Newsletter March 2019
COVER PHOTO Paul Furkert putting in a flying lap in his 1949 series 1 Land Rover at this years stretched gymkhana. Even managing to kick up some dust for a spectacular photo. Closing Date for Wairarapa Zenith: 15th of each month. Contributions should be emailed to the Editor—editorwaivcc@gmail.com or posted to: PO Box 7, Masterton, 5840.
Wairarapa Branch of the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand Clubrooms Postal Address Branch Website Club Night Spare Parts Committee Meet
A&P Showgrounds, Chester Road, Clareville PO Box 7, Masterton, 5840 www.sporty.co.nz/wairarapavcc First Monday of the month (except January— none) and June (second Monday) at 7.30pm. Open each Tuesday morning following club night. Second Tuesday of each month at 7.30 pm
Call and see
Trevor Kenavan
for all your joinery requirements
150 Main Street, Greytown Phone: 06 379-8008 Fax: 06 304-9004 2
Your Committee 2018/19 Chairman:
Willie James
Vice Chairman: Tina Goodin Treasurer:
Tina Goodin
Secretary:
Beth Taylor
372 4890 jwilliej600@gmail.com 02041099552 tina.goodin@hotmail.com
06 3796040 bethpk@xtra.co.nz Club Captain: Francis Pointon 06 3786710 pointonmotors@xtra.co.nz Committee: John Clark 378 0380 john@clark.net.nz Pat Dutton 06 3797918 betyjo29@gmail.com Simon O’Hara 0211412332 simonsandieohara@gmail.com Kevin Ball 06 3771236 wtakevin@xtra.co.nz Barry Wells 06 3771152 ljandbjwells@gmail.com Frank Lipinski 379 7167 Custodian: Neville Taylor 0272391202 nevtaylor6@gmail.com Librarian: Pat Dutton 379 7918 betyjo29@gmail.com Beaded Wheels Reporter: Kevin Ball 377 1236 wtakevin@xtra.co.nz Social Convenor: Val Ball 377 1236 wtakevin@xtra.co.nz Spare Parts: Frank Lipinski 379 7167 Tom Mitchelmore 379 7573 Barry Wells 377 1152 Jeff Percy 377 4622 Magazine Editor: Alec O’Hara 0277750417 editorwaivcc@gmail.com Vehicle Inspectors: Francis Pointon 378 6710 pointonmotors@xtra.co.nz Graham Reidy 372 7855 g-a.reidy@xtra.co.nz Hugh Hunter 306 9847 j.h.hunter@xtra.co.nz 3
What’s on locally… March Monday 4th
Club Night— A “TIKI TOUR” around Carterton—Bring your car
Saturday 9th
Rex Porter Rally.
April Monday 1st
Club Night—Guest Speaker Diane Suisted who will speak on her recent trip to India.
Sunday 14th
Club Captains run
May Sat/Sun 4th/5th
Motorcycle Reliability Run
Monday 6th
Club Night—A night of rally experiences
Sunday 12th
Garage raid
NAME BADGES A reminder from the committee Could all members please remember to wear your club name badges to all club events.
Club Night Monday March 4th: Tiki Tour of Carterton
Bring your vintage or modern and brush up or, for new members, learn the skills of straightline navigation and other rallying skills in preparation for the Rex Porter Rally.
Meet at the clubrooms at 7.30pm.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS A big welcome to all of the new members to the club. We look forward to you joining us in the various activities of the club. If you have not received a name badge, please contact Beth on 021732832 to arrange this.
THE MOVIE “THE DAFFODILS� which features some of our member's cars was released nationally on February 14th 5
VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF NEW ZEALAND (INC) WAIRARAPA BRANCH REX PORTER MEMORIAL RALLY SATURDAY 9TH MARCH 2019
The late Rex Porter, foundation member & Past President of the Wairarapa Branch, joined the Vintage Car Club of NZ (Inc) in 1955 as a member of the Wanganui Branch, being the nearest to Wairarapa in those days. It is to this pioneer motorist, Veteran enthusiast and noted club member, we dedicate this rally. 6
THE RALLY: The Rally assembly point is at the Vintage Car Clubrooms at Clareville A & P complex. Rally briefing at 9.30am. First vehicle away at 10.00am. This is an all day event with two competitive routes. The Short Route is approx. 80 miles and the Long Route approx. 110 miles. Both routes contain a variation in terrain and surfaces, the competitor to choose which route they wish to travel. If there are insufficient entries in any one class, they may be combined. Lunch stop is at a picturesque park with large shelter trees but no other facilities. Toilets are a block away – directions will be in your rally pack. PLEASE BRING A PICNIC LUNCH. The evening Dinner and Presentation is at the Wairarapa Services & Citizen Club, 20 Essex Street, Masterton 6pm
Drinks -
at own cost
7pm Dinner & Prizegiving
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Chairman’s chatters Hello fellow vehicle enthusiasts. Well club members have certainly had opportunities over the last five or six weeks to use your cars on the varied events that your committee have organised namely the annual coastal run to Castlepoint thanks to Emily and Anders Crofoot for allowing us to use their coastal highway! The Stretched Gymkhana held at Solway Showgrounds proved to be an ideal venue with those participating having a great deal of fun and I must thank the MG Club members who attended and took the Trophy home. Those whom attended Club night were thoroughly entertained by our speaker John Kennedy with his Rolls Royce adventures across Europe re-enacting travels from 100 years ago. The Remembrance run took us out to Peter and Nola Groves to check out their collection of treasures and my word what a lot of stuff!! I don't envy them at all when they move to town and have to clean out the sheds as I've just been through the same exercise myself. From there we moved via cross country to Tim and Sue Johnston's for lunch and viewed his collection. Thank you to both families for allowing us access. Our thoughts go out to Maureen Antunovich and family from Pahiatua with the passing of Rod who has been a member for many years. Maureen has donated a 1930's Lanchester to our club which was picked up by Frank and the spare parts team recently. There are quite a few club members attending other Rallies and events all over the country so I am looking forward to reading your reports in the Zenith in the near future.!! Your editor is always on the look out for stories so type them up and send them in. Finance - The end of the financial year is the 31st 8
March so I ask any members owing debt to our club to pay prior to the 31st thankyou. Our AGM is coming up in June so we will be looking for new male and female committee members to help run your club going forward as some of the existing committee are retiring. Kevin Ball is standing down as our Beaded Wheels scribe after five years and being involved with PR for the club since 1983. A big thank you for all your endeavours. Your committee has had much discussion about our magazine and the time and costs involved producing it. Any club members who could assist in helping process the mailing out etc please contact Alec our Editor who is finding it very difficult time wise to be able to do it and so his parents have been called in and I thank you both for your support. If we don't support our editor we will have to resort to a change in format for your magazine whether it be via email , quarterly magazine plus email of events only.?? Any ideas from members would be graciously received. Make the most of upcoming events and enjoy our summer. Regards Chairman Willie
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Club Captains Report Summer is here with a vengeance & we’re all suffering especially those of us who are still working. The Stretched Gymkhana attracted a smaller than anticipated entry but was hugely enjoyed by those who took part. I hope to download a video of one of my runs on the VCC website soon. Our Remembrance Day Rally on February 10th visited both the Groves & Johnston’s farms to look through their sheds etc. The highlight for me was the journey across the farm to the Johnston’s homestead, instead of using the sealed road. Tim suggested this on the day & most took advantage of this as he took the lead in his Jaguar. A couple of entrants still weren’t convinced and missed a rare chance of some great cross country motoring. Very sorry to report Barry Colqhoun’s passing & we send our condolences to Carolyn. Barry was a long time member, who if not competing was always happy to help. Gaye & I attended the funeral along with a number of other members on the day of the stretched gymkhana. March Club night will be a chance to brush up on your straight line navigation skills with a short run around Carterton. This will help newer members before the Rex Porter Rally on Saturday 9th. We hope you have entered. FRANCIS
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WAIRARAPA VCC STRETCHED GYMKHANA JANUARY 2019 The Wairarapa VCC’s second annual Stretched Gymkhana did not have an auspicious start. Firstly, after protracted negotiations the Wairarapa A&P society declined the VCC access to the Carterton grounds. Subsequently various other options were assessed and discarded as unsuitable. A new venue - Masterton A&P Showgrounds at Solway, was finally settled on. This year the number of entrants was lower than the inaugural event. However, like the previous event almost half the entrants were from outside the Wairarapa, which shows that this style of event appeals to a diverse range of VCC members. Saturday dawned fine and clear – perfect Stretched Gymkhana weather. Volunteers had been busy the night before so when I arrived at 9:30 the course was all set up and ready to go. The groundsman had even mowed it for us, so there was no excuse for getting lost in the long grass in the back paddock (although this didn’t stop one vehicle driving a very creative figure eight on the first lap – I believe Simon Byrne wanted to blame his navigator but was worried about the marital implications of publicly doing so). Like last time the course was around ¾ mile long, with lots of bends (the event is a driving trial not a speed event, thus the course is designed such that it is impossible for vehicles to exceed the speed limit) and finished with competitors reversing into a set of cones (thus ensuring speeds were slow as the cars neared the finish line). Initially everyone drove round the course in convoy to see the route, and my initial thoughts were that it was rather bumpy, however once I was going around at gymkhana speed it seemed to smooth out (and the sump guard on Alec’s 1976 Mini also removed a couple of the lumps for us). Before lunch everyone had 3 timed rounds with most people taking between two and a half and four minutes to complete their lap. After a BBQ lunch (thanks to Beth and Neville Taylor for cooking it for us), the competition began in earnest. Each driver’s fastest pre-lunch time was set as their target time, and they had to match this time thereafter, with ½ the field dropping out each time. In the round of 16 the cut off time turned out to be 8 seconds (everyone who was within 8 seconds of their target time moved through to the next round). Yours truly got a 0 (i.e. exactly on target) in this round much to my delight. In the next 12
round I was 5 seconds under my target time (I misjudged a corner in the figure 8, thought I had lost some time, so tried too hard on the second ½ of the course), and by the time all 8 competitors had run again, the cut off for the round was 4 seconds and so I was out. There was another 0 in the round of 4 (by Malcolm Fleming), and once everyone had run the cut off was calculated as 2 seconds, and we had our finalists Malcolm Fleming & Gina Jones, both driving the same MGF. Gina had her final run first and recorded 0, which really put the pressure on Malcolm. He set what ended up being the fastest lap of the day but was unfortunately 5 seconds under this target time so Gina prevailed. After the formal presentations were made by branch chairman Willie James, we packed up the course (using Alec’s 1924 Dodge truck and Paul’s 1949 Land-Rover) and then all retired under the trees for a couple of cold beers and to re-live the highlights of the day’s activities. The feedback from everyone was that they had a ball and can’t wait for next year’s event. There was also much positive feedback on the emphasis on drivers matching their target time, which meant that all vehicles, regardless of how fast the owners wanted to drive them on the grass circuit, were in with a chance of winning. It was all about being consistent. The event is limited to 32 combinations (driver & vehicle) so I know that I, for one, will be entering next year’s event as soon as the date is announced. As for me the Stretched Gymkhana ticks all my VCC boxes - a day out alongside lots of different vehicles, exciting yet safe driving, great comradery and a chance to win bragging rights over my mates. Paul Furkert.
Winner (left) Gina Jones and runner up (right) Malcolm Fleming being congratulated by chairman Willie James.
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RIGHT: Dean Gray from the MG Car Club putting in a solid effort.
LEFT: Willie James praying his MG Magnette holds together
RIGHT: Simon O’Hara, working the ‘Arm-strong’ power steering on the old ‘24 Dodge
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LEFT: Fiona Hamilton, our youngest competitor (17), showing the boys how it’s done. Throwing that mini around like she stole it. Good to see a young female out there. She will be back for next years event.
Remembrance Rally Feb 2019 This year’s Remembrance Run, held on a blisteringly hot day, was expertly organized by Tina and Earl Goodin. It took the form of a garage raid and Tiki Tour to the Groves’ collection at Glentarn and the Johnstons’ Waiawa homestead and treasure trove near Tinui. We were instructed to gather wild flowers along the way to create a jam-jar posy back at the Clubrooms. In spite of a clash with Wellington’s All British (and European) Day we had at least 14 vehicles involved. It turned out to be a bit of a Wairarapa All British Day with a Rover, 2 Rileys, a Mini, a Rolls, a Mk IV Zephyr, an Austin, a Morris, a Vauxhall Cresta, a Daimler Sovereign and a Norton flying the Union Jack. A Model A Phaeton, Essex, Valiant and Toyota rounded out the group. Nola put on a lovely morning tea at Glentarn. We were then treated to a tour of the sheds. I lost count of the number of vehicles, mainly Austin’s, and was pleased to see motorcycles as well. Tim Johnston then took over the navigating and led us on a cross country ramble over his farm from the bottom of the Langdale hill to the Waiawa homestead. Tim and Sue have ‘sympathetically’ restored this amazing homestead and we were invited to view the interior with all its period treasures. Numerous sheds housed a varied collection of cars, tractors and machinery, (and a few bikes), including two immaculately restored Model A’s and the smoke-ring 16
generating Model A that created so much interest at the 50th Anniversary Public Day We returned to the Clubrooms via Langdale. Te Parae Road and the Kourarau hill. Linda and I were fortunate to win the trophy, but the Kennedys would have been strong contenders had they arrived earlier at the Clubrooms. Thanks again to Tina and Earl and our hosts at Glentarn and Waiawa. Barry Wells
This years winner of the Remembrance Rally, Barry and Linda Wells.
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50 YEAR BOOK The 50 year book is now AVAILABLE. It is a hard copy, excellent quality book.
Pricing Wairarapa VCC Members $57.50 inc GST
Non Wairarapa Members $80 inc GST Plus postage if required Please see or contact Francis Elwin Tele number 063770855 email royel@xtra.co.nz
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50th Anniversary Film The 50th Film is available to be copied onto a USB memory stick. If you wish to get a copy of the film, you need to supply me with a memory stick with a space of 8GB or more. It is a big file and is best viewed in VLC media player. I cannot guarantee that it will play in any other programme. To obtain a copy or if you want any details please contact me: Editor (Alec O’Hara) Email: editorwaivcc@gmail.com Phone: 0277750417 (after 6PM) Or Post me a memory stick with return postage and address included My Address is 34 York Street Masterton.
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FOR SALE Car Club Car Badges Chrome - $25 Brass - $20 See committee
5OTH Anniversary plaques $10 each Missed out on the festivities? Want another plaque for your car? There are still some plaques left but be in quick, at this price they won’t last long. Talk to the committee today!
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Don’t forget our business advertisers Their advertisements help to pay for the production of this publication. When you need a product or service consider using one of the companies advertising in the Zenith. They help us—why not reciprocate by giving them your custom.
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Property
LAW SERVICE
A DIVISION OF REEVES LAWYERS LIMITED •
• • •
Buying & selling Property Powers of Attorney Commercial Matters Relationship Property
• Refinancing • Family Trusts • Subdivisions • Estates/Wills
0800 PPTY LAW (0800 778 952) www.propertylaw.co.nz 26
VEHICLE INFORMATION VEHICLE ID Members who wish to apply for Vehicle Identification Certification (VIC), are asked to contact one of our Branch Vehicle ID Officers. Their names and contact details are provided in each Zenith magazine (generally on page 3). If you wish to participate in any National VCC event, you need to have a Vehicle Identification Certificate. Please don’t leave it to the last minute as it takes some time for the processing of paperwork. VIC Applications: Must be accompanied by the appropriate form which can be downloaded from the VCC NZ website or contact your club secretary. The form should be sent to your local branch secretary for processing. SELLING YOUR VEHICLE? If your vehicle has VIC Certification and you sell your vintage vehicle, please notify NZVCC, P O Box 2546 Christchurch. Ph: 03 366 4461 Fax: (03) 366 0273 or E-mail: admin@vcc.org.nz. INSURING YOUR VEHICLE/ POSSESSIONS? When you insure through VERO, you are helping our Club financially. Just let them know that you are a member of the Wairarapa VCC and quote this number: 043302 COOK STRAIT FERRY BOOKINGS Both the InterIslander and BlueBridge Ferries offer a variety of discounted fares to VCC Members. Contact the companies directly using the Vintage Car Club group booking codes. The staff are generally very helpful. INTERISLANDER: Ph: 0800 878 898 Quote Group Booking Reference Number WH5465 BLUEBRIDGE FERRY: 0800 844 844 Quote Discount Code: ANTIQUECAR 27
WANTED 19 INCH split rims to suit wood wheels on a 1928 Dodge Fast Four. Contact Simon O’Hara - 021 141 2332 20 INCH solid disc rims to suit Dodge 1924-26 Contact Alec O’Hara (editor) 027 775 0417 or editorwaivcc@gmail.com
Looking to Buy Good home offered to a running 1960s or 70s convertible, preferably two seat or 2+2. Needs to be MGB size or bigger, as we are both quite tall. MGB would be perfect! Happy to tinker with mechanicals, but zero skills with rust or welding! Please call new member Simon Daly on 06 306 6371 or email simondaly@xtra.co.nz
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WHAT’S ON AROUND THE COUNTRY March 7-10th 2019 North Island Club Captain’s Tour. Contact Kaaren Smylie nicc@vcc.org.nz March 8-10th 2019 Lake Taupo Country Roads Rally (see page 17) April 19-22nd 2019 National South Island Easter Rally Hosted by Ashburton branch Contact Rally Secretary Colin Sweetman 027 437 2087 easterrally2019@gmail.com
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Sender: The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand Wairarapa Branch (Incorporated) P.O. Box 7 MASTERTON 5840
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