Banks Peninsula VCC March 2018

level. It was a Rolls not a Bentley, a Silver Cloud or a Purple Haze or something from the 60’s, and shock horror gasp, did not belong to the QM at all. Tom King of the RR club did some sleuthing via the UK RR club archivist, and exposed the deceit. So in fact all the cars were replicas of some sort.

Whatever happened to standards? etc etc.

Bruce and John Davies,( late of Tauranga and now Methven) , turned up to look at all those 2CV’s I mentioned last time, and were almost impressed. Some of the Deux Chevaux were impressive, especially a 4 wheel drive one with a 5 speed gearbox. Some of the European owned cars do a major trip every year, the last trip was to Iceland, and China before that. One of the Australian owners was Jack Brabham’s cousin, and not surprisingly his 2CV was modified to a gut wrenching 720cc, up from the normal 602cc. An entertaining group of delirious enthusiasts.

Johnny Moore and Greg May are two of youngest members, so need to be treated with care. Like all young people, they have aspirations to better themselves, and in Johnny’s case, rise above their disadvantaged motoring backgrounds. Johnny aspires to Citroen DS ownership, but failed the entrance test, so he and Greg have had to make do with a phalanx of Peugeots. They bought four Peugeot 405 MI 16 four wheel drive models, with Citroen hydro pneumatic rear suspension.

Amazingly quick and clever cars, they were possibly one of the most complicated cars ever built, and cost $110k when new, which at the time bought a very pleasant suburban house. Two of them were for spare parts. However one of the runners blew a hole in the crankcase the second time Johnny drove it, so there is great pressure on the parts cars, as reliability was not their strong point. The previous owner gave them a partial refund, which was very decent of him. Welcome to the world of French cars!

Talking of French cars, I found in the archives a report about the first ever Bathurst Saloon Car race, run in 1950. It was over 6 laps, (25 miles) and was a handicap race. First away was a Renault 750, then a Skoda, then a Y type MG, Peugeot 203, and Simca 12. A minute later was a Jowett Javelin, and an Austin A70. Another minute later was a Citroen Big 6, a Ford V8 Pilot, and two Riley 2.5’s. After 27 minutes of racing, the Citroen was the winner, followed by the Peugeot and the Simca.

The same archive reported on the 1992 Bathurst Class B race, won by a Citroen BX 16v, followed by a Peugeot M16 and a Nissan. The Citroen was 100kg lighter than the Pug, and made better brake pad choices. Something for Johnny and Greg to ponder......

An update on the Targa event to be held later this year.. The event has been approved by the Targa NZ and VCC management Committee. Rules and regs will be completed shortly. Rod Corbett has had over 40 registrations of interest thus far, and he will keep us posted about future developments. For more information, contact Rod rcorbett@xtra.co.nz 03 423 1551, 027 4338772 Another search of the family archives revealed a collection of the Auckland Weekly News, Christmas editions, between 1913 and 1930. The best part of them was of course the car advertisements which were most interesting in terms of what was available at the time.

In 1913 you could buy a Daimler motor –wagon from Geo. Henning, a Wolesley or Austin from G,W, Spragg, or a Sava , in 4 HP ranges, 14 – 50, from Dowson & Gillies.( A Sava is a Belgian car) In 1920 you could buy a Chandler Six, “The Top Gear Car”, a Pierce –Arrow, “The Pleasure Car’, a Cleveland 6, a Napier 40/50, a Lancia or Peugeot cars trucks & motorcycles, all from Pacific Motors in Pitt Street. The Farmers Co-Op in Wellington would sell you an “Exceptionally Trustworthy” Hupmobile, and Moe and Co in Auckland would sell you a Moon, “Positively the First appearance in NZ and not a Cheap Car”