When I was asked if I wanted to review the Triunph Thunderbird Storm I was quite excited, yet also apprehensive: I was talked out of buying its tamer Jekyll version (the standard 1600cc Thunderbird) by a friend who stated it was too big and too powerful. Foolishly I did not take one to test ride to find out for myself, so I guessed this would be my chance, and boy the Hyde version of this baby was going to show me a thing or two.

I love the look of the Storm: everything about this bike oozed attitude, with standard choice of colour matte or jet black, drag-style handle bars, the large 22-litre tank and its 1699cc liquid-cooled, DOHC parallel twin fuel-injected heart.

The bikes are aggressive looking, however, Read the full story »

Single seater ace Dominic Storey has confirmed that he will run the full season of the 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer series for a brand new team – iSport.
Storey clocked up some mileage in V8 SuperTourers first season with John McIntyre Racing’s second Ford Falcon V8ST and it is this car which iSport has purchased for its 2013 campaign.
Twenty three year old Storey is a former winner of the Formula BMW Scholarship in 2006 with seven podium finishes and since then has impressed with two second place finishes in the New Zealand GP in TRS machinery, and with some stand-out drives in British Formula 3, Formula Renault Europe and in the bigger GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 machinery.
The Auckland-based team will run the full programme of 2013 event, which starts in a little over two weeks when the first round of the 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer series blasts off at the Hampton Downs circuit in the North Waikato.
Storey says the iSport team is working flat out to ready the car and the team for the first round, and admits they will need to hit the ground running. Even so, the young ace is optimistic of a strong showing as he and the crew find their feet.
“This has all happened so quickly, iSport was created two weeks ago and we are only two weeks from the first race now, but there’s no question we are on track.
“I am really looking forward to my first full season of V8ST, it’s going to be tough but I will give it everything. It’s going to be exciting running our own team and a steep learning curve but it will be a great moment for everyone involved to see the car sitting on the grid for the first race of the season.”
You can follow Dominic and the team on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/iSportRacingTickets for Round 1 are selling quickly, and can be purchased in advance at www.ticketpros.co.nz <http://www.ticketpros.co.nz> 

Take any car, no matter if it’s a Fiat Bambina, or a limousine, and slam it to the ground, and you’ll create an impact. There’s just something about a car that sits so unfeasibly low that draws attention, regardless of whether slammed cars are a personal preference or not.

The owner of this wicked 1957 Ford F100, Bevan Mannix, has owned a bunch of cool cars in his time, from late-model turbocharged Skylines to a range of old Falcons, and everything in between. What he’d never had though was anything even remotely like the F100.

It was the looks of truck that drew him to it. At first he thought it was ugly, and the more he looked the uglier it got. But that only made it more appealing. Bevan could see potential in the truck, especially as he Read the full story »

Words and photo – Daniel Whitfield

In a few weeks the Morrinsville Polo Grounds will transform into a classic car/hot rod-lover’s heaven for the 7th annual Motorama car event on February 9-10.

Yankee Hauler car club member Martin Hedley and his beautiful restored 1936 Chevrolet Sedan will be among the hundreds of people at the event.

After buying it stock standard and in need of some TLC, Mr Healy’s 36 is definitely the pick of the litter with its green with gold pearl custom paint job and chrome wheels.

He said the reason he restored it the way he did was so he could drive it every weekend and attend events such as Motorama.

‘‘Basically I wanted a car I could just turn the key and it would go. I haven’t built it for speed or power. I built it so I could drive it and not keep it in the shed, only driving it on the weekends,’’ he said.

Mr Healy said he had changed the motor, added new front suspension from a Holden and installed power steering to make life a little bit easier.

A main feature at this year’s Motorama event is a swap meet where people can by and swap car parts. Mr Healy said because of all the modification he did, swap meets are good because you end up talking to guys who know shortcuts instead of struggling to do it yourself.

‘‘It’s good because it gets a lot of people together with the cars and in the hot rod club, most of them have done the cars up themselves, right from scratch. So it’s good talking to them because you get ideas for your projects.

‘‘When I was restoring the Chev’ I joined the club and went around to these types of shows just so I could pick up parts from swap meets.

‘‘Nowadays you can’t just walk into a parts shop and say ‘I want this part, it does this’ because they just don’t know. When you meet these old guys, it’s amazing what you can learn.

‘‘Just talking to the some of them, you can ask them what they did or how did they do it, and it’s a big help. Mr Healy regularly attends these types of car events as well as the Beach Hop in Whangamata.

He said the Morrinsville event is good. ‘‘It’s unreal.’’

‘‘With the amount of cars on show it’s well worth coming along. Even if you aren’t into cars, but like to look at them, you can see what people have done.’’

With the Motorama growing in popularity, Mr Healy believes it is a good idea and would be great if the whole town got behind the event.

Over the past seven years organisers have seen a rapid growth in the number of cars, bikes, trucks and specialty cars on show to an ever growing number of people who attend each year.

‘‘This year’s vintage truck theme is quite cool because we had the big trucks last year. We might get some of the older generations attend and say ‘oh I used to drive one of those,’ or ‘I remember the gearbox in that one.’ If we get enough trucks and enough people turn up I think it will be great.’’

I suppose I’ve always liked cars. We used to have a car on the farm I would play around on. The reason I chose the Chev’ was mainly because I liked the shape. The 36 windows are squatter than the 37 and 38 models so instead of roof chopping it I could leave it like it was and it would still have that squat-look.’’

Mr Healy said you can never say no to another car and if he had the money and room in the shed he would probably have many.

‘‘I’d love to have a 55 Chevy. They’re just a bit wider and you can fit people in a little more comfortably.’’

Prior to his current 36 Chevrolet, Mr Healy originally had a T-Bucket, a hot rod based on the Ford Model T. However when his son came along it was unpractical as it had no roof. After selling that he went on to by the Chevrolet and restored it to its present condition.

‘‘For my next car I wouldn’t mind building a car designed for horsepower but at the end of the day you can only go 100km/h.’’

The 2013 Motorama runs from February 9-10 at the Morrinsville Polo Grounds, while also featuring events around the town such as a car cruise held on Saturday February 9 starting from Moorhouse St at 1pm.

For more information visit www.yankeehaulers.co.nz or contact either Todd Sherburd on 07 8875

Former SBR Australian V8 Supercar driver Shane van Gisbergen has confirmed he will run the full 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer season in Corkery Motorsport’s Ford Falcon V8ST.

Van Gisbergen, who raced in V8 Supercars last season before quitting the series to return home to New Zealand, will run his traditional race number – 97 – and will take on New Zealand’s top V8 drivers including Greg Murphy, John McIntyre, Craig Baird and Andy Booth, as well as the inaugural V8 SuperTourer champion Scott McLaughlin.

“I have kept an eye on the series in its first year and came along to a couple of the races last year, as well as testing the car a couple of times, and it’s a series which really excites me,” he said. “There’s a close field of competitive drivers in evenly matched cars and I’m looking forward to getting into the mix and hopefully getting some good results.”

Van Gisbergen spent many of his early racing years competing against current BNT V8 SuperTourer drivers such as Andrew Waite and Simon Evans in go-karts, and he is looking forward to getting out on the track against some of his old mates. “I’ll be taking no prisoners on the track though,” he added.

Mark Petch, Managing Director of V8 SuperTourers, said: “It’s fantastic to have yet another champion join the BNT V8 SuperTourer Series, as we move forward to official recognition as the country’s Premier Touring Car Championship. Shane is really going to put the cat among the pigeons, that’s for sure. The Corkery car is undergoing a full rebuild in preparation for Shane’s assault on the championship.”

The 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer series blasts off at Hampton Downs over the weekend of February 16 and 17 with full coverage on TV3 and same day coverage in Australia. All information on the series is available at www.v8st.co.nz

If there’s one circuit-racing event in the country that stands out from the rest, it has to be the annual New Zealand Festival Of Motor Racing (NZFMR). Each year the event is run in recognition of some New Zealand motoring greats, such as Chris Amon, Bruce McLaren, and this year Denny Hulme.

We were lucky enough to be at Hampton Downs today as the setup for the event was taking place, and were blown away by the amount of cars already present. Apparently 300 vehicles will be racing, 70 of those vehicles coming from outside of New Zealand specifically for the event! There’s truly nothing else around like it.

Some of those 70 cars will help to make up a full grid of Formula 5000s. If you’ve never seen, or more so heard these cars under full power, you’re yet to experience one of the coolest things any motor racing fan ever can. The only other similar thing to this would be watching Top Fuel Dragsters, but unlike the dragsters that are over and done with in a few seconds, these guys keep the ground-shaking lap after lap.

Besides these, the relatively new Historic Muscle Cars class pit area was a flurry of activity, as no less than seven cars from Australia were being unloaded. Included in this was one of the coolest Pontiac Firebirds we’ve laid eyes on. But not only do these things look cool, they sounds even cooler, and on their 15-inch tyres are a great spectacle to watch.

Growing up in Wellington in the ‘80s, I used to love watching the Cosworth Sierras battling it out with the 3-series BMW’s and assorted other vehicles, which made up the grid for the annual street race. And it almost seems like all these cars are present at Hampton Downs again now for the festival. Keep in mind, these are all genuine cars too, no replicas! So it makes for a great sight just walking around the pits, let alone on the track.

There’s plenty of other classes competing at the event, including Can-Am cars, plenty of open wheelers, open BMWs and more, so there really is something for everyone.

One of the highlights from today’s setup was being able to view the newly completed McLaren trust owned McLaren M8A. While the full restoration of the car has been completed, and is flawless, a few teething problems meant the car wouldn’t run in anger. With a handful of other genuine McLaren’s around though, it wasn’t a huge loss, as there was still plenty to look at.

The festival runs not only this weekend (Jan 19-20) but also the following weekend (Jan 26-27) so make sure you head on down to check it out. Hampton Downs is a great spectator track, and even if you went just to walk around the pits, I still guarantee you it’d be money well spent!

Tickets are available at the track, and you’ll find more info at www.nzfmr.co.nz

Check out our gallery below for more pics.

Lois and Graham Thrupp’s dream garage build began only a year ago. But their obsession with American cars and culture goes back a whole lot further. The desire to build a place to not only house their ever-expanding collection of cars, but also to enjoy spending time with family, friends and car club mates has been on the agenda for some time. The more they thought about it, the more the plan progressed, until it became the vision of what you see here today.

With a love for all things ’50s, finding a suitable location to store a bunch of such large vehicles was a challenge in itself, but as you can tell, it’s an obstacle they have well and truly overcome.

It was just by chance that their love for Cadillacs was kicked off. Back 20 years ago when they Read the full story »

One of the biggest new events on the calendar is getting set to make its debut. Bikes Blues And Hot Cars is open to any type of vehicle, and takes place in Taranaki on February 28-March 2 2013. The event is all about having a good time with like minded people, and includes not just various cruises, poker runs and driving events, but also a focus on music too. Having previously been run in America with great success, the event organizers are expecting a big turnout in Taranaki also. If you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late. Simply head over to -www.bikesbluesandhotcars.com where you’ll find all the info you need.