Far North Focus
June 2019
A good spot for a break from the weather on a dreary day in Kaikohe.
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The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand
Far North Focus Who’s Who for 2019/20 Chairman
Murray Cormack
m.g.cormack@xtra.co.nz
09 4077255
Vice Chairman
Winston Matthews
win@matthewsvintage.com
09 406 0203
Secretary
Gloria Cormack
m.g.cormack@xtra.co.nz
09 4077255
Treasurer
Robyn Mackay
wmackay@vodafone.co.nz
09 406 1955
Club Captain
Graeme Moore
graemarg32@gmail.com
09 4061413
Editor
Peg Hills
comstockdowns@gmail.com
09 406 1077
Communications Officer
Ruth Reid
r.t.reid@xtra.co.nz
09 4060 392
New Member Liaison
Murray Cormack
m.g.cormack@xtra.co.nz
09 4077255
Beaded Wheels Scribe
Dave Duirs
dave.duirs@xtra.co.nz
09 406 1288
Area Rep North
Ruth Reid
r.t.reid@xtra.co.nz
09 406 0392
Area Rep South
Warwick Woollams
w.woollams@gmail.com
09 407 7494
Committee
Murray Cormack, Robyn Mackay, Winston Matthews, Graeme Moore, Vince Mason, Mike Pooley, Gloria Cormack, Warwick Woollams, Warren Mackay
Building Officer
Peter Mason
09 406 1409
A full list of elected officers was circulated with the minutes of the 2019 Annual General Meeting
Club meetings on the second Tuesday of the month at the Aurere Clubrooms at 7.30pm.
CLUB CLEANING ROSTER 2018-2019 During the month, and preferably before the main calendar event, please give the clubrooms a thorough check over, as in: Clean the toilets and hand basins, check kitchen, window ledges etc, and sweep the floors. Window cleaning, washing walls etc will be done at working bees.
Note any required maintenance and pass on to the Building Officer- Peter Mason, ph 406 1409. If your date doesn’t suit you, please swap with someone else. For any other enquiries please contact the Club Captain.
June C & M Ilton July
C Brownlie
January
D & P Hills
August
D & D Duirs
February
G Coulson
September
P & Z Mason
March
C & M Ilton
October
Everyone– working bee
April
W & R Mackay
November
G & S Mc Mullen
May
G Moore & M Cornwall
December
P O’Dell
June
C & M Ilton
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Calendar of Events 2018 / 2019 June 29th
Molloy Trophy Rally
Winston & Ruth
July 20th
Annual Prize Giving Luncheon
Everyone
The Molloy Trophy Rally Saturday June 29th Meet at the Clubrooms at 10.00am for morning tea which will be supplied. Then join our rally and lookin within a few k’s of the Clubrooms, and back there for our
Mid Winter Christmas Pot Luck Lunch at about 1.00pm. Further details wil be sent out by email in the next week or so.
Save the date:
Annual Luncheon and Prize Giving
CLUB SHIRTS AVAILABLE: Contact Ruth- see her at a meeting, call her on 09 406 0392, email her at r.t.reid@xtra.co.nz
Saturday 20th July Mangonui Cruising Club Mill Bay, Mangonui
There will be samples at the Clubrooms to try on for size.
Cost of meal around $30.00
Cost is $30-$35 dollars, depending on size.
Further details in next Focus
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The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand
From the Chair…….
Annual report Greetings Following last year’s AGM I stressed the need to give members a ‘good time’ with our club events, rather than a heavy emphasis on fund-raising and catering. How did we go? I was amazed and humbled by the thought and commitment that individual club members put into the monthly rallies we had over the last 12 months. To me they all were first class, and highlighted the diversity, achievements and history of Northland. My knowledge and appreciation of Northland has certainly been enhanced by involvement with the Far North Vintage Car Club. A big thanks to those who made these events possible. We successfully continued with our monthly social meetings comprising a shared meal at both Taipa and Kerikeri. On numerous occasions we interacted informally and socially with other Northland car clubs, and hosted several one-make car clubs at Winston’s museum. We provided variety and at times almost too many events.
efforts. I am extremely grateful to our Vice Chairman Winston for his wise counsel and generosity to the club with the museum facilities. Robyn, Gloria, and Peg have fulfilled their responsibilities efficiently without any fuss or bother, and have been a pleasure to work with. Numerous other club members have willingly given their time and skill, and I would thank them for this.
It is with great sadness we recorded the loss of John Crisp and Lorraine Walker during the year. It is good to see Phyllis and Brian at recent club events. Finance: we recorded a small loss of $1747 for the year, which is less than the budgeted loss of $4000. Generally this was a result of reduced expenses.
Reduced participation at club events is both a national and local issue. We have an ageing membership contributing to a wide variation of availability for events. Matters such as health, economic circumstances, other interests and travel all contribute to reduced participation. It appears competitive rallies are suffering People: any club such as ours relies on its people. With the most, with people more keen just to enjoy the drive this AGM and election of new officers we record the con- and social interaction. We will continue to offer variety tribution of two of our hard-working members not seek- and endeavour to cater for the changing environment. ing re-election. Naomi Mason completes her two-year We have over 100 members, and we will work hard on term as Club Captain, and I would personally thank her all matters and events that you can participate in and for the commitment and support she has given to this enjoy to justify your confidence in continued memberrole. Margaret Wallace wishes to relinquish her role as ship. Welfare Officer. This is a role she has completed exMurray Cormack tremely well for the club. We will miss both of these people in these roles and sincerely thank them for their Chairman
Obituary – Mike McGee Northland Vintage Car Club Secretary Mike McGee recently passed away. Our club has sent a card to Northland Branch, and I phoned their Chairman Ron Anderson on the matter. Mike was a cousin of John McGee, one of our club members. It was good to phone John and hear some great family stories involving his late cousin. Our thoughts are with you, John. Murray
Club meetings are on the second Tuesday of each month, at 7.30pm, at the Aurere Clubrooms, unless otherwise advised. The Far North Branch of the VCC does have a policy that pets are not brought to any Club events. We do ask that this policy is respected.
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Club Captain’s Annual ReportWow what a busy and eventful past year this has been. I would like to thank everyone for their support over the last couple of years and thank those members who have organised and run rallies. You are so special. Organising and running rallies takes time but it is very rewarding when you have done it.
were able to go over country we hadn’t seen for a while and so scenic, ending with a great dinner at the Mangonui Cruising Club. A wonderful night out.
There has been a bit of discussion since about our trophy rallies. Do we want to replace our trophy rallies with just tours or We have had interesting tours, gymkhanas, look-ins and beach simple runs as our members are getting older and not wanting picnics. There has been lovely sunny weather for the summer to do big rallies? Just something to think about and have disand even throughout this autumn. cussion on. I would like to keep them, and encourage members to attend if possible, but we need to think about it. Terry and Sue organised an interesting tour to Marsden Cross, starting at Kaeo, where members were paired of to question Wishing the new Club Captain all the best in the following year. each other about their cars and see if there were any interest- I will support you as much as I can. If all our members support ing stories about them. Next we made our way to Marsden each other I’m sure we can have a great club and keep it runCross and enjoyed a picnic lunch before taking a hike through ning smoothly. Looking forward to the coming year with interhistory. So very interesting and lovely weather, We even had esting events and runs etc. our great friends Claudia and Bruce in their little Austin 7 atAll the best, tend from Dargaville. Naomi Mason. The Macgregors organised an event which ended with a gymkhana. We heard it went really well but unfortunately Vince and I had to be in Auckland for an appointment for myself at Greenlane Hospital. I was so looking forward to attending this event. At this point I would like to wish Ian Macgregor a speedy recovDAFFODIL RALLY 2019 ery from his fall and operation. We have had some sad times too, with the passing of our very special member and friend John Crisp, who was a founding member of our club. Our prayers are still with Phyllis as she carries on life without him; also for Brian Walker as his wife Lorraine passed away. A lonely sad time for them, but we would encourage our members to keep them in contact and come and have fun times with us at rallies and our great pot luck teas.
I am asking for volunteers from both the Bay of Islands area and our Northern Kaitaia area to organise this year’s Daffodil Rally for Cancer to be held on Sunday 25th August.
The VCCNZ has taken on fundraising for this worthy cause. I believe it to be the only national fund raising project to be supported by the VCCNZ. Planning by Head Office is under way with promotional advertising stickers, posters This reminds us that we are all getting older and need to look etc being prepared. The local Lions Club may out for each other. Vince has had a bad blackout and fall wish to tag along following their major fund whereas he is unable to drive for a year, and is recovering from the check point Stuart manned raising for the Society on the Friday.
his shoulder surgery. We are in the older age group too now . Sadly we haven’t been able to drive our vintage car on rallies but have thoroughly enjoyed the events we have attended throughout the year in our modern.
There were six couples who went on a boat tour on the Kaipara Harbour Cruise. This was a fantastic time away and so interesting to learn about the history of this area. Also a great time with our members who went on this event. We even had a birthday surprise which the chef made special for the birthday girl. So lovely. Our Brian Parker rally organised by the Hills and Pooleys was wonderful, even though there weren’t so many cars But we
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I suggest a short rally/drive from each area, coming together at a central point for an afternoon tea. This to be arranged by the organisers. NZVCC are asking for the names of the organisers so that they can liaise directly with them. Your assistance in this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Graeme, Your ‘New Club Captain’
MOTHER'S DAY 2019
the corner to LEFT BANK boutique hotel , a bit early. This used to be the BNZ, built in 1916 and destined for possible demolition because of earthquake building regOur plan was to give our navigator ladies a day off ulations. Fast forward to 2016. Locals Di Maxwell and and spend the day in the southern end of our patch to Jack Poutsma courageously injected several million dolaccommodate southern members as last year we celelars in their reprieve programme which has given Kaikobrated up north. A visit to the Northland Firehouse Muse- he something special and a dozen folks a chance to proum was to coincide with our Pride of Ownership mote their hospitality skills.. As we were less than 30 "judging" especially for those with older vehicles and people the public still had access, but there was plenty then our luncheon venue was the newly opened Left of room and once the MINT restaurant staff had us setBank Mint restaurant just up the road in Kaikohe too. tled we enjoyed a substantial, well presented meal in a very interesting environment. We were given group tours The day dawned very stormy and daunting. Northland of the building which is of very tasteful and luxurious Firehouse Museum contacted us on Saturday, excited standard and an absolute credit to the owners and their that they were making it a public event with bbq, raffles manager Brooke Witana and her staff. They cater for the etc and Whangarei VCC were to attend. They went to a top end with hotel rooms upstairs and for "back packers" lot of effort to accommodate the day but in gusty wet in their SAFE AS "privacy cubicles", popular with cycle conditions our ten vehicles were the only ones there! trail folk. The display in the museum had some outstanding memOur Pride of Ownership judging proved just that, with orabilia and should be compulsory viewing for any fire Rogers' 29 Chrysler 1st, Sharpes' 53 Sunbeam Talbot crew. 2nd, Duirs' 69 Peugeot 404 3rd, Winston Matthews' 78 We modified our Pride of Ownership "judging" to dodge Jaguar XJ6 4th, Cormacks' 78 Fiat X19 5th. A small gift the rain. With car boots and bonnets up, members and prize went to the winners and the trophy will be prechecked for Body, Interior, Engine Bay, Chassis/ Runsented at the Annual Dinner. ning Gear, Boot and Age / Mileage categories all made We were to have a Mother's Day/ Kaikohe related quiz difficult in windy and drizzling conditions. Thanks folks. as well but with the damp conditions we flagged that The judging sheets were almost pulp but we managed. idea. Many thanks to those of you who weathered the All the wet engines started again too which was a relief storm and still brought your older vehicles. as one was playing up when it arrived. While we wandered the museum they sold raffle tickets which included THEIR peoples choice vote (obviously for the public who were not there). The organisation has relocated from out in the country and is trying to reestablish in town. Regrettably, the public did not come and Whangarei Branch didn't show up either. Winston won the very generous raffle prize and Sharpe’s (Sunbeam Talbot) and Francis' (Porsche Boxter ) took 1 and 2 in the MUSEUM's Peoples Choice.
Hospitality guru Lucien Law said..."You don't come out to a restaurant because you're hungry.....you go to Countdown if you are hungry. You come out to a restaurant to be entertained and to have an experience...." We trust that was achieved. We enjoyed supporting local folk. Dave DUIRS 13 05 19
In still blustery, wet, conditions we then moved around
G T MULLER State Highway 10, Coopers Beach
WOF CENTRE VEHICLE IMPORTS PHONE 09 406 0406
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The Dangers of Ethanol. With acknowledgement to the Gisborne Branch VCCNZ “Carlton”Magazine. Classic beauty is everlasting but the same cannot be said for the parts that make your classic car roar on the road. In particular, modern fuel poses a problem. Gasoline fuel that contains ethanol can lead to fuel system corrosion and increased chances of unreliability or engine fires. With most on the market today possibly containing 10% ethanol (E10), ethanol is often unavoidable. However, you should always make an effort to avoid E85, which contains up to 85% ethanol, and is not compatible with most older vehicles. While it has its advantages, namely reducing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions when burnt, special care needs to be taken when using E10 in your classic car. Reduce Condensation. Ethanol absorbs moisture easily, which leads to water pooling in the fuel tank. From there it can make its way to the carburettor and the engine. To mitigate this, use a water separator filter on the fuel line and keep your tank full, to reduce the amount of space available for water to settle. Change the Fuel Filter. Ethanol is corrosive and can quickly loosen dirt and grime, setting it free to clog up whatever is in its path. Keep an eye on the performance of your vehicle and change the fuel filter often. Protect the Fuel Delivery System. Rubber and Plastic fuel lines don’t fare well with E10 fuel, so it’s best to replace them with alternatives that are compatible with modern fuels and that contain nylon or viton rubber alternatives.
Don't forget to change the “O” rings in the fuel system with ethanol-compatible counterparts. Long Term Storage. To prepare the vehicle for long term storage, drain the fuel to minimize condensation. Another option is to use a fuel stabilizer. E10 degrades faster than pure gasoline and fuel stabilizer acts as a protective layer for the leftover fuel in your tank. Without stabilizer, the fuel can convert into a gummy substance that clogs up the fuel system when you are ready to start driving again. Work with a Pro. Last but certainly not least, find a trusted mechanic who specializes in classic or vintage cars. The local branch of your vintage car club is a good place to start. Check them out to connect with fellow enthusiasts and knowledgeable mechanics.
What is Ethanol. Ethanol is an octane booster, so E10 generally has an octane rating higher than 91. (Notionally it’s 94, but in practice it depends on exactly how much ethanol there is “up to 10%” blend at any particular re-fill). This means that your car will perform slightly better on E10- but there is a trade-off. The trade-off is that there is about 30% less energy in ethanol, compared with petrol. When it’s blended 10% with petrol, there is about 3% less energy in the blend, and this means your fuel consumption will increase by about 3% when you run E10 compared with 91 octane unleaded, if all other things remain equal. And that means, for E10 to be an economically rational choice for you, it really needs to be about 3% cheaper that 91 octane regular unleaded.
The start, A pensioner drove his Ford Ute up to 100 Km's on a back road. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a police car behind him. He floored it to 140, then 150...then 155. Suddenly he thought, " I'm too old for this nonsense!" So he pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the police car to catch up with him. The officer walked up to him, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in 10 minutes. Today is Friday and I’m taking off for the weekend with my family. If you can give me a good reason that I've never heard before as to why you were speeding...I'll let you go." The man looked very seriously at the policeman and answered:- "Years ago my wife ran off with a policeman, I thought you were bringing her back"!! The cop left saying, " Have a good day, Sir."
The finish, 7
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