Chris’s Collection

This month I have much pleasure in bringing club stalwart Chris White’s story to these pages. Chris brings a lot of experience to the Club. I personally have witnessed his ability to get things done. He has a vast knowledge in the spare parts section, one where I would be of no help at all! Even though he has now taken a well earned break from being on the committee, he still is active in the parts. This thoroughly likeable guy is an avid motor racer and gifted restorer, as evidenced in his story below. Hope you enjoy the read. Editor Ian

My interest in cars started in my early teens. Every weekend I cycled to my grandparent’s house as my grandfather had a workshop where we spent many hours repairing family cars. I wanted to be a motor mechanic. I left school and took an apprenticeship with the Post Office workshops in the mid 1960s. This was a great place, had a panel shop, paint shop, welding shop, machine shop and an experienced team of ‘old school tradesmen’. A great training place when I needed to progress my interest in rebuilding cars. I stayed there until the late 80s when the workshops closed and I became an insurance assessor, ultimately trading from the old Springvale Garage from where I retired in 2021.

I joined the Wanganui Car Club in the 1960s and enjoyed the motor racing side of the club. I ran various cars over the years including Mini 7’s in the 1970s, Morris 1000, Mini Cooper S, Riley Kestrel, Austin Healey Sprite, 100/4, 3000 Mk 1, and my last competition car, the Jensen Healey for twenty years. I have been able to run on both North and South Island circuits including road circuits which I have enjoyed.

My first rebuild was a 1934 Morris 8 in my first year of working, and with my grandfather, I rebuilt Mini’s, Morris 1000 and a near new Ford Capri. I married and purchased a home in the early 70’s and it had a large old soap factory on the section with a run down house. I then moved my repair activities to Gonville Avenue and was able to rebuild cars to ‘get ahead’. There were no rules and compliance then. Rebuilt the house and shed and continued to rebuild ‘get ahead cars’ – Honda Civics, Accords, Cortinas, Minis, Corollas etc. We shifted to our current home in 2000, a build as you lived in it, where we still live today. Sadly rules of today make it hard to do what we could in our era.

I joined the VCC in the early 1980’s. My interest in VCC was after I had swapped a Mini for a rotten Bugeye Sprite. I had earlier been restoring a Triumph TR2 car. I had an infinity for BMC cars so the Triumph went and was duly restored. I bought an S800 Honda Coupe which I restored. I was racing my Bugeye Sprite but not allowed to race the Honda in classic meetings. ‘Never be a classic’ I was told so I swapped it for a rusty 100/4 from Hawkes Bay. The Honda went to a Japanese museum in the 1990’s.

I restored the 100/4 and used that for motor racing and with the VCC at race meetings. I Located an AH 3000 MK1 and traded my wife’s Mazda 3, which we had purchased new, for another ‘Rotten Healey’. I had a desire for another Mini Cooper and located a project car when racing at the Dunedin street race with my Jensen. This was rebuilt.

I always felt I had let myself down by selling my first Honda S800 early so searched for another. I located two with one man and was able to purchase both in Nelson. A Cooper S was offered to me and it was a rare 1071cc car, so even though I had one, I bought and restored it. My grandfather’s Morris 1000, which had stayed in the family since his purchase from Wright Stephenson's, was offered to me so I brought this back into the family circle