Innholdsfortegnelse for No 183 August 2020 i NZV8

I know you’re all sick of hearing about Covid-19 by now, as am I, but as much as I don’t really want to bring it up again, I am — sorry. Hear me out, though, as there’s good reason for it, and it’s a reason that hopefully may benefit you. As you’ll be aware, NZV8 normally reports on many events, but, with everyone being locked at home for a few months, no events took place during April or May. Thankfully, we were in a pretty good place content-wise and had a bunch of different articles we could bring you instead of event coverage. Here’s where the question comes in. Over the past few years, we’ve made a conscious effort to run less event coverage than we did before the internet…

In as little as three months, crowds may see the Carters Tyre Service South Island Endurance Series burst back into life, which will probably be the first major series to be completed in New Zealand this year. Enjoying one of the widest and wildest variety of cars competing, series secretary Cate Paddon confirmed another year of stable rules: “This season we only have a couple of very minor rule changes. With the world changing in response to Covid-19, our series is pleased to boast we are business as usual … We have the three-hour series, where we have everything from 2K Cup cars to world-class GT3 machinery competing, whilst we also have the always-popular one-hour series.” The series will revert back to its former three-round format, hosted at Teretonga Park;…

The crazy thing about the wider automotive community is the sheer range of tastes and styles that exist, and with a solid vision in mind, you can create almost anything that your heart desires. While these may divide us into smaller segments of interest at times, there is one common factor that we believe almost 100 per cent of us can agree on: everyone loves a good burnout! Throwing raw horsepower through the feet of anything from your mum’s grocery-getter to a 1000-plus-horsepower street weapon, blowing the tyres off is simply addictive. Getting the ass end hanging out curb-to-curb (on private roads, of course) has been a favourite pastime for decades, and, with new generations taking over the mantle, this has even developed into its own discipline, mixing the pursuit…

It’s 5pm on a Wednesday when I arrive at the Henderson Valley Road premises to meet with Eric Livingstone. Before we can get to the chat that will turn into this article, though, there is a bit of housekeeping he and the boys must attend to. “I won’t be long,” Eric says, as tools are returned to their drawers, fasteners are arranged, and the boys mop the floors. No doubt the same thing happens at workshops across the country, but, for some reason, it strikes me that, at the end of every working day for the past 30 years, the West Auckland Engine Reconditioners shop has been tidied and reorganized. That singular attention to detail — the level of care being put into the shop — is clearly reflective of…

As if we needed more evidence that Whanganui truly is the home of New Zealand’s toughest cars, father-and-son combo Craig and Seth Wilson are about to unleash a few more on the Whangavegas locals. Craig is a familiar face in this magazine, well known for his twin-turbo HT Holden sedan. However, Seth, at just 14 years of age, is someone we are hearing about for the first time — and will be hearing more of. Having previously competed in Junior Dragster, he’s soon to be running the former Pete Meo, ex–Etheridge family Chev Vega in Super Street, although he can’t debut the car until he turns 16. Needless to say, the family already has big plans, starting off with a mild 454 then turning on the blue bottle once Seth’s…

There is a good chance that if your father has petrol coursing through his veins, you will eventually end up with the petrolhead gene as well. Leigh Jackson of beautiful Cromwell, in sunny Central Otago, never really stood a chance of growing up without the love of automobiles at some stage of his life, as his father loved owning and racing cars. Unfortunately, Leigh lost his dad while he was a teen, so missed out on learning a lot of the mechanical knowledge and skills required to piece together something special to take up residence in his garage. But having fond memories of those early years spent with his dad, Leigh has still inherited the true raw love of “horsepower and cars” as he puts it. While standing and looking…

With the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the world, our cosy little piece of the planet took a hit, with lockdown Level 4 being declared across the nation on 26 March. Throughout the country, hundreds of events had to be either cancelled or postponed, which not only affected our normal day-to-day lives but also our working lives, sporting lives, and even the way we shared a beer or three with our mates. Also not exempt from the lockdown rules was our car culture, with Level 4 pretty much putting an end to life as we knew it. And because of the way in which events and shows were held, it became apparent that it would be impossible to continue under the lockdown rules. With many organizers coming under scrutiny, one by one,…

It takes a whole lot of testicular fortitude to cut up a late-model car, as, generally speaking, there’s a whole lot less you can do to one in the shed at home than you can with an old car. That is, of course, unless you’re in the industry and well connected like Blair Gribble-Bowring. When asked for his concept, Blair let us know that he’d essentially stick with what he’s done with his C7 Corvette, except take it to the next generation by doing it to a C8 Z06. That’s right, the car’s not even actually in production yet, and already he’s planning on cutting one up! Once released, the Z06 won’t be a bad bit of gear right off the showroom floor. Think supercar-style 5.5-litre V8 engine with a…

It’s a story as old as time, and one that we’d wager a good proportion of the people reading this would have personal experience with. Step one: start with a simple plan — maybe a quick respray or a brake and suspension upgrade. Step two: completely punt that simple plan right out the window as you lose all grip on reality and begin finding more and more things that ‘need to be done’ the further you get into the job. Suddenly, without so much as a warning shot, the car is in a thousand pieces, the budget has been blown, and your ‘quick job’ has turned into a complete rebuild that’s years in the making. In the beginning, all Mark Thompson wanted to do was drop a Chev LS motor…

Come November, American outfits Hemi Autoworks and Ellsworth Racing will debut a hybrid that we can get behind. Forget electric engines and gadgets up the wazoo, we’re talking about a hybrid between some of the greatest models ever made. And it will debut at the SEMA Show at the end of 2020. Dubbed the ‘Highway Star’, named after Deep Purple’s 1972 song, the unique build is a cross between Dodge’s Challenger, Viper, and Hellcat examples. The chassis has been sourced from a Viper wrecked by fire, and now stretched by a good 13 inches to accept the 1970 Challenger body. That body was, not surprisingly, badly rusted and poorly restored. It’s currently being rejuvenated and widened by more than 1.5 inches, with beefier fenders to increase the total added width…

Hi Dean, great truck — how long have you owned it? Thank you. I’ve owned the truck for just over three years now, and it’s been my daily work truck ever since I imported it into the country. It’s only been recently that I have modified it — it’s been just a good old truck to throw my tools in and get around. Amazing patina! Where did the truck come from? Yeah, the patina is 100 per cent natural. There are a lot of fake ones out there and they are great also but nothing like having a natural one. I imported it from a guy in San Jose in California, where the summers are long, warm, arid, and mostly clear and the winters are short, so a lot of…

As we’ve come to expect from the Central North Island pillar that is the Palmerston North Hot Rod Club’s Swap Meet and Hot Rod Display, it’s going to be big! The annual event will be held on the first Saturday of August (1 August 2020) at Manfeild Park, Feilding. The automotive-only swap meet is guaranteed to be overflowing with cool parts for the shed or bargains for your next project, and the vehicle display will give you a solid excuse to pull the garage ornament out for some much-needed sunlight. Private seller sites are available for $10 each, and public entry is $10, with kids under 15 free. For more information, you can visit pnhrc.nz or the ‘PN Hot Rod Club’ on Facebook. Those wanting to set up a trade…

If you had asked me last November how excited I was for 2020, I would have talked your socks off for 20 minutes; we had more events planned than we had ever run before. We had overseas tours, a world fuel altered challenge, we were racing in New Zealand and all over Australia — it was set to be an incredible year of racing. Well, as we all know, that hasn’t happened. The Australian bush fires prevented us from getting to Perth in January, we managed to race at Meremere Dragway in February, and everything since has been cancelled or postponed! After it became obvious that the worldwide pandemic was going to put a stop to any racing for a long period of time, we had to put a strategic…

Given I’m writing this article while in my bubble of isolation during the Covid-19 lockdown, this phrase is particularly apt. Tumultuous economic events such as the oil shocks of the 1970s (which ultimately had a significant impact on the size and fuel efficiency of cars), the stock market crash of 1987, SARS, and the global financial crisis, among others, all had short-to-medium-term effects on classic car values. No doubt Covid-19 will have a similar effect. Some owners will be financially distressed and need to sell; some will be able to ride it out and wait for the resurgence of better times. Potential buyers may sit back to see how the economy improves. However, looking more widely at the classic car marketplace, we are more interested in the longterm values. Last…

“If you go down to the woods today / You’re sure of a big surprise…” How many times were those words sung to you as a kid? Sure, they were referring to a mythical teddy bears’ picnic, but NZV8 has recently found there’s some truth to them. Out in the back blocks, miles from anywhere, we came across Wade and Renee Roycroft — custodians of that surprise find. As dairy farmers, they’re a hands-on couple who, along with their four kids, run 1300 cows. The work begins in the early hours of morning but, being that it’s from home, leaves them with odd hours during the day that they can use as they please. Seeing that they’re both self-confessed diehard muscle car nuts, they’ve been putting those hours to great…

The 1960s saw a new and fast-emerging subculture within the automotive world in California. It was one that took quintessential American canvases and splashed a bright, vibrant Mexican twist across them. Born out of Los Angeles, the low-rider scene was a visual feast, with all-American steel dressed with metalflake, candy, pearl, and lace paintwork that sparkled under the bright lights of East LA. These cars were not just a glitter ball on wheels but rolling works of art, complete with finishes that many have tried to replicate but few have truly mastered. While Palmerston North is a long way away from the streets of East LA, Dylan Smith teamed up with a good friend to bring a little sparkle of Los Angeles to Los Palmy. With a mix of bright…

Retrotech’ is a term we often use to describe a build that, while the exterior pays homage to a bygone era, the underpinnings make use of all the modern advancements. Apply that to a racecar, and you’ll often end up with a machine that, while it performs spectacularly, struggles to find its place in the world of modern race classes. But, when you’re not really building to any particular set of rules, have a very big bucket list of events to attend, and you’re a Nascar Hall of Fame crew chief like Ray Evernham, then the result could be something that would outperform many of its modern-day adversaries. Dubbed ‘The Ghost’, what you’re looking at is essentially a modified that ignored all the modern Nascar modified rules. A division that…

WHERE IS IT NOW? PAT CROUL 1969 CHEV CAMARO The evolution of Pat Croul’s Camaro from stocker to NZV8 cover car was an interesting one, made more interesting by its being Pat’s first foray away from modifying motorbikes and into cars. He didn’t just dip his toes in the water with the build but transformed the car in one fell swoop into one of the coolest pro-streeters ever seen in New Zealand. “I still have no idea what I was thinking,” he laughed when we featured the car back in Issue No. 62. “I purchased the car to just drive, and then I thought I would tidy it up a little over the winter. I had three or so months of driving it and then apart she came for an…

EMAIL YOUR NEWS TO: EDITOR@V8.CO.NZ With real-world racing being cancelled across the globe, most major series have taken to the digital realm to keep racing alive. The trans-Tasman Virgin Australia Supercars Championship was one of those, with the launch of the 28-race BP Supercars All Stars E-series. Kiwi driver Shane Van Gisbergen (SVG) has been crowned the e-series champion after claiming 14 race wins and eight pole-position starts. He sealed his season with a win and top-five finish across two races at Oran Park and Mount Panorama, making it his second Supercars championship title — he also took the 2016 championship crown. Fellow Kiwi driver Scott McLaughlin took out five race wins to put him in second for the season, while Penrite Racing’s Anton De Pasquale rounded out the podium…

The suburb of Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore has a lot to offer by way of beachfront living, good eateries and bars, and an all-year summery vibe — even if it happens to drizzle from time to time. Come 24 October 2020, just as the sunny months of summer start to roll around, you can also enjoy the charm of this beachside community at the Repco Takapuna Rocks festival, with its collection of classic cars paired with vintage markets, pin-ups, and live rock ’n’ roll music! For further info and regular updates, visit takapunarocks.co.nz.…

Isn’t evolution a wonderful thing? Without it, you’d be still stuck living in a cave somewhere, missing out on all the automotive goodness the world has to offer. Thankfully, that’s not the case, and as humans have evolved, so have their toys, some obviously quicker than others (both the toys and the people that drive them, that is). Brett Giles’ evolution, especially over the last five years, has been a rapid one. Rewind to 2015, a time before the world was consumed with face masks and hand sanitizer, and Brett was happy behind the wheel of a 1978 Camaro. That was until he made the fatal mistake of casually browsing Trade Me to see what was for sale. There he found a 1971 Chev El Camino. It was rough around…

EMAIL YOUR INFO TO EDITOR@V8.CO.NZ Those in the burnout scene will be familiar with Steve Saul’s name and his ‘McFry’ Ford F100. Having pedalled the pickup for many years, he’s recently pulled the blown 302-based motor combo out and set about a new build. Although the MkI Capri shell with a new roll cage was 80 per cent finished before Covid-19, it wasn’t until lockdown that Steve really got stuck into it. Being an essential worker, due to owning Towman Towing company in Christchurch, he spent his lockdown hours in the tow-yard workshop, so put those hours to good use. While the F100 was purely a burnout car, this one is aimed at the quarter-mile, as well as the burnout pad, so Steve’s called on the expertise of drag racer…

‘Nostalgia’, according to the dictionary, is that “regretful or wistful feeling of a time gone by”, or a “thing or things evoking a former era”. For car people, nostalgia probably depends on when you became car-aware. I was attempting to draw pre- and post-war Fords (coupes and sedans) as a preschooler, so they certainly do it for me; although I’ve never quite managed to own one. A cheap flat-black ’36 Coupe at a swap meet some years back was a close call, though, but it was snapped up before I could pull the trigger. When I was a kid, I used to lust after a ’39 Coupe I could see in a farmer’s yard on the run between Whanganui and Palmerston North for my mother’s regular shopping expeditions. I planned…

At age 73, Ian ‘Ferg’ Ferguson is at the point in life where he’s been lucky enough to tick off a lot of items on his bucket list. He’s travelled the world, run a successful business, and owned a list of cars that most of us could only dream about. The two bucket list items that had eluded him, until just a few years ago, were owning a 1932 Ford Roadster and building a car from scratch. Anyone who’s been involved with cars will know that, despite all the grandest illusions we may have, they’re hard work, and, more often that not, consume far more resources than we initially anticipate. Building a car from scratch as opposed to modifying a production vehicle only opens you up to even more heartache…

YOUR LS CAN DO BETTER With upgrade stages to suit any budget or power thirst, your LS-powered Holden can finally realize the potential that lies within. The team at Xair Performance offer nine levels of upgrade packages, beginning with an Xair over-the-radiator (OTR) cold-air intake, before a full exhaust with headers is installed. The next stage is to dyno tune in order to optimize the previous upgrades, and finally a cam then a supercharger can be added to really crank up those power numbers. Go straight to level nine or do it stage by stage — it’s your choice. The packages are from stage one to nine and prices start from $650. For more information, free phone 0800 924 792, visit xairperformance.co.nz, or contact adam@xairperformance.co.nz. RIDE RIGHT Before digital air…

They say that behind every good man is a good woman, and that is very true for Eric Livingstone. As you will have read in this issue, Eric’s built up an amazing business over the past 30 years, and his wife Marion has been beside him for all of it. It seems only fair then that he should build her a kick-arse car to say thanks, and he did! We featured Marion’s 1968 Cuda a few years back, and have thrown the article up online at themotorhood.com for you to have a look at. Jump on and search ‘Femme Fatale’ to have a look.…