The annual NZHRA National Hot Rod Show will kick off this weekend (Oct 15th-16th) in Hawera, South Taranaki.

The car show section of the event will be located at the TSB Hub in Hawera and this year’s hosts are the Egmont Rod & Custom Club. There will be plenty of trade displays and the finest hot rods in the land on show. The town of Hawera is also shifting into full swing with the local business association organising a Hot Rod themed shop window display competition, and a market day with the local rock & roll club on the Saturday morning.

Tonight the bar of show sponsor Rough Habits are holding a “Rock FM” party, so this will be a great night with lots of give-aways and fun. The Lazyboyz band is booked for Saturday night’s dinner.

Entry into the Hot Rod Show at the TSB Hub is just $10 for adults and kids under 15-years get in for free. There is also a $20 family pass option. Read full story…

The Cadillac LaSalle Club of New Zealand is inviting all Cadillac and LaSalle vehicle enthusiasts and owners to join them this weekend for the annual Cadillac Nationals. This year’s 38th running of the event will take place in Southern Hawke’s Bay on October 15 and 16.

Activities and accommodation are based at the Hastings Holiday Park (www.hastingstop10.co.nz) and includes a Friday night social get together, Saturday morning AGM, then country cruise and lunch, followed by an evening meal at a mystery location with TV coverage of the Rugby World Cup semi-final. Read full story…

Italian coach builder Pininfarina will lay off 127 workers when the company shuts down the manufacturing arm of its business in the coming months. The iconic firm will now focus on what it perceives as its strengths of design and engineering. The company points to the declining automotive market as the reason behind the shift.

The redundancies and structure changes are expected to cost the company around €2.9 million. Pininfarina is also getting busy trying to find an investor to purchase a stake in the design firm as part of a debt restructuring agreement with the company’s creditors. French billionaire Vincent Ballore is one investor who has shown an early interest in purchasing part of the family-owned company. Read full story…

Allan takes off in Nissan’s GT-R supercar – his destination; the world-famous Chateau at Tongariro.

Around 16 years ago, I found myself at the wheel of a 1966 Prince Skyline 2000GT-A, one of the first of the truly hot Skylines. By today’s high-performance standards, the 2000GT-A wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows and yet, in mildly modified race-spec, this type of Skyline dominated the Japanese racing scene of the mid ’60s. Indeed, the Skyline GT’s development programme would eventually lead to the semi-legendary R380. Powered by a twin-cam, 24-valve version of the Skyline GT’s straight-six, the R380 was capable of reaching a maximum speed of 280kph (174mph).

However, even as Prince worked to develop its new sports racer, fate stepped in and, in late 1966, Prince merged with Nissan. The next evolution of the R380 – the R380-II – would carry Nissan badges when it appeared at the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix, which at that time was not a genuine, FIA-sanctioned F1 event. Later, the R380-III would also be developed by Nissan. The R380-III was intended to run with a new, quad-cam V12, but initially Chevrolet V8s were used until Nissan finalized its V12.

When the 5.9-litre V12-powered version finally came together, the car was renamed R382 – and with around 447kW at its disposal, the R382 was supposedly capable of attaining a top speed of around 350kph. Read full story…

The historic 1968 Bultaco motorcycle that was ridden by kiwi racing legend Ginger Molloy will be included in Webb’s Classic Motorcycle & Car Auction held next week in Auckland. The famous bike was originally built by the Spanish motorcycling company; Bultaco, specifically for Molloy.

Ginger Molloy is one of New Zealand greatest and most well-liked race pilots of the 1960s. He was also one of Bultaco’s most loyal and consistent riders of the period. Encapsulating the spirit of early-1960s’ motorcycle racing, Molloy caught a lift from Huntly and a boat to the Continental circus where he earned a ride with the charismatic and very Spanish Bultaco team. The Bultaco connection can be traced back to ace tuner Frank Sheene (father of Barry) who sourced Ginger his first competitive Bultaco.

Competing at the highest level between 1963 and 1970, Ginger competed in more than 370 international events and enjoyed considerable success. In 1966, he won Bultaco’s first-ever Grand Prix, the 250cc Ulster GP, run in torrential rain. What is also not widely known is that 1968 was perhaps Ginger’s best year; he gained 3rd in the 125, 4th in the 350 and 5th in the 250 world titles, all on Bultacos. In 1970, he finished second to Giacomo Agostini in the 500cc world championship. Overall, Ginger Molloy clocked up 66 international victories. Read full story…

It was exactly 100 years back that industrialist William C. Durant and Swiss-born race car driver Louis Chevrolet founded the Chevrolet brand. In the same year, 1911, the two men built Chevrolet’s first automobile in a rented garage near downtown Detroit.

Since 1911, Chevrolet has gone on to build more than 209 million vehicles and enter the motoring markets of more than 140 countries. Annual sales for Chevrolet are around the 4.25 million unit mark. It’s been the expansion into global markets that has made Chevy the automotive monster it is today. Once it was mostly confined to the American continent, now it’s a global brand that sells more than 60% of its total production outside the U.S.

In 2010, Chevrolet had its best year ever with 4.26 million sales – a record that’s set to be broken in 2011 giving extra reason to celebrate the brand’s centenary. Read full story…

A chase car used by London’s Metropolitan Police to curb the enthusiasm of “road hogs and ton-up hooligans” nearly 50 years ago, will come under the hammer at an upcoming auction by Historics at Brooklands on Saturday October 22nd.

Just as the world began to breathe again after the resolution to the Cuban missile crisis, on 1st November 1962 Scotland Yard took delivery of a powerful law enforcement weapon of its own, in the shape of 670 ELL, a jet black, right-hand drive, 130mph soft-top Daimler SP250.

Mindful of the deterrent effect, the car was first demonstrated to the public on the streets of London before starting its patrol duties – hood down with fully uniformed officers on board.

Recognising that their normal patrol cars weren’t a match for 100mph speeders and getaway cars of the day, police drivers relished the performance of their new, foot-down acquisition.  The Daimler’s 2.5 litre V8 engine developed 140bhp, fed through an automatic gearbox, complete with a cable-operated device that enabled intermediate gears to be held longer whilst on the chase. Read full story…

Most sofas never really travel that quickly. Sure they might reach a speed of around 1 km/h when burly furniture movers carry them into your house but they spend most of their tough lives doing all of 0 km/h. Well that really is nothing because the world’s fastest couch can go more than the legal speed limit and then some.

An Australian-based couch has just broken the world record for the fastest couch on the plant (yes, there really is a record). A team from Sydney have turned a rather ordinary brown two-seater into a machine capable of traveling in excess of 150 km/h. In fact, it recorded a top speed of 163.12 km/h to smash the previous record of 146 km/h set by an English man back in 2008.

The couch wasn’t alone in its triumph either, it shared the glory with a coffee table and a bowl of fruit. The couch was specially built for the world record attempt by Evolution Motorsport, a racing firm from Sydney.

The speedy sofa is powered by a Suzuki GSX 1400 motorbike engine and according to the project leader, Paul McKinnon the biggest challenge was battling the aerodynamic obstacles of pushing along a chunky piece of furniture. We aren’t aerodynamic masters but we’d guess that the coffee table isn’t just ornamental and doubles up as some sort of air splitter. Sneaky Aussies.

Bet your couch is looking pretty lame right now. To check out the record setting run, view the video below. Read full story…