VCC ROTORUA SIDE CURTAINS SEPTEMBER 2023

Sulphur City Rally 2023

SIDE CURTAINS - September 2023

The magazine of the ROTORUA VINTAGE AND VETERAN CAR CLUB

Clubrooms: Neil Hunt Park, Tarawera Rd, Rotorua

Postal: PO Box 2014, Rotorua

Email: rotorua@vcc.org.nz

Website: www.rotoruavintagecarclub.org.nz

Vero Insurance: Phone 0800 658 411 and quote your VCC membership number

Club Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of month (except January), 7.15pm for 7.30pm start

OFFICERS

Chairperson - David Tomlinson

Secretary - Hayden Duncan

rotorua@vcc.org.nz

Treasurer - Maryann Scott

Club Captain

Terry Wadsworth

Asst. Club Captain

Fleur Tomlinson

Committee

Ronald Mayes

Neville Harper

Geoff Nitz

Alan Judd

Ken Thomas

John Newson

Mid Weekers - vacant

Side Curtains Editor - David Tomlinson rvvcc.editor@gmail.com

Beaded Wheels - Ronald Mayes

Librarian - Dennis Kenny

Librarian - Ronald Mayes

Cards/Flowers - Doreen Green

CLUB CAR PHOTOS

If you want your club car photo on the clubroom wall then get in touch with Doug Green, and he will organise a time and place for a photo shoot. It would be good if we could have all member’s car photos on display.

Side Curtains September 2023

Chairman’s Report -

August 2023

What a busy time it has been for our family.

After the August club night, in which new Secretary Hayden Duncan’s sister brought her Toyota Soarer along as our car in the room, Fleur and the other Sulphur City Rally crew toiled hard each day until the big day, which was bright and sunny, and an excellent event was held. The rally was fun, had great scenery, our usual quality luncheon, and a good range of vehicles, especially from members from other VCC branches.

There was also a good number of younger members involved, including Doug and Doreen Green, taking part as participants for the first time in many years having organised the event, and their grandson ably drove their 1929 Graham-Paige on the day. After the prize giving dinner, Fleur, Alex and I left Sean at home and spent 10 days in Singapore. It was warm, around 35 degrees C and muggy every day. We are assured and can get down to as low as 27 degrees on a cold day later in the year!

Fleur spent some time living in Singapore as a child while her father served there in the NZ Army, and she wanted to take Alex and I around her old haunts, including the accommodation they lived in with their pet iguana (!), her school and the military base. Not wanting to drive around, even though it is a left side of the road, RHD country, I put

some feelers out to online friends, and what better way to be escorted around Fleur’s old home than in a 1939 Rolls-Royce Wraith! Its a shame that they hadn’t fitted air-conditioning by 1939 though. Our gracious host even took us out to lunch.

Above: Outside Fleur’s old home in Singapore

Below: Fleur and Alex relaxing in a 1939 Rolls-Royce

We also spent time with one of Fleur’s old childhood friends, and between our two hosts it was interesting to find out about car ownership in Singapore. Believe it or not, to buy a brand new low spec Toyota Corolla there would cost you around NZD$200,000. There are a lot of taxes (a lot!) and disincentives to buy newer cars. Second hand cars are very expensive too. Since a cheap car is very expensive, you do see a lot of not-socheap cars, we saw many Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and the like.

They have an unsual registration plate system too, standard cars have black plates and can be driven any time. You can get cheaper registration with red number plates, but can only drive on weekends, evenings and public holidays. Then, like the old Rolls-Royce we went in, you get plates that fade from red to yellow vertically. These are for older cars, with a very strict limited number of days the cars can be driven annually. Our host with the R-R also had an unusual MGB roadster. It was RHD with 3 windscreen wipers, which was apparently never a factory option. His car had been sold new as a LHD car in Canada, then later shipped to Australia, converted to RHD, and is now in Singapore.

EVs are not popular there, most people live in large apartment blocks which are not equipped for charging stations. Like Japan, you won’t see Hilux/Ranger type utes, service industries all use light trucks. Other than our generous host’s small collection (which also included an Austin 7 roadster and a R-R 25/30), we only saw two other older vehicles on our travels, a later model Rover made Mini, and a mid-1990s Jaguar saloon.

Note the two tone number plate above

On our last day in Singapore we visited an Air Force Museum and by chance ended up with many thousands of people watching jet fighters and other military aircraft celebrating the RSAF’s 55th anniversary.

Please note this coming month we have an earlier than usual Chairman’s Run, on Sunday 17th September. This will conclude at my workshop in Ngongotaha with a complimentary afternoon tea with finger food and baking and we will be joined by members of the North Shore VCC branch at the afternoon tea while they are on a long tour. And we have a mid-weekers event too on 20 September. More details on both of these events later in this issue.

August Car In The Room 1994 Toyota Soarer 2.5GT by

The Toyota soarer was produced from 1981 to 2005. The most popular model is the third generation being the 1991 to 2000. This generation came with three engine types, the 1JZ-GTE which was the 2500cc twin turbo inline 6 cylinder. The 2JZ-GE which was the 3000cc non turbo inline 6 cylinder and the 1UZFE 4000cc V8.

My partner first brought a Soarer in March of 2022, I never wanted a Soarer for myself but after going for a drive in my 1JZ twin turbo I fell in love with it. My partner’s Soarer is a naturally aspirated 2JZ which was why I didn’t like the Soarers at first as they felt slow and heavy. I also fell in love with the car as it has a matching paint job as my partner’s one, so of course we had to have matching cars.

My Soarer has aftermarket body kit on it. The Vertex side skirts and rear bumper give it a more aggressive look compared to the stock body kit. The engine got rebuilt about 10,000km ago and the new engine has about 40,000km on it. The body has done roughly 240,000km. The transmission got replaced by one of the old owners as well as the rear diff. It has a couple aftermarket parts like the HKS blowoff valve and GReddy front mount intercooler.

When I first brought the car I was stoked with it until I got almost home from picking it up from Hamilton and problems started to arise. A horrible noise could be heard so we had to limp it home the last 10km. It sat for a couple weeks after getting it and I decided to take it over to Tauranga for a day but it started to rain and I started to get that same noise but worse

while driving. So the car went into the mechanic but turns out it’s mechanically sound and nothing’s wrong with it. So still a mystery as to what the cause of this sound is.

The Toyota Soarer has a great community around the car and everyone is super positive and happy to help out, which is awesome. We have car meets every month over in Hamilton to catch up with mates and make new mates.

My future plans with this car is to hopefully single turbo it so I can push more boost as the car currently pushes roughly 270hp at 208kw. I would like to get to at least 350hp. I’ll have to take the engine out and put in new forged pistons and rods. Bigger fuel rail and injection. I’ll possibly put in a Toyota Chaser manual transmission (R154) which is 5 speed. A new rear diff, so I’ll change it from an open differential to a LSD differential. The paint needs a touch up. And the crack on the rear bumper needs to be fixed as well.

Long Term Ownership by Ronald Mayes

How long have you owned your club car (or cars)? Any advance on the 54 years Vanden Plas Princess 1100 V-AS1838 has been in my care? And looking at my records I find that 21 September this year marks 50 years of ownership of 1970 Triumph 2000 3ME 14430 DLBW.

In 1973 I had the Princess 1100 in everyday use and a 1964 Holden EH Premier station wagon ($1200 from a Taupo dealer in 1970) for heavier-duty work like towing my boat.

Then I had a drive of a Triumph 2000 and decided I wanted one! Being “rich and single” I could have bought a new Rover P6B for about $6000 or a Jaguar XJ6 for over $8000 but I liked the idea of the Triumph - cheaper at about $4000 and I hoped to buy a house in the not too distant future so the price was more realistic. The only problem was that there was a very long waiting list for a new Triumph.

A Bay of Plenty Motors advert for a 1970 Valencia Blue automatic Triumph 2000 appeared in the Daily Post, 2 owners and 32085 miles on the odometer and for sale at $3895. I wasted no time in securing it and they even gave me $100 more for the Holden than I had paid for it. (Six months later I saw the Holden parked downtown. What had been a pristine and original white over silver vehicle had been repainted with orange and red flames all over the bodywork. Earlier well-cared for cars I had owned as I worked my way up to modern ones, starting with a 1937 Morris Eight

in 1963, then a 1956 Morris Minor, a 1958 Humber 80 and a 1965 Morris 1100, all ended up being destroyed by subsequent owners, so I resolved not to sell on my two treasures, whatever the temptations. might be).

Jump forward 50 years and the Triumph’s odometer reads, as I write this, 36692 miles. No, it hasn’t been driven just 4607 miles - add another 200,000 to that! Naturally, the maintenance records fill several note books but I reckon I am now beginning to find my way around it to keep it up to standard. Its full story will fill a book and it is definitely part of the family - it was our wedding car in 1976 and I taught Gloria and sons Richard and David to drive in it.

Rotorua Vintage & Veteran Car Club proudly present the

11th Anniversary Annual Rotorua Lakefront Car Show

10am - 2pm, Sunday, 21st January 2024

ALL CARS, BIKES & COMMERCIALS WELCOME!

Join us for the 11th Anniversary of this fabulous event. Numbers have increased every year with almost 500 vehicles on display in 2020 and a good number in 2023.

The venue is the Rotorua Village Green at the lake front, off Whakaue Street. This is an informal car show open to any individuals or clubs to display their vehicles. Drivers and visitors will be encouraged to make a gold coin donation during the event for St Johns Ambulance.

Car clubs are welcome to display their vehicles in a group. During the day drivers and their companions can enjoy their own picnic lunch under the trees, or take advantage of local eateries, including Rotorua’s “Eat Street” which is at the southern end of the show area.

Come and see Rotorua’s newly developed waterfront boardwalk, as well as many other attractions. This event has been very popular with locals and holiday makers alike. Vehicles range from early vintage to almost new.

For more information email info@rvvcc.org.nz or check our Facebook page for updates. See you there!

CLUB NIGHT - September 13th

Neil Hunt Park - 7.30pm

Car In The Room: 1926 Buick Roadster

Followed by tea and coffee.

Chairman’s Run Sunday, 17th September

Be at the club rooms by 1.30pm. This will be a short run ending at the Chairman’s workshop at 14 Hall Rd in Ngongotaha. Travelling members from the North Shore branch will meet us all there around 3pm for a complimentary afternoon tea with finger food and fresh baking.

Midweekers Wednesday, 20th September

Meet at the Te Pūia main carpark (Hemo Road, Tihiotonga, Rotorua) @ 10.15am. We will the travel to Two Mile Bay Sailing Club on the outskirts of Taupo for lunch.

Note - We still need an organiser/coordinator or regular volunteers to organise midweek runs. Having previously served in this role for six years I have no intention of organising these runs on a regular basis. Bob Mackay

Morris Minor Parts

Mostly free to take away. Also tools for rebuilding small engines.

Phone Evan - 07 346 0458

Side Curtains September 2023

COMING EVENTS

www.rvvcc.org.nz

The branch website aims to meet the needs of our members, to promote our branch nationally, and to potential new members. If you have any suggestions please contact David Tomlinson.

Please also make sure you “Like” our Facebook page to keep up to date.

Contributions to Side Curtains

This is your magazine! Please feel free to share anything you think might be of interest to the membership by sending it to the editor, preferably by email, and a picture says a thousand words, so include photos where possible. Members taking part in club runs or events hosted by other branches are encouraged to pen a short piece about their experience to include in the next issue going to print. All items to the editor by the end of the month.

Sulphur City Rally 2023

Sulphur City Rally 2023