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.
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?"
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.
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.
MG Midget, our MGB GT, a replica MGTF and an Austin Healy Sprite (re-badged Midget)
(source: Kiri Gillespie)
The next photos are different versions of the Dodge Coronet.
An Anglo-American Amalgam (good alliteration, A?). What was once a Ford Popular wedded to American running gear.
Back to "European" with a flawless BMW 2002 and a Fraser Lotus 7 lookalike made in NZ.
Nice Mustang convertible and Model A Ford, with a GM-supercharged hot rod in the background.
Two beautiful UK Fords - a 1957 Zephyr convertible and a 1960 saloon
Very tidy engine bay of an Australian-built Valiant 317 belonging to the village glazier. Sounds fantastic.
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!
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