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Editor: Kay Elmsly, Mobile 027 286 6480
Contactable during work hours 9am-5pm Monday-Friday
Committee Roles
Non Committee Roles
Chairman’s Report
By Robert Benge
My notes will be short this month as I’m currently away overseas at the time of writing.
Just wanted to say thank you to those members that assisted in making our Mid Winter Art deco event a success, especially the members that displayed their vehicles at the sound shell and to those that gave their time and vehicles to offer rides to the public a great effort by all and for those that assisted and answered my SOS call for baking and assisting with the Sunday afternoon tea it was greatly appreciated.
Our new catering arrangement for the Mix and Mingle is proving successful and we have received positive feedback regarding Denise and her helpers taking over the catering duties please remember to get your name on the list by the Tuesday evening before the next mix & mingle night.
Our Tuesday morning tea catch ups are proving very popular and thanks must go to Derek & Lance for keeping everyone in line and of course providing the morning teas and to Brian & John for there great work within the Spares department.
I must thank Larry for attending the National AGM in the Deep South on the club’s behalf it’s sounds the AGM was extremely positive and was great to hear that the club has adopted the new Constitution all very positive for the future of the VCCNZ.
We have many interesting events in the planning process with the 2026 Art Deco weekend planning well underway as well as some other exciting events to look forward to in the near future.
Safe & Happy Motoring
Club Captains Notes
By Paul Anderson
Greetings members,
Our “Daffodil Rally for Cancer” was a great success with 49 cars taking part to raise funds for cancer (see Diane’s report later in the Mag). I understand that it was an enjoyable run in lovely sunshine and our clubrooms were bursting at the seams for the wonderful afternoon tea and to hear a very interesting address from our guest speaker, Michael Fowler. We raised about $1400 for this worthy cause and had a bit of fun doing it.
One thing that struck me as I watched the cars depart on the Daffodil run, is how our club is evolving, with the majority of the cars taking part being “Classic Vehicles” i.e. post war or post 1960 /80 cars. Our club has embraced and promoted the classic car concept as being essential to our future development and wellbeing, hence the name change to Vintage and Classic Car Club. We are, when all is said and done a Motoring Club, and it is really great to see the diversity of cars taking part. Remember, vehicles over 30 years old are club eligible, so, I encourage you, if you know someone who has such a vehicle, talk to them about joining the club.
One other thought that struck me is the myriad of tasks that people (let’s say the little cogs) happily take on to make the club run like clockwork. Jobs like collecting money, writing reports, marshalling cars, providing a plate for afternoon tea.
It makes my job a lot easier to know that I have this support. I guess this is just my clumsy way of saying thank you to everyone for your help.
Our August speaker was Glenys Mulligan who spoke on the Phil Lamason Project. She was an excellent “off the cuff speaker”, very enthusiastic about her topic and her display of memorabilia was outstanding. I certainly agree with her that Phil was one of New Zealand’s unsung war hero’s.
The Phil Lamason Project are in the process of erecting a memorial to Phil at Dannevirke and our club has contributed to this and we will certainly visit the memorial, as a club, once it is dedicated.
On the 20th / 21st of September the North Shore Vintage Car Club Branch will be visiting Napier and our club will be hosting them for a meal on the Saturday night. Members are very welcome to join this function and a notice has been sent out to this effect. While here, they will be visiting Lemon’s Car Museum on Saturday and Kelvin Taylors’ Collection on Sunday and they have invited members of our club to join them on these visits. I will co-ordinate our attendance at these visits, so if you wish to attend please contact me as we will need to know numbers.
Refer to page 13 for more information regarding this event.
Safe and happy motoring
- Paul
MID-WEEK RUN -
Wednesday 3 September.
Refer to Details page 12 rd
Meet at the Club rooms 10am for a 10.30am Departure.
CLUB NIGHT -
Wednesday 10th
September at 7.30pm. Refer details on page 11 After the meeting there will be tea & coffee & cake provided.
SUNDAY CLUB RUN14 September th
Refer to Details on Page 12
MIX
& MINGLE NIGHT -
Friday 26 September th
Doors open 6pm. Dinner from 7pm. BYO Drinks & Nibbles. Please Email the secretary (Larry) athawkesbay@vcc.org.nz if you are attending or put your name on the list at the clubrooms.
Every Tuesday morning the Club and the Spares Department are open between 9am & 11am.
A cuppa is made around 10am for those that would like to have a sit down and have a natter.
Club Night 10 September th
@7.30pm - Please save the date
Guest speaker Sue Martin will be sharing stories from her incredible journey to the North Pole
See you all there !
Classics on Wednesday 3 September rd
Barbi & Jims “AN INSPIRING DAY OUT”
Everybody to meet INSIDE THE CLUB ROOMS at 9.30am sharp please.
Please wear your name badges
1 car away at 10.30am st
No need to bring lunch, chairs, tables etc. We are having lunch out.
Sunday Club Run 14 September TH
Assemble at clubrooms at 1.15pm for a 1.30pm departure.
We will journey through rural Hawkes Bay (some gravel roads for Esther) finishing at a venue for coffee & refreshments.
Regards
Paul Anderson
North Shore Branch Visit
Saturday 20 September th
@ 6.00pm
The North Shore Branch are going to be in the Bay for the weekend visiting a number of spots (including Lemon’s Museum) and we have agreed to host them for a dinner on the Saturday Night at our clubrooms.
The committee would also like to extend an invitation to our members to join us and give them a night of Hawkes Bay Hospitality and fellowship.
The cost for the night will be $35.00 p.p with BYO drinks.
In the kitchen for the night will be the in-house "A Team" of recent times to provide not only good food but maybe a good dose of banter and laughter!! (And we certainly always need that!)
We look forward to our members joining us and helping us make our visitors welcome.
If any members would like to join in and visit "Lemons" (there will be a charge) please contact Club Captain Paul Anderson on M: 0274-463908 or email p.anderson1@xtra.co.nz
This is a minor fundraiser for the club and a chance for a good evening hosting our visitors and enjoying the company and stories of like minded people. Numbers will be required and if these can be emailed to ian.elmsly@xtra.co.nz no later than the 14th September.
We have just completed a very successful Daffodil Day Run, with 49 cars taking part and over 100 people registered for the afternoon tea - what a great turnout!
Many of us had decorated our cars and ourselves in lovely shades of yellow, which gave a very festive theme to the event.
Starting in Whakatu and in beautiful spring weather, we enjoyed a run around local roads through Clive, Haumoana, Flaxmere and then to Puketapu where we all crossed the brand new Moteo-Puketapu Bridge which was opened just the day before.
The previous bridge was destroyed during Cyclone Gabrielle, removing the link between North and South Puketapu and the ability to cross the Tutaekuri River. The long-awaited new bridge has restored those connections and is a huge milestone for Hawke’s Bay.
Then it was back to the clubrooms (which was bursting at the seams!), and a sumptuous afternoon tea, where we welcomed members of the Early Ford V8 Club and members of the public who had been invited to join us.
We were treated to a presentation by guest speaker, local historian Michael Fowler, who spoke about the impact of the Thirty Thousand Club (formed in 1912) had on the development of Napier’s Marine Parade over the following thirty years.
It was fascinating to hear of some of the shenanigans that went on between the Club and the Napier Borough Council during that time and made me think that the business of politics isn’t much different today.
Michael generously donated two of his books to be auctioned for Daffodil Day and they brought a good price. The prize for the best dressed car went to Oliver and Nicole Midgley with their 1928 Model A Ford, which looked really gorgeous.
Jim Speers was the runner up and he was then asked to draw the prize for the lucky number. He drew number 17, but no-one came forward to claim it until someone suggested Jim check his own ticket. You guessed it, he drew his own number and took the prize, while being regaled by hoots of laughter from the crowd!
Huge thanks to the following:
- Barrie and Lyndsay Browne who organised the run,
- Paul Anderson and Larry Morgan for running the event
- All the Marshals
- Our fantastic kitchen crew for the afternoon tea
- Everyone who contributed to the afternoon tea
- Michael Fowler who donated his books and his time
- Flores Snelgrove who shared her photos with me
-Anyone I may have inadvertently missed out (apologies!)
- And to all of you who made generous donations. A total of $1345.00 was raised on the day!
It was a lovely day out for a very good cause. And yes, there were daffodils along the way.
Diane Friis
MASTER ELECTRICIANS
The Hawkes Bay Branch of Master Electricians hosted this annual advent at the club rooms on Wednesday the 6th of August.
There were 18 entrants and the challenge consisted of three 1 hour long challenges.
The categories were domestic / commercial and industrial. Of this there were two 1st places one for each category.
Finalists from 7 challenges around New Zealand will be selected and the final challenge will be in Queenstown at the end of October, this coincides with the Master Electricians conference and 100 year anniversary. The HB club rooms were an excellent facility to host at.
Peter Judd Master Electrician.
HB member
By Esther Smith
Part 5 of “Stood Helpless as their Floating Home was Ransacked’ which is the story of how my family ended up coming to NZ and our adventures along the way, I thought some of you would be interested in reading the full story of the Voyage as written by my father John Dovey. I gave my talk at the May Club Night . Part 1 of the story was in the May mag, part 2 in June, part 3 in July, Part 4 in the August edition of the mag.
The Voyage - Written by
John Dovey
We were ready to go, this time I stowed a further 100 gallons of fuel down below making a total of 800 gallons and adding to our fresh water supplies with wooden casks so that we carried 200 galls.
At 11 a.m. 6 th February 1964, our farewells said we left the Careenage in Bridgetown and resumed our voyage to New Zealand. The weather was good, the boat in first class order and in addition to the family we carried an extra man Mark Simmons. Mark was about 25 to 26 and had been working for a while in Barbados while the yacht Ipara of which he was a crew member was cruising the Windward Island and the intention was that he would rejoin the Ipara in Panama for the Pacific crossing as she too was bound for New Zealand.
By daylight on the 7th we picked up the high land on the Island of Grenada and by noon we were safely anchored in the yacht harbour. We stayed over the 8, 9, and 10th this being the island’s carnival time.
During our stay we once again met out friend Peter Poland of the yacht Camelot and before we left he sent along large scale charts for the run towards Panama, this was to have some bearing on what followed in the next few days. By 10:30 a.m. on the 11th we were clear of Georgetown and sailing Westerly towards Curacao where we intended to buy more stores, the motor was used for some hours in the daytime on the 12th and 13th and we made excellent time, on each day we made 160 miles so at 4 p.m.
I decided to keep the motor going until midnight which would put us within range of the eastern light on Bonaire which the chart shewed as 1 flash every 5 seconds visible for 15 miles. A few minutes after midnight it was there, at least I picked up a light with 1 flash every 5 seconds bearing s.s.w. I stopped the motor and went below to call Eunice, when she came up we stayed together verifying the light and going over the chart, the only other light in the vicinity was the Isle de Aves with 1 flashing every 11 secs visible for 7 miles.
At one o’clock I went below leaving Eunice to watch for the light on the western end Bonaire, the wind was light our course west our speed about 2 knots. At 2 o’clock Eunice called me to deal with a loose jib sheet, the light was now bearing south and still flashing 1 every 5 seconds.
At 2.30 a.m., that is only one mile further on I awoke with Eunice calling come quickly we’re aground, within a minute I was in the engine room and together with my son Mark who had also wakened we got the motor going but even as we did she came down heavily on the coral and immediately lay over on her starboard bilge however I went on deck and got the engine going first head then astern until Eunice told me the engine room was full of smoke. By this time she was laying well over which I estimated to be an angle of 45 and continually bumping and grinding over the coral.
All of us put our life-jackets on and all the deck lights were switched on and we could see the bottom less than 5 feet below the deck line on the starboard side. Inside the boat both big fuel tanks were emptying themselves through the airpipes and soon there was 2 feet of diesel oil inside the engine room whether it was mixed with salt water or not I don’t know.
We had 6 flares which sent up star on board and I fired four of these at 15 minute intervals. The only light or sign on the shore as 1 flashing every 5 seconds now bearing S by E. By 4 a.m. the wind and sea increased, and surf began breaking around us and making to southward and it became obvious we were on the north end of an extensive coral reef. There was nothing to do but stick it out until daylight.
By 5:45 a.m. we had an impression of low land to the S.W. By 6:30 a.m. it was light enough to see there was low land 4 or 5 miles S.W. of us and also that our position as regards putting Ros Aine on an even keel was pretty poor, there is not one foot of tide in these waters close up against the South American continent, there was nothing above water to put a line on.
The coral under us was very jagged and she was still pounding. Just after 6 o’clock I set a bucket of oil rags on fire to make a smoke signal. About 7 a.m. we saw a 40 foot fishing boat between ourselves and the shore and eventually she sent us a dinghy and 3 men over the reef to us.
The reef was about a hundred yards wide and extended in a curve to the south-ward, the average depth of the water near us was about 2 ft 6 inches. Eventually the dinghy pulled alongside and after they had come aboard, they looked around and agreed to take the children off to their parent boat which now lay inside 200 yards away. In a short while they returned with three larger dinghies which the parent boat had been towing. There were 16 men in these boats and it soon became apparent that they were intent on getting everything of value for themselves.
We three had started breaking out the stores our own treasures from home consisting largely of old books and a few articles of favourite furniture, you see nearly our whole home was on this boat.
While we were doing this these Venezuelan fishermen were taking out what they could and hiding it, when I took a rest and looked around the boat again the barometer clock and compass had been torn out, the radio retaken by us and later again by them. However in a very uneasy truce they helped us float our stuff over the reef in our dinghy to their boat, the understanding being they should have what we left including a £50 dinghy and 400 gallons of fuel oil in drums, tool etc. but of course they were not content, Eunice’s gold watch and jewellery were stolen after being carefully packed.
By noon we were taken near the land, it was uninhabited, just a camp for these men. On the way there we had another unpleasant shock, when we noticed the deck of the fishing boat strewn with gear from the steel yacht Ipara and were shown her lying about 2 miles to the south of us on the same reef.
She had left Grenada only a week ahead of us and like us had suffered the same misfortune, now the fishermen were stripping her and I gather were lifting our the Perkins diesel engine. Our party seemed stuck without adequate food or shelter but by perseverance we found there was a Dutch yachtsman and keen fisherman who had been on holiday in this area for some days and usually had a camp on a small island about seven miles to the south west and after some talk they agreed to take me to see him, we went in their dinghy this time powered by a large outboard motor.
By 3 p.m. I was shaking hands with Henk Smeins the owner of the motor yacht Kathleen. He was a good man and at once he hove up the anchor and we proceeded back to the fishing boat, in no time at all the rest of our party and salvaged belongings were loaded and we returned to his camp where he gave us a meal of fish.
At 6 o’clock just as the sun was setting we sailed again very glad that at least we were out of Venezuelan hands. By dawn we were in Curacao there to make new plans and these alas would not include our would be ports of call, The Galapagos, Fatu-Hiva, Tahiti, Fiji etc.
Obviously, the main factor leading up to the loss of the Ros Aine was that the light flashing with the same time interval as Bonaire was on the Isle Las Aves and there for directly misleading. A report to this effect was sent to the Hague by the Dutch authorities and to London by the British Consul in Curacao.
These reports included notes on the loss on the same reef of the Ipara ten days before us and of the loss of the Little Bear an American yacht a fortnight before that. All three boats had navigated in safety the hazards of the European Coast, the Atlantic and the West Indies.
Hope you enjoyed reading the adventure
August 2025 -Mid-Week Run Report
Classics on Wednesdays Aug 6th 2025
Out around central Hb back roads and on to Otane for a pie.
The club rooms were busy with an electrician’s test challenge. Steve Donovan caring for them, so we parked at the Hot Rod end.
Another excellent turn out making this run worthwhile. Instructions were easy for the first part, out the gate down Meeanee Rd onto the Expressway drive south till you reach College Rd at Pukehou and drive up there to Argyll Rd then into Range Rd, left into Tikokino Rd into the back streets of Waipawa across into East Waipawa drive back streets heading to Otane to finish at Henry’s family pies.
Many comments about the fact that some roads were not even known about or had never been driven. The scenery is stunning with lovely long valleys, vertical rock cliff faces, beautiful stands of native trees over hanging the road, lambs in the paddocks and unsealed road just damp and smooth enough resulting in a clean car at the finish.
The drive was greatly appreciated and in return deserving of the support.
Next month Sept Jim and Barb Speers will be presenting another of their gems.
October John Cocking and Lee Anne Freeman have something interesting, perhaps a little challenging and not to be missed.
November we are going to the Hawkes Bay Fish and Game farm in Jervoistown, if you have a fishing licence you are welcome to try your fly, there will be a small cost for the visit and use of their facilities. How we will get there is being planned at present and may include some river drives along the way.
December the run changes to Wed the 10 th as Santa will be bike riding up north the week prior. The popular Christmas run to a café winery or pub. Santa is bound to appear alongthe way with Mrs Clause. If they haven’t fallen off their bikes.
Thanks to all Cheers, Barrie Browne.
DAFFIDOL DAY FOR CANCER 24 AUGUST TH START OF RALLY
AFTERNOON TEA
Guest Speaker - Michael Fowler
AGM and National Executive Meeting Report
Invercargill, 8th & 9th August 2025
As expected, Invercargill was very cold, however the local branch did a great job in securing a suitable venue (Ascot Park Hotel) and looking after all the delegates. Highlights for me were the talks given by the John L Goddard trophy winner, and the guest speaker at the Saturday night dinner. More of this later. Here is a summary of matters discussed at both meetings.
1. Result of national vote re the new constitution. This was passed with 86% of members voting in favour of the motion. Voting papers were returned by 2132 members (approximately 40% of total membership) – this was about double the normal response to mailed out voting forms. Hawkes Bay branch was 100% in favour of the motion, with around 20% of our members voting. The new structure will come into effect after the next national AGM in August 2026. In the meantime, the draft by-laws which go along with the new constitution need to be updated. All members will be given a chance to have input to these by-laws.
2. NZTA Report
President George commented on the success in getting 12-month WOF’s for older vehicles across the line. This has taken many years and a considerable amount of lobbying. A question was asked re the status of veteran and commercial vehicles and whether these would be included. This will be included in future discussions with NZTA. The next focus for discussions with NZTA is to have input into the recently proposed RUC scheme for all vehicles.
4. John L Goddard Trophy
This was presented to Elizabeth Smits, who with her late husband Fred travelled around the world in a 1957 Mercedes Benz 220S Ponton between 2014 and 2019. The story of their journey was posted online as “Classic Strider” and can still be found today. Here’s a link if you want to check out their amazing journey. https://classicstrider.com/
They named the car “Abel”, after Abel Tasman
They named the car “Abel”, after Abel Tasman
After receiving the trophy Elizabeth gave a talk about how their journey came about and some of the challenges they had to overcome along the way.
5. Vero Rally, Nelson, March 2026
As of Saturday 9th August, there were 346 cars entered, with 714 people registered. Despite recent weather events, organisers remain positive, and the rally routes haven’t had to be altered too much. Regular entries close at the end of August, so the organising committee are hoping for a big surge in numbers over the next few weeks.
6. New head office in Christchurch
Murray Trounson reported on the sale of the old club head office and the purchase of new buildings. The old building was affected by the Christchurch earthquakes, so NZVCC had already received an insurance payout of around $300,000. The RV on the old building was about $310,000, but it ended up selling for $710,000 at auction (purchased by a near neighbour). The new buildings cost $1.25 million, with a few more costs to come to complete the fit out.
7. NZ Motor & Cycle Journal
Ian Goldingham of Waitemata branch has been working on collecting all issues of this historic publication (published 1904-1037) and has been working with the National Library to digitise all issues. Once this has been completed these magazines will be available for members of the public to view on Papers Past.
Old NZVCC building in Aberdeen Street
New head office on Meadow Street
Archive building next to main office on Meadow Street
8. A question to the Registrar regarding repowered vehicles and VICs.
A delegate asked the Registrar whether any consideration had been given to creating a new class of VIC for repowered vehicles. The example they gave was of the increasing number of Ford Model A’s being repowered with Burtz engines, so a car built in 1930 could be powered by an engine built in 2025. Some people thought that these cars should be classed as Hot Rods, while others thought it was a natural process that old worn-out parts were replaced with new ones, so it shouldn’t matter if an engine of similar power was used as a repower. Issues could arise if a new engine was much more powerful than the original, perhaps requiring new braking systems. This would also mean that the vehicle would need recertifying. Note that this only relates to VICs and not day-to-day club use or local events. No decision made but discussion will be on-going.
9. Noel Atley, engineer, racing driver and motorcycle builder for “The World’s Fastest Indian”
The guest speaker at the Saturday dinner was Noel Atley, and he gave a fascinating talk on building the replica motorbikes used in the movie “The World’s Fastest Indian”. Roger Donaldson had contacted him asking if he could build a couple of suitable motorbikes for the movie, and he ended up not only building the bikes but travelling to Bonneville to look after the bikes on the movie set.
I had seen one of of these bikes on display while visiting the Classic Motorcycle Mecca on Friday afternoon, and while looking at the bike wondered how it ended up with a Ducati motor. The answer was that the Ducati motor was the only one they could find which was narrow enough to fit into the streamlined fairings which would be built to the original specs. For the movie, they purchased 2 Cagiva Elefants from Christchurch, then stripped these down so they could use the engines in custom-built frames. Noel showed plenty of photos and shared lots of stories from the making of the bikes and the movie, from the early days of testing the bikes, to running them flat out on the Bonneville salt flats.
Larry Morgan
HBVCC Delegate, August 2025
Larry Morgan
HBVCC Delegate, August 2025
Replica bike on display at Classic Motorcycle Mecca
Club Room Hire
1951 Riley RMB 4 door Sedan
All mechanicals have been rebuilt. The motor has been modified with shell bearings and modern electronic ignition. The motor is not yet in the chassis and has not been run since rebuild. All machining has been done by Suvic Engineering. Timber and body work has been completed to a high standard and preparation for painting has been started. The excellent original leather on the seats has been refurbished and re coloured in the original red. It has new door cards, carpet, vinyl top and many other new parts including hood lining material. I am confident the car is complete except for a couple of interior door handles and winders. The price nowhere near reflects the cost of the parts and work done. The car now requires painting and finish putting it together. I am happy to send photos. $14000.00ono. I may consider a trade for a mobile vintage or classic car or pickup.
Email: mcbruce1951@gmail.com
Ph. 027 246 9899 or 06 876 6161
Wanted:
I am building a 1913 Cyclecar and will need paraffin side lamps and a single acetylene headlamp and tail lamp.
Anything cluttering up the workshop you want to offload? If you have anything else that might suit I'd be pleased to hear about them too.
David Gardiner: dirge@mailfence.com Ph: 06 835 9492
Wanted to Buy:
Austin A40 Devon engine in good running order with or without gearbox.
Would consider reconditioned short block or whole car with good motor for parts.
Regards
Larry Gale Contact: leoniegale@hotmail.com
Spares News
By John Durry
Hi All
We have been getting good numbers turning up for our Tuesday Mornings and had some good sales for last month and also for the start of this month, so keep bringing that stuff in so we can turn it round. We would like to thank those that have added to our collection.
Pete Johns for clocks, speedos and electrical parts.
Lance Connelly for internal headlight and bearings.
Derick Gordon wheel bearings.
Bruce Coker for lights, horns etc
Colin Sherriff monsoon window shield
Peter Judd solex & SU twin carbs
Without these donations we wouldn't exist, so if you have any part you don't want don't hesitate to bring them along.
Until next time
Cheers John Durry
CLUB SPARE PARTS CORNER
For any enquiries phone:
Brian Taylor on 027 443 6009 or John Durry 022 676 9401
