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Chairman’s Report
Chairman’s Report - June 2021
by David Tomlinson
Our June club night hosted Michael Thorne’s recently acquired Alfa Romeo GTV6 as the car in the room. I have a soft spot for Alfas, and this is a very nice car. Our July club night features a 1958 Chev Impala as the car in the room. If you would like your car (or motorbike) as the car in the room one club night, let Neville Harper know. Speaking of Neville, he organised our June run which was a shed raid at 3 properties before we returned to the club rooms for our annual prize giving and a big afternoon tea. The first “shed” was an eclectic mix of memorabilia and Ford cars in a very well put together vintage garage in Ngongotaha, followed by visits to Dennis Whimp’s to see his Buick and then to Dennis Brown and Jenny Cole’s to see the Humber restoration progress. Thanks to everyone involved in putting the day on.
The midweekers visited the Ross Brothers museum in Hautapu, and I did what I could to attend but could not free myself from the shackles of work. It did not help that two of my staff were working next door to Ross Brothers the whole time the visit took place meaning I could not leave my office.
July’s Swap Meet is now only a few days away. Then in August we will host our Sulphur City Rally. I hope most branch members will be able to assist at the Swap Meet, and we have a good number take part in August’s rally. Club runs resume in September, just a reminder if you would like to organise a run, or have ideas for a good Sunday run, let our Club Captain Terry Wadsworth know.
At the VCC’s AGM in Christchurch in August, the executive (of which our branch is a single vote) will be deciding on adopting a new VCC logo from 2022. The logo being put forward, which is different to the previous example circulated (which looked very much like our branch logo), is elsewhere in this issue and we can discuss it on our July club night.
On the weekend before our July club night Fleur, Alex and I went to the monthly Hamilton breakfast meet at the Diner Café. There were many usual suspects there, Alex particularly liked the DeLorean. A couple I had not seen before were a very tidy Isuzu 117 coupe, and a very rare Ibis. This was one of eight NZ made cars built on a Mini platform with a 1300cc Allegro motor. It looks like a micro AC Cobra. Very cute. This meet features lots of older cars, muscle cars and a few hot rods. Always very well attended and big queues at the breakfast bar (they have a buffet I think $16 pp). They even give out a few prizes including vouchers for the café and MTA fuel vouchers. I won some vouchers a few months back. The weather was perfect and we even had a few hot air balloons pass overhead.
One of our Sulphur City Rally sponsors, Jaycar the electronics people on Lake Rd, have set up a “cash account” in the name of our branch (Rotorua Vintage & Veteran Car Club, account number 21504058). You can use this to get a discount off some items, but may be asked to produce your VCC card as ID.
Lastly, as technology moves on, we can no longer write cheques, and after a review of our home and office technologies, I have decided to close down our home landline phone. Both Fleur and I have our cell phone numbers listed in the printed version of Side Curtains, and I can be called during week days on 07 855 2580 (Hamilton) and Fleur on 357 2674. Please delete our 357 2712 home number from any contact list.
