Shore vintage car club follows in tyre

Around 35 antique automobiles puttered off from the Devonport ferry building last Sunday, on a rally to mark 50 years of the North Shore Vintage Car Club.

The event came 50 years to the day since a rally left the terminal to launch the club.

The 2023 version travelled around 80 kms north to Wellsford, with other cars joining along the way.

Only one vehicle that took part in the original launch rally, Jacqui Goldingham’s 1924 Sunbeam roadster, made the trip.

New World owner John Ashton donated a prize pack in recognition of the club’s first clubrooms being in the middle of today’s supermarket car park.

Early members Harold Kidd and Frank de Lautour had a storage facility for old cars (36 of them) in former bus barns on the Clarence St site.

Scheduled for demolition, the barns provided accommodation for early club committee meetings, along with storage for many vehicles.

When they were demolished, a property was bought in Albany, where the club is still based today. Its clubrooms are a relocated house built in around 1900 for the Auckland Harbourmaster, that stood at the corner of Russell St and Calliope Rd, Stanley Bay.