.
DOCTOR BEACHAM
I was in Hawkes Bay recently and called on Beacham Jaguar who have finally relocated to purpose-built, stand-alone premises out on the plains after previously operating out of makeshift, temporary premises.
Founder, Doctor Greg Beacham is a remarkable person — he spends much of his working days peering down the throats, up the noses and into the ears of patients in his Hastings medical practice. When he’s not there, he’s out at Beacham Jaguar where fourth eldest son Alex is managing the 15 staff and overseeing the business on an hour-by-hour basis.
Greg spends four or five hours each day on Beacham Jaguar affairs — he calls in each day, before and after being a GP.
While the company is best known for its work in taking older, classic Jags’ (Mark II sedans, XK150s and E-Types etc) and repowering and refitting them with the latest engines, gearboxes, suspension, interiors and electronics, they now also sell and service new and used Jaguars.
They are averaging about two new Jaguars a month at prices that are tens of thousands of dollars beneath those quoted by the official Jaguar importers. This is no fly-by-night operation. They offer full warranty and the first year’s servicing is free.
But they are not solely Jaguar — the restoration and enhancement side of the business also deals with Rolls, Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin — pretty much any classic car. This work doesn’t come cheap though, so send your Austin Seven Ruby somewhere else.
When I called, the team were nearing the end of a four plus year restoration and upgrade, on a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III — the version with the “Mini Merlin” V12 engine.
It belongs to a German client and was barely in driveable condition when it arrived from the USA. Apart from the total restoration, it’s also been upgraded — it’s now got fuel injection and four wheel disc brakes.
The cloth upholstery is very fashion-of-the-period. I saw a Bugatti Royale Coupe de Ville with similarly gaudy cloth interior at the Schumpf Collection in France and didn’t think it could be original, but was told it was.
This Phantom III has an even brighter cloth that the owner had specially woven for him in Germany.
This is a huge car and must surely be one of the ultimate Rolls Royce of all time.
There will be some (many) who will be offended by the upgrade, but Greg Beacham says the original carburetion was just a big, twin choke carbie that dumped raw fuel in, it took ages to warm up and just wasn’t pleasant. The fuel injection means easy starting, smooth driving and longer engine life because there’s no petrol being poured down its throat. And you couldn‘t possibly argue that the disc brakes won’t make it a far safer and easier car to drive.
The German owner wants to use it for autobahn travelling.
Greg Beacham loves restoring and improving cars. He was at Medical School in Dunedin in 1972 when he bought his first restoration project — a 1929 or 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II that had been fitted with a diesel engine.
He restored this in Dunedin and located some British ash timber at the Dunedin City Council tramway workshops that had been in storage since before “the war” — and that may have been WW1!
Greg not only located the ash in Dunedin, but he also found a retired coachbuilder from Hooper in the UK — and when they cut the ash, they found a nail inside that the tree must have grown around.
I’m sure I can recall that Rolls Royce with the diesel engine from when I was a youngster in Dunedin. In the early 1950s there were a couple of odd Rollers in the city — one with a strange motor and the other fitted with a mid 1930s American sedan body — like from a Dodge or similar.
The late George Begg also told me of working with an engineer at J & A.P. Scott in Dunedin who had repowered a Rolls Royce with a diesel engine.
DECARBING
I got a whole lot of newspaper clippings from Auckland newspapers circa 1964 the other day. They came courtesy of Brent Thomas who was cleaning out a lot of stuff that belonged to his late Dad and he sent the clippings, along with some motor racing programmes, to me for posterity. I’ve put some that contain really interesting material to one side for comment in future editions, but I was fascinated by some of the smaller ads that surrounded the stories in these clippings.
One was for an additive that meant you got more miles between “decarbing”. Now, there’s a word you don’t hear anymore — it was short for decarbonising, or decoking. It was the process of removing the cylinder head and removing the built up carbon deposits from the top of the pistons and the cylinder head and came from the days when our petrol was so soot-producing they must have added something like coal dust to it.
I loved decarbing from the time I decarbed my Royal Enfield two-stroke motorbike shortly after I bought it. With just 125cc it was never a power house and a mate looked at it, suggested it looked like it had been a long time since the head had been off and reckoned it needed a decarb.
So I whipped the head off — a matter of just minutes, and the combustion chamber was choked with hard, black, burnt-on carbon.
I scraped, chipped, sanded and polished until the combustion chamber and piston crown both gleamed. Then I got a pane of glass, smeared it with valve-grinding paste and spent about a week each afternoon after school, rubbing the joint surface of the head on the glass to make the face dead flat, ensuring a better seal and, hopefully, taking enough metal off to raise the compression ratio.
When it was back together, I reckon the bike’s performance increased by 25%, so I became a decarbing fiend. I whipped the head off the Enfield once a month to give it a bit of a tickle up, never again with the same performance gain of course and that probably encouraged me into my early career of fiddling. The Ford Model T and subsequent Ford V8s that followed, all had cylinder heads removed regularly for decarbing, even though no car did enough miles to warrant it.
I had a Wolf Cub electric drill and a set of wire brushes and I kept myself very busy with them.
I can’t remember the last car I “decarbed”.
THE BEST LOOKING
I have frequent and lengthy conversations with a colleague over various “the best of” — the best New Zealand racing driver, the best motor race in New Zealand history, that sort of thing. One thing that often comes up is the best looking F1 car of all time.
This isn’t quite as subjective as some of our other “best” arguments — like the best driver of all time — because neither of us saw Fangio, or Nuvolari drive, so we can never be totally sure who was the best F1 driver. But we can look at photographs of all of the F1 cars and make a rational judgement.
He is absolutely stuck solid on Dan Gurney’s All American Racers Eagle of 1966-68. He’s not alone, many people describe it as the most beautiful Grand Prix car of all time.
I think that they are all seduced by the eagle’s beak on the car. Delete that and while clean looking, it’s a pretty nondescript looking sort of car. A fat cigar shape without any distinguishing features — apart from the eagle’s beak.
So, strike that off. So what is the best looking F1 car of all time?
Many would say 250F Maserati — but which 250F, they were all different? The V12 engined 250F with the bigger body is close, but so too was the 1960 Ferrari 246 Dino — the last of the front-engined F1 cars.
Neither of these relies on a trade-mark gimmick, like the hooked beak of the Eagle, but rather they are total designs.
There will be those among you who say the 1961 shark-nose Ferrari was surely the best-looking. Nope, distinctive and charismatic — but hardly gorgeous.
How about the 1962 BRM? Often a forgotten car, but good looking and with those trademark smoke-stack exhausts. But, really, you can’t ignore the piddling 1.5 litre engines of that era that made them toys.
So, it’s over to the audience. Send us your votes on the best looking F1 car of all time. editor@classicdriver.co.nz
BILL AND THE SHELL MOVIES
I learned something the other day. While reading the latest issue of Tom King’s excellent New Zealand Rolls Royce and Bentley Owners magazine I saw a reference to Nick Mason — he who has earned fame and fortune playing the drums at the back of the Pink Floyd formation. Nick Mason is what we in the Antipodes call a Good Bastard, according to those who have met him. He has a very impressive collection of cars that includes a 250F Maserati. He obviously developed his passion for cars from his Dad — Bill Mason. Bill was the man who was responsible for putting together that excellent movie series, The Shell History of Motor Racing.
Back in the later 1950s and 1960s, these Shell movies were one of the mainstays for Social Convenors at car clubs around the world, by providing entertainment at the monthly club night.
All of the oil/fuel companies and most of the car manufacturers, had a library of 16mm movies they loaned out to clubs. BP and Castrol had some excellent motorsport movies, but the Shell ones on the history of Grand Prix racing were classics and the result of a lot of research — and Bill Mason was responsible.
I never knew that and when I learned this, I anxiously emailed Eoin Young to tell him. But, of course, he already knew that.
The Shell movies have stood the test of time — I bought one of the series on video about 10 years ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are still available on DVD.
But if I had to name one of the PR movies of that era that I enjoyed about all others, I would name two! I think it was BP who produced “The Home Made Car” — the story of a young man who finds a derelict Bullnose Morris and restores it. My second favourite is the Ford movie, “The Year of the Cortina”. There are some absolutely sensational action scenes in this movie. I understand that it’s still available on DVD.
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Simply Classics Auckland Car Club Showcase
On Sunday the 7th of November 2010, the Simply Classics Team held their Auckland Car Club Showcase at the amazing Formosa Country Club, just a short drive from central Auckland to Beachlands. A big thanks from us to all those who brought their cars to display on the day. We had approximately 90 cars attend the event with some of the Clubs going all out with their presentation. The overall display looked fantastic and definitely caught the eye of many a passing golfer on the day around the clubhouse too.
The Club trophies awarded were as follows:
Best Club in Show: Category Marque = Jaguar Drivers’ Club (Auckland)
Best Club in Show: Category Brand = Stag Owners' Car Club of New Zealand
Best Club in Show: Category Club Name = Austin Flying “A” Club
The prizes for Best Individual cars were as follows:
Best British = 1937 Jaguar SS 11/2 - Owner John Endean
Best European = Austin Healey 3000 Mk II - Owner Graham Loughlin
Best American = 1958 Chevrolet Corvette - Owner Mike Jelley
Best Australian = 1971 Holden Torana - Owner Chris Bell
Best Japanese = Toyota Corolla - Owner Kurt Pearce
The People’s Choice Award for Best Car in Show = 1958 Chevrolet Corvette - Owner Mike Jelley
The weather on the day was fantastic and other than a brief and unexpected shower from the sprinkler system near the MR2's, the event ran smoothly. We look forward to seeing you all, and more of you again next year. Our thanks go to our event sponsors Turtle Wax who provided, not only prizes for the main winners, but also samples of their products for all the entrants on the day. Also our thanks to Classic Driver Magazine for providing magazine subscriptions for all the winners and the amazing team from Supercheap Auto who had a very long, busy and challenging job judging all of the cars and teams. A special thanks to all the volunteers from CanTeen who came out for the day to help on the gate. A big thank you goes to our amazing MC Allan Dick from 'Classic Driver' who did a sterling job on the day keeping all the car enthusiasts entertained. And last but not least, a big thank you to Stacey, Ethan and the amazing team at Formosa Country Club for providing us with this beautiful location and the fantastic facilities on the day.
For more photos of the day please go to our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39464&id=121864664504378 click "Like" to add yourself to the page for occasional updates and forthcoming events.
Simply Classics Canterbury
Car Club Showcase
Sunday the 17th of October 2010, was the inaugural event run by Simply Classics to support our 2 charities, CanTeen and Ronald McDonald House. The Canterbury Car Club Showcase was held at Pegasus Town just north of Christchurch. A big thanks from us to all those who brought their cars to display on the day. We had approximately 200 cars attend the event, a huge mix from 21 Jaguars to 1 amazing little Mini. The overall display looked fantastic and was definitely a sight for all to see around the lake location.
The Club trophies awarded were as follows:
Best Club in Show: Category
Marque = Jaguar Drivers’ Club Inc
Best Club in Show: Category
Brand = Canterbury Mustang Owners Club
Best Club in Show: Category
Club Name = Studebaker Drivers Club
The prizes for Best Individual cars were as follows:
Best British = 1975 blue Mini
owned by Adrian Stone 
Best European = Grey
Porsche 911E owned by Wayne Graves
Best American = White Mustang
Notchback owned by Rick Paulsen
Best Australian = Grey F/C
Holden owned by Colin Hammond 
Best Japanese = Black MX 5 owned by Dave McQueen
The People’s Choice Award for Best Car in Show = 1936 black Cord owned by Graham Gibson.
Other than a brief patch of rain, we had a fantastic sunny day out at Pegasus Town. We look forward to seeing you all, and more of you again next year. Our thanks also to our event sponsors Supercheap Auto and their able judging team who had a very busy and challenging job due to the high calibre of entries and to Jenny Lake and her team at Pegasus for the location and facilities organisation. A special thanks also to Turtlewax for providing their car care info sheet and Turtlewax gift to all car entrants.
For more photos of the day please go to our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simply-Classics-website-for-all-classic-vintage-sports-car-enthusiasts/121864664504378?ref=ts - click "Like" to add yourself to the page for occasional updates and forthcoming events.
Comments from some of the Clubs:
'Just a quick note to let you know how impressed we were with the running of the whole show and the facilities that were provided. Everything ran smoothly and the only one that didn't perform was the weather but that was out of anyone’s control!!! Well done and we look forward to this becoming an established event.'
Kind Regards, Bryan Sinclair, President, Holden Club Canterbury Inc.
'A great day today. Good weather – except for about 10 minutes , good organisation, good crowd and a great display of Jaguars. Thank you for picking a terrific location for the Jaguar display. It was good to see the support of so many Club members too.'
Many thanks from all on the Committee of the Jaguar Drivers’ Club Inc.
