For those who couldn’t make it to the sensational NZ Festival of Motor Racing at Hampton Downs – here’s a taste of what you missed!
Many thanks to Allan Udy of the Historical Aviation Film Unit for sending us the link to this video – amazing car-to-car footage of motor racing legend, Chris Amon, track-testing an amazing Ferrari 250 GTO replica at Hampton Downs. The car may be a replica, but it’s a genuine Ferrari – so sit back, turn up the volume and watch a master at work accompanied by a V12 soundtrack.
It’s that time once again when magazine stores receive the fresh new copy of NZ Classic Car magazine so get down there and grab one before they are all gone. The new December issue is packed with feature articles, news and special features – all to keep you up-to-date on NZ’s classic car scene.
In this month’s issue we have a very special historic cover car, the ex-Chris Amon BMW 3.0CSL. It’s in beautiful condition and we were there to see Amon united with the racing BMW for the first time since he campaigned it in the 1973 European Touring Car Championship. We also have a full recap from this year’s Targa event with plenty of photos of the action. We have a Xmas Gift Guide so you know what to suggest to the misses and also a special supplement giving advice on purchasing a classic car. We look at a locally built Riley-based roadster powered by a Tiger Moth engine and our Motorsport Flashback page focuses on Howden Ganley’s 70th birthday. Our final feature car is a gorgeous 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst once owned by the editor of Motor Trend magazine. Read the rest of this entry »
Subscribe to NZ Classic Car this month and you could win one of six copies of this superb new motorsport book – NZ Festival of Motor Racing Celebrating Chris Amon.
Following the format of their successful commemorative book covering the NZ Festival of Motor Racing’s salute to Bruce McLaren, the talented Ground-Sky Photography team have come up with another winner to mark the Chris Amon tribute meeting which took place earlier this year at Hampton Downs.
A large format hardback, this well-produced book contains superb studies of every single car that competed at this historic meeting and Ground-Sky’s photographers have captured some truly magical moments from the meeting – all of them superbly reproduced on thick, glossy pages. Read the rest of this entry »
On the June 2, 1970 the motor racing world was rocked – and New Zealand went into shock. Bruce McLaren, the greatest ambassador this country could have projected onto the world stage as a trailblazer for the hundreds of Kiwi motor sport people who have headed overseas in search of a dream, was dead.
At the start of his final year, Bruce McLaren oversaw the design and construction of four new models – the M10B F5000 and M8D CanAm cars were updates of the championship-winning 1969 versions, while the M14 and M15 were new. The Formula One M14 replaced the M7s – the first of the Cosworth-powered McLarens – while the M15 would be entering new territory, the Indy 500.
A McLaren didn’t win the inaugural Tasman Cup for F5000s in 1970, but in the hands of Frank Matich, Graham McRae and Neil Allen M10s won five of the seven rounds – Bruce could have reasonably expected strong sales for the ‘10B’ and he’d have been right, with 21 built. The F1 season started in South Africa – Denny finished second, Bruce retired. A fortnight later Denny was third in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch but Bruce, unusually, crashed out. On April 19 Denny proved the worth of the new M14 and qualified second, although he dropped out early, but the boss carried the day with what sadly turned out to be his final F1 podium, when he finished second in the Spanish Grand Prix. Read the rest of this entry »
Chris Amon drove for Ferrari in 27 Grand Prix in the late 1960s. He started from the front row of the grid seven times, led 601.4 kilometres, and scored 34 points including six podium finishes. In Amon’s first Grand Prix for Ferrari, at Monaco in 1967 (Denny Hulme’s debut win), his team-mate – Lorenzo Bandini – was killed, and thereafter the Kiwi was No1 for the rest of his time at Maranello. His final Grand Prix for the Prancing Horse took place at Silverstone 40 years ago this month – but neither party knew it at the time.
It had all started so well. After Bandini was killed, Amon rose to the challenge and scored points in all but two races to finish fourth in the 1967 world championship. In 1968, had points been awarded for qualifying positions, he would have won the title with a race to spare, but finished with little in the way of hard results. Although he managed to boost his income after he discovered the deal his new team-mate, Jacky Ickx, was on – “When I found out he was on a retainer of $30,000 I was livid. I stewed on it for days, trying to figure out how I was going to confront ‘the Old Man’. He (Enzo Ferrari) was always very approachable and available, so one day I got up a head of steam and went in and asked why Ickx was on a retainer of 30 grand when I was only getting a share of the purse. He looked at me and said ‘But you never asked.’ So I did right then, and he agreed on the spot. It was the quickest 30 grand I ever made.”
After the frustrations of 1968, Amon hoped to have a Ferrari that combined the speed of the ’68 car with the reliability of the ’67 car. Sadly he got neither. Winning the Tasman Championship proved to be a false hope. “We basically had a sports-car engine for the first Grand Prix of the 1969 season, at Kyalami. We used to rev it to 11-and-a-bit. Ferrari had decided that the Cosworth had more torque than we did, so they’d rev it less and fatten up the torque curve, but the thing was just bloody hopeless. When I got back to Italy I had a meeting with the Old Man and told him we had to rev the thing more, not bloody less, and I asked him for an engine for Barcelona that revved to 12,000rpm. I said I didn’t care if it was cammy.” Read the rest of this entry »
The April issue of Classic Car magazine has just reached bookstore shelves and comes tightly packed with articles and news on the NZ classic car scene. Grab a copy today before they’re all gone.
In this month’s issue we have a massive special feature on Chris Amon, we take a look at the March 701-1 Formula One car he drove in the 1970 season and also a V6 Ferrari 246GT car that Amon piloted to win the 1968 New Zealand Grand Prix. We have extensive coverage from the NZ Festival of Motor Racing and the F5000 Tasman Revival Series. We report back from the 2011 Targa Bambina with all the results and take a look at Chris Atkinson’s race car – a 1961 Lotus 20/22 Formula Junior. We have event reports from the Evolution Motorsport Classic Speedfest and also the Skope 2011 historic racing event. Our motorman Donn Anderson reviews Mini’s new four-door Countryman and we check in with the crew at McGregor Motorsport.
All this and loads of news, competitions and information on the NZ Classic Car scene so grab your copy of NZ Classic Car magazine today.
After quite literally hanging around for decades, this historic F1 car was reunited with Chris Amon – who raced the car in 1970 – at the recent NZ Festival of Motor Racing.
During the Schumacher/ Ferrari era of total F1 dominance, I was always surprised to realise many Kiwis – while hero-worshipping Schumacher – didn’t seem to know that a Kiwi driver had once held down the team-leader’s seat at Scuderia Ferrari; namely Chris Amon.
Of course, Schumacher had a double advantage – his Ferrari was invariably the fastest and most reliable car on the F1 grid, and he raced in an era when F1 received massive doses of international TV coverage. By comparison, during Amon’s time at Maranello F1 TV coverage was minimal – especially so far away from the action in New Zealand – and Ferrari was going through a very lean period.
Also – judged against the other two Kiwi drivers who made up New Zealand’s famous ‘trio at the top’ – Amon, unlike Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren, would never win a points-scoring Grand Prix, so he would never challenge Denny Hulme’s position as the only Kiwi to win the World Championship crown. As well, when Amon decided to found his own F1 equipe it would prove to be far less successful than Bruce McLaren’s racing team. Read the rest of this entry »
Subscribe to New Zealand Classic Car before 2nd May, 2011 and you could win two superb Chris Amon prints by renowned NZ artist Don Packwood.
Perfect for framing, these high quality prints are reproduced from Don Packwood’s original paintings and are presented on fine art paper (329 x 483mm).
We inadvertently described the prints incorrectly in the magazine, so we’ll correct that mistake now.
The first print captures the excitement of Chris Amon winning the 1968 NZIGP at Pukekohe in his famous Tasman Ferrari, while the second print is a superb portrait of Chris Amon standing alongside the Ferrari in 1969 after winning that year’s NZIGP at Pukekohe.
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It’s that time once again when magazine stores receive the fresh new copy of NZ Classic Car magazine so get down there and grab one before they are all gone. The new December issue is packed with feature articles, news and special features – all to keep you up-to-date on NZ’s classic car scene.
and M8D CanAm cars were updates of the championship-winning 1969 versions, while the M14 and M15 were new. The Formula One M14 replaced the M7s – the first of the Cosworth-powered McLarens – while the M15 would be entering new territory, the Indy 500.
It had all started so well. After Bandini was killed, Amon rose to the challenge and scored points in all but two races to finish fourth in the 1967 world championship. In 1968, had points been awarded for qualifying positions, he would have won the title with a race to spare, but finished with little in the way of hard results. Although he managed to boost his income after he discovered the deal his new team-mate, Jacky Ickx, was on – “When I found out he was on a retainer of $30,000 I was livid. I stewed on it for days, trying to figure out how I was going to confront ‘the Old Man’. He (Enzo Ferrari) was always very approachable and available, so one day I got up a head of steam and went in and asked why Ickx was on a retainer of 30 grand when I was only getting a share of the purse. He looked at me and said ‘But you never asked.’ So I did right then, and he agreed on the spot. It was the quickest 30 grand I ever made.”
Scuderia Ferrari; namely Chris Amon.
