Invercargill-based Automotive Engine Reconditioners is marking 10 years in business this month with an open day on tomorrow (Sat July 31st).

Lots has changed with the company since it first opened its doors back in 2000. With a large showroom full of nothing but oil packs and engine parts A.E.R needed to expand and opened its tyre and performance division in 2001.  As staff numbers grew the time was right to purchase another local engine reconditioners and expand, in 2005 the first automotive technician was hired and A.E.R can now take care of all your mechanical, reconditioning, engineering and wheel and tyre needs.

As a big thank you to loyal customers and suppliers for their continuous support, A.E.R will be having a open day this Saturday, July 31, there will be a special ‘big cake’ prize draw with plenty of different prizes to give away including a brand new set of mag wheels. The Rock radio station will be there lending a hand so if you’re in the area, head on down from midday and check it out.

To find out more about Automotive Engine Reconditioners, click here to visit the website.

A car that’s been raced by the same driver for 23 years? That’d be Vern Muller’s Falcon.

It’s rare to find a race car that has been competing consistently for the best part of a quarter of a century. It’s rarer still to find one that’s been competing for quarter of a century and had the same owner throughout its entire racing career.

Vern Muller is one of the most genuine racers you will ever meet. He competes on a shoestring and lets enthusiasm take care of the rest. He’s seen several muscle car classes come and go, and has competed in just about all of them. And he owns one of the coolest Falcon hardtops you’ll ever see.

Vern started racing in the early ’80s, in a genuine XA GT Falcon sedan. The XA was really just a warmed-up road car that Vern regularly melted the tyres off in production muscle car races. Back in the 1970s there was a production car championship called the Castrol GTX series. It was a big-time series, in which some major names competed. It went through several different face-lifts, and each time it did, one brand would slowly emerge and eventually dominate.

In the early years it was the Chrysler Charger E49. Then the XA Falcon GT. And, finally, the series saw total domination by a hoard of second-generation Z28 Camaros. Eventually, Motorsport NZ knocked it on the head and the last Castrol GTX championship was held in 1978, won by a guy called Barry Lloyd in a lime green XA Falcon GT hardtop, after all the Camaros had been banned.

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Being America’s number one Dodge Viper dealership for 11 years has its special perks – like being able to ask the top brass at Dodge for a drop-top version of the hardcore Viper ACR. Apparently  that’s exactly what Nebraska-based Woodhouse Dodge did after hearing that the Viper was soon to be extinct, and Dodge obliged. What resulted was a very limited run of 20 examples of a drop-top ACR, complete with the coupe’s tweaked suspension, mammoth brakes and special final gears in the transmission.

It’s not as simple as just hacking the roof off of a standard ACR-X either. The ACR production crew had to completely rework the roadster’s aero package with a new rear wing and a redesigned front splitter to suit the topless car. Dodge built the 20 cars just for the Woodhouse dealership, complete with its own build code. If you want to get your hands on one, make an international call to Woodhouse Dodge in Blair, Nebraska. But be sure you’ve got $107,310 ($148,500 NZ) to blow.

So you think you’re a pretty good at parallel parking, don’t you? Well we all do really, it’s in the blood, but now one kiwi male can actually lay legitimate claim to being the world’s best at parallel parking.

Local hero Peter Bell has parked a Toyota Corolla in a space that’s just 27 cm longer than the car, on the set of the NZ Smashes Guinness World Records TV show at the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland. He didn’t just back it in nice and gentle either, Bell ripped up the handbrake and put the Corolla into a 180-degree spin into the park in one tidy piece of work.

The previous record for the tightest parallel parking was held by the Chinese and it was set at 32 cm, which represents the space remaining between the parked car, and the two vehicles in the front and at the rear. Bell’s first attempt took him to a new tightest parallel parking world record of 31 cm. The following attempts got him even further setting the new Guinness World Record of 27 cm.

Watch the video below to see the record breaking parking and to see the show’s host Mark Ellis almost wet himself with fake excitement. Read the full story »

Review of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS by Drive

Many boutique supercar companies really struggle to get off the ground, which is why most people didn’t think ICONIC Motors would come to much. The initial concept vehicle was impressive if not totally ambitious – a lightweight roadster with an aluminum 6.9-litre V8 putting out 800 horsepower with a design clearly inspired by the legendary Shelby Cobra. It was named the GTR, and first debuted at various events in 2008, then it all went quiet.

Now ICONIC motors is back and it turns out the company has been very busy forming a partnership with AC Cars and finalising the production version of the car. There have been some design changes to the car which is now renamed the AC Roadster and can apparently hit 100kph in under three seconds. There are also a number of modern additions to the chassis and equipment.

ICONIC has scheduled a 2011 release date for customer cars and states that they currently taking orders.

To find out more read the full press release below and check out more images in the gallery. Read the full story »