The annual Coromandel Car Fair

Last Sunday saw the annual Coromandel Town Car Fair held in perfect conditions.  A nice break from the torrid time which the Coromandel Peninsula and other regions experienced a week or so ago thanks to a prolonged ex-tropical storm.  Many of the vehicles on display are resident on the peninsula.  Considering that the permanent population of the entire peninsula is about 32,000, ownership of classic vehicles is pretty high.  Come to think of it, that also applies to NZ in general. I guess that the mostly benign weather helps to preserve old vehicles, as well as them being part of the culture. It was a gold coin entry fee and all proceeds were donated to the local Returned Services organisation for veteran support.

There were well over 100 vehicles on display and as far as I know, only one car was trailered to the event and that was because it was in the middle of restoration. The superb village ukulele band provided the music and the local seafood delicacy, green-lipped mussels, were served up as fritters.

The local ukulele band warming up

(source: Kiri Gillespie)

Mussel and corn fritters - food made in heaven

(source: Kiri Gillespie)

Early arrival - 2016 Camaro

There was a great mix of vehicles from around the world, with American muscle cars being the biggest contingent. Orange cars seemed quite popular this year, starting with our Blaze Orange MGB GT of course!

Pontiac Firebird

Orange is the new black!!

More Americana

Chevrolet V8 - not a speck of dust anywhere

Just for something a bit different, the next 2 vehicles are local to our village.  I guess if you ask "Why?" to the V8 tractor, the answer is "Why not?"

V8 powered Ferguson tractor with beer barrel fuel tank

1934 Leyland fire truck

The mid-70's special edition Holden HX LE Monaro below with the gold mags is reputed to be one of only 3 in New Zealand. Only 580 were ever made and fetch well over 6 figures.

Australian Holden muscle cars

A few European cars, starting with a 1970 Vauxhall Viscount and a 1966 Mk 2 Jaguar.  The Jag belongs to local identity Keith Skilling who was a test pilot for the first restored DH Mosquito WW2 aircraft in NZ, as well as the WW2 F4U Corsair and others belonging to NZ Warbirds.

Still looking good!

MG Midget, our MGB GT, a replica MGTF and an Austin Healy Sprite (re-badged Midget)

MG Corner

                                                (source: Kiri Gillespie)

The next photos are different versions of the Dodge Coronet.

1968 Coronet R/T Convertible

Coronet R/T

An Anglo-American Amalgam (good alliteration, A?). What was once a Ford Popular wedded to American running gear.

Ford Popular Rod

Back to "European" with a flawless BMW 2002 and a Fraser Lotus 7 lookalike made in NZ.

 

BMW 2002

NZ-made Fraser 7

Nice Mustang convertible and Model A Ford, with a GM-supercharged hot rod in the background.

A good selection of Americana

Two beautiful UK Fords - a 1957 Zephyr convertible and a 1960 saloon

1967 Zephyr

1960 Zephyr

1930 Model A Ford Rod

Magnificent 1938 Chevrolet Coupe

1942 Willys Jeep, complete with shovel and other tools

Very tidy engine bay of an Australian-built Valiant 317 belonging to the village glazier.  Sounds fantastic.

Valiant 317

1956 Ford F100 truck - beautifully restored

Finally, a photo of American excess when fuel was cheap! It must take some manoeuvring around twisty NZ roads and perhaps a special shed to store it.

Lincoln Continental Town Car

I could have doubled the number of photos for this post but you get the picture about what a special day it was. One slightly curious thing though.....  when I was looking up the registrations of a small handful of cars on an official website to confirm year of manufacture, the registration plates didn't appear to match.  I draw no conclusions at all from this as I'm sure that there was a perfectly legal answer!

A new vehicle and new learnings

The previous post was in August and having turned 78 in October, I thought I'd better announce that I'm still alive and kicking!  One way or another, it's been a busy time, although fairly ho-hum.  Regular readers will remember that late last year, I fractured my femur whilst demonstrating a serious lack of talent on my mountain bike.  Rehab has gone pretty well but a bone scan revealed that I had a certain amount of osteoporosis - a reduction in bone density.  This could have possibly contributed to the fracture, although there's no absolute proof.  Since the scan, a weekly pill and strength exercises at the local gym 3 times a week have seen blood tests return to "normal", whatever that might be.  Thankful for small mercies, I'm back on the mountain bike but Jennie has banned me on pain of death from the local challenging goat track where I had the accident, sigh.....

Currently behaving on smooth gravel and sealed roads

On the automotive front, cars in general have nowhere near the appeal of motorcycles but in the 4+years that we've owned the classic 1972 MGB GT, they've got a bit more interesting; particularly when tinkering with them.  Outings with the local classic car club have been a lot of fun and seeing a guy and his wife about my age turning up on the last run in a hot (and noisy) Mazda RX7 rotary with a monster rear wing was quite a sight. Turns out that he was a rotary enthusiast from way back. It got a good work-out too!  A few of the local classics are in the photo below - Aston Martin DB9, MGA, MGBGT, F-type Jaguar, Model A Ford. Just out of interest, the guy waving in the photo was the test pilot for the first ever WW2 De Havilland Mosquito restoration project in NZ.

Lunch at Tairua beach

We tend to hang onto our cars and are not particularly interested in new shiny stuff.  A 2005 Toyota RAV4 is our workhorse for towing, launching the boat etc.  It's been absolutely bulletproof in the 15-odd years of ownership. Jennie's Honda Jazz RS is a 2017 model bought new and we tend to use it for longer distance runs in more comfort than the RAV. The MGB is a pure indulgence - a replacement for fun on two wheels.

However, recent developments have seen some changes.  Our eldest granddaughter will soon be off to university to study nursing and personal transport whilst on hospital placement will be pretty handy.  Guess where the RAV is going?  That opened the door for a more modern 4x4 and we were faced with a bewildering range of makes and models.  Reviews on YouTube and in the print media were often contradictory which complicated things.  In the end, we chose a Subaru Forester Premium and absolutely love it as it has both emotional and "fitness for purpose" appeal. You might remember that I used to bang on about those two factors being needed when choosing a motorcycle.

Subaru Forester Premium 2.5 litre

It's really easy to drive, both smooth and quiet but it's the first modern car we've owned with the full suite of safety features and boy, the number of switches and buttons are more like an airliner cockpit than a car!  There are buttons and switches in the driver's door, steering wheel and at various locations all over the dashboard.  We've had the Subaru for a bit less than a week and I still don't know what half of them are for!  The photo below shows the info pack which comes with the car.  The owner's manual alone is 607 pages long and you've got to be reasonably computer literate to take full advantage of the "infotainment" system and the linkage to your smartphone.  Got to admit that it's impressive though, especially the Harmon Kardon high end sound system. 

A whole new world of terminology and functions to absorb

 

The Subaru has a safety system called Eyesight Technology and the 3 hour drive home from the dealer was regularly interspersed with warning sounds and coloured lines on the multiple display screens. The most irritating feature is a bit of technology which figures out where the driver is looking and warns them to keep his or her eyes on the road.  I can appreciate the intent of this but when a driver is briefly scanning to improve their situational awareness, it can be intrusive. When the ignition is turned off, the car seems to default to its factory settings rather than retain personalised settings.  In fairness however, most features can be turned off with a button press rather than having to go through menus on the multiple screens.  If only I could remember which button does what!

Just some of the controls to master over the coming weeks

Leonard Cohen playing on the sound system by bluetooth phone connection

It's worth mentioning the dealership where we bought the car.  It's called Farmer Autovillage, located at the coastal town of Mount Maunganui.  It's a huge complex taking up a fair proportion of a main thoroughfare.  They sell a dozen vehicle brands or more and although they largely operate as separate units, they have a centralised service reception adjoining a very nice cafe.  Before visiting, I thought it had the potential to be impersonal and intimidating but they are super-well organised and all the staff we met were genuinely nice people who went out of their way to make you welcome without being over the top.  A lot of work has clearly gone into organisational planning and teamwork.  Full credit for such a pleasant experience.

Service Reception at Farmer Autovillage

This post isn't intended to be a comprehensive car review, just some observations about the direction personal transport is heading in with regard to technology, especially as we tend to hang onto our vehicles.  Overall, Jennie and I love the Subaru.  It's quiet, comfortable and totally fit for purpose. We've only had one slight embarrassment.  This was being unable to let our neighbours out from the rear seats without turning off the ignition when returning home from a quiz night .  We've since found the door unlock button!  Clearly, plenty of learning still to do.  However, there's one feature which is perhaps a damning indictment of the state of the human race.  When the ignition is turned off, there's a chime and a message on the dashboard asking you to check the rear seat.  I'm guessing this is in response to news reports of babies and small children having been left in vehicles when the driver has been distracted and forgotten about them.

I might add that Jennie has been making noises about buying another convertible and the latest shape MX-5 Miata with the powered "Targa top" might end up being a replacement for her Jazz RS. She actually sat in one at the Autovillage.  Let's just settle for the Subaru for a while, eh?

Finally, a cautionary tale about using expanding foam.  I'd just finished a job inside the house filling a small cavity with foam and walked outside when the aerosol can ruptured without warning.  It would have been a disaster inside the house with sticky foam flying everywhere.  As it was, the stuff stuck to a lawn, covered a shed door, decorated a few plants and ruined a perfectly good pair of Sketchers sneakers.  All this happened in seconds whilst I was contemplating what to do.  In the end, I chucked it onto the lawn where the remaining contents formed something which resembled a brain from a B grade movie.

There's a lot of foam in a can!

A new discovery

The Coromandel Car Club went for a run at the weekend, with a great lunch in Whitianga and ending up at a private, predominantly automotive museum about an hour from home which is relatively new.  I'd never heard of it until a few days ago and it's mind-blowingly good. For Kiwis, it's about 3 km south of Whitianga on SH 25 and the entry fee is $10.  The name of the place is Wheels Within Walls.

Some of the Coromandel Car Club vehicles

Here is a small selection of the photos I took, showing the variety of machinery on display.  There really is something for everyone at this museum.

Museum entranceway

There's a great mix of military and civilian vehicles and weaponry.  Down by a half track troop transporter was a long box with what appeared to be a bazooka in it!

Jennie and the ideal vehicle for cutting through rush hour traffic

Serious gas guzzlers

Seacat ship-based surface to air missile

Moving to civilian vehicles, it was an eclectic collection, including quite a few I'd never previously seen and I'd never heard of a Triumph Gloria, which was manufactured between 1933 and 1938 in various guises.

The Triumph Gloria

The Gloria radiator badge

Triumph Mayflower, two Rolls Royces and a Rover

A nice restoration project

The perfect tasteful Cadillac for Trump

V8-powered trike - ewwwww

One corner was devoted to early Land Rovers which were all in great nick.  The orange/red utility in the picture below had no i/d but was probably a locally made special body on the chassis of something else.

The offroad corner

At first glance, the car below is a stock Ford Anglia undergoing restoration.  A closer inspection reveals a Chevy 305 V8 being shoehorned into it!  I love sleepers and a mate in the UK had a standard looking Anglia with a Cosworth-prepared Cortina motor in it.  The fact that he was a senior engineer at Cosworth explains a lot!

Ford 105E Anglia

There's a sign on the screen of the Anglia which I just loved.  It's enlarged in the photo below.

Loved by mechanics everywhere

The Holden Torana enjoyed considerable success on the race tracks of Australia and NZ and have a cult following. Pristine SLR 5000 V8 models sell for astronomic prices but even the smaller engined models in original condition demand a huge price.  The black model below is allegedly a 1974 2.8 litre model.

Holden Torana and 1960 Ford Zephyr

Unknown vehicle below undergoing restoration.  The tiny engine must be a dream to work on with that great access.

Restoration underway

I don't know if the vehicle below is a commercial or home built item but it's probably a nightmare to steer with the pivot directly above the front wheel and the driver swinging about all over the place!

One of Frankensteins less successful creations

There are quite a few interesting displays devoted to things other than vehicles.  A wall with polished blowlamps and soldering irons caught my eye as an arty photo.  I guess that these early kerosene-powered blowlamps are regarded as a serious hazard these days but I remember my grandfather stripping old paint from woodwork with one.  They needed care to operate as it was possible to send out a jet of burning kerosene like a flamethrower if they weren't hot enough to vaporise the fuel.

Blowlamp and soldering iron display

There was a big area devoted to competition vehicles and here are a few examples.  The first photo is the V8 engine in a Bathurst-type Holden Commodore racing saloon car.

Holden Commodore race engine

The next photo is of a V8 stock car for speedway racing.  Easy to see where the Mad Max movie series got its inspiration from.

Absolutely brutal

This is a speedway sprint car for oval dirt racing. Still very popular in North America and the Southern Hemisphere.

Sprint car with massive wing

The bike below is a normally aspirated drag bike which used to run at the Meremere dragstrip  in NZ.  The museum owner was talking to me about the possibility of mounting it on a stand and demonstrating short engine runs for museum patrons.  Bring your ear plugs!

Kiwi drag bike 

Finally, a photo of the wonderful rustic bar at the museum - just perfect!  I hope you've enjoyed the short tour and can assure you that it's even better in the flesh and hours can be spent there.  A real asset for our region.

The museum bar