Octane Fix Online Issue 35

ISSUE

egas CK with the Rotov ing TO S AT E M at d n includ weeke e insanely cool e Show ‘n Shine GET AMONGST th ustom Car Club for an awesom me walk-about around sC co Knuckle Dragger NZ’s COOLEST live bands! Then t well over a thousand check ou bq’s and halls! od Festival and custom bikes, b R ot H d an cluding the show ar in C es ic d ss ri la ol C co eu the Kum

It’s been an awesome start to the year that’s for sure. The entire scene seems to be rocking full noise into new year!

Check out our video coverage on our YouTube channel

The drag racing has certainly been going off with a heap of PB’s and record times and speeds set. This lil ole NZ has certainly put itself on the world map with what’s happening here that’s for sure!

The shows just seem to be getting bigger and better! Lots of one-day shows are now turning into weekend events and fully rocking the entertainment doing it!

It is so cool to see the various teams achieving these massive goals here. The mechanical challenges to do so are massive when it gets to the level they are at for sure! It really is awesome to see!

Check out the two events in this issue for instance. Both events having awesome entertainment going on with live bands, bbq comps and all sorts of entertainment going on to keep you busy enjoying yourself.

Unfortunately, I seem to be missing in action at the drag strip this year and I hate it!!!! It is such an awesome scene to get amongst!

Holy, the Meatstock event seriously takes it to the next level though with some of NZ’s more well known bands. Meatstock also run three events in Australia and I honestly reckon they would be well worth crossing the ditch for to get amongst the scene over there!

I’ve been locking myself in my cave to get my damn Coupe finished. It seems to be a common nightmare when building a car that are a bit different, every time I pay someone to work on it for me, I seem to have to redo whatever it was, which takes twice as long as just doing it myself.

I know it happens to others too, so I guess it’s a case of asking for referrals rather than just taking one I guess. It certainly seems to be the joys of it.

Anyways, I’m getting a hell of a lot closer than I was at the beginning of the year so that’s progress eh!

Man, the show scene has been going off this year as well!

I’m also loving these community shows that are popping up all around the country raising funds to support their local schools, life saving clubs, fire brigades and whatever needs a helping hand really! They are really cool days to get amongst, generally on a smaller scale to the bigger shows but certainly have the community spirit behind them to make them awesome days out.

an event and the costs involved. It’s a scary task for the organisers to take on, not knowing if they will get the support they need to even break even without actually having it beneficial to the community.

I’ve seen shows cancelled before like that and I fully get why when the uncertainty is there. So I don’t cringe now. I simply take it as donating to the community or if there’s spot prizes, I treat it like buying a raffle ticket and have a cool day out. Because most shows are just that.

That’s my two cents worth anyway. Haha … not that two cents is worth anything.

So kick back and get amongst this issue, these are two crazy cool events for sure! Check them out on our YouTube channel as well.

ROCK N ROLL! Giggles (aka Bogan)

I know it’s the mental challenge of why should we pay to enter our car into a show, when the car is the actual attraction for people to come to the show. I fully get that, and I used to cringe myself when the entry fee’s started climbing in price. But for me now, it’s all about supporting that community and what they wish to achieve by simply turning up and getting amongst the atmosphere.

It’s a day of entertainment with bands and stalls and you get to go for a cruise!

Photo credit goes to the awesome Rod Dunn from Creative Auto Photography

Ohhh what a ROCKING issue this is! Holy!! Two awesome weekends of entertainment that doesn’t just include awesome car shows but live bands as well!

Most people haven’t got a clue at what it takes to actually run

ISSUE

OCTANE FIX ONLINE: CONTENTS:

0274 827 221

Kumeu Classic Car & Hot Rod Festival 2025 ...................................................04

info@octanefixonline.com

Meatstock - Hamilton 2025...............................................................................74

www.octanefixonline.com

Up-coming Events ............................................................................................182

www.facebook.com/Octane-Fix-Online

EDITOR / PHOTOGRAPHER / VIDEOGRAPHER: Kelvin Couchman (aka Giggles or Bogan)

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DESIGNERS: Lisa Lewis / Kyla Saunders

Gorgeous 69 Camaro from the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival

Kumeu Classic Car & HOD ROD FESTIVAL 2025

with club displays, marques and camp sites ready for the onslaught of people on the Saturday.

What better way to crank into the new year of shows than to stop on into the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival, camp up and just get amongst the vibe of this awesome party for the weekend!

For this massive weekend of trading, swap meet and show ‘n shines to be running for thirty-one years, it shows just how popular this event is in the scene.

Over a thousand cars roll into the Kumeu A & P Show Grounds to make up the massive show. Everything from hot rods, classic and muscle cars to custom bikes, trucks and retro caravans fill the grounds for a feast for the eyes.

Most rolling in on the Friday to set up

This event has evolved over the years from being a huge swap meet and car show to a massive car show encompassing a bbq festival, live bands, trade stands galore, monster truck rides and various entertainment stands, but still retains the good ole swap meet area for everyone to wander about searching for that elusive piece for the build at home or even drive away with a brand new project.

Due to this show running for so many years, this event has become a tradition for many, catching up with mates and making new ones.

and bigger every year!

The show halls are set up well before kick off with cars set up on display under lights and custom displays to show them off for the public and judging.

Mothers Polish have their own hall set up with the winning ride of the show last year on display. This gorgeous Coupe looking stunning set up on stands and under the lights for all to admire.

Being an open show as far as vehicle categories go, you get to check out all sorts of rides on display. From a stunningly restored classic Porche to fully custom pre 49 hot rods, drag cars and serious street muscle cars which makes for an awesome wander through the halls.

Having clubs with their sites set up for anyone new looking to find out more about clubs in their area is a bonus.

Along with the cool rides, an awesome air-brush mural display had an awesome collection of art to admire and check out along with model car displays.

With over twenty five thousand rev head people attending over the weekend it is easy to see the scene is growing bigger

STA Parts had a store selling components and there was even a retro fashion stand complete with makeover artists for those

keen to look the part.

get you going!

Outside the show halls is a collection of custom vehicle builders and restorers for anyone looking to get their project taken care of.

It is definitely easy to lose a day just wandering around the showgrounds checking out all the cool rides.

Checking out what the professionals can do with the right tools is amazing to say the least. The auto art coming out these builders sheds these days is outstanding with only the imagination holding it back.

The lads at BNN Customs had an awesome display of horsepower hungry machines to check out with some incredible engineering and custom panel work to get the imagination going.

Real Rides had a damn cool marque set up with a collection of cool rides ranging from a stunningly restored 74 XB Falcon Hardtop to fully custom Camaro, Nova and a way cool blown Chevy with a custom interior that just completed it beautifully!

If you rolled into this show looking for ideas or a reason to rip into your own project, there was certainly something there to kick ya butt with enthusiasm to

Luckily there are food stalls along the way and a huge entertainment area for the live bands if you feel like parking up and just watching it all happen around you.

There are all sorts of vendors on site selling goodies for the cave. Hats, clothing and nicknacks galore to tools and equipment for getting amongst it yourself are available to check out and purchase.

Repco had a stand on-site with gift packs from Bowdens Own as prizes to give away, so there was certainly something for everyone to get amongst while wandering around.

Late Saturday afternoon and all the attention heads towards the stage area for the prizegiving to see who will win one of many prize packs and trophies for the show plus a chance to grab a random giveaway.

It was pretty clear who was grabbing the

trophy haul this time with the lads from Kruzin Kustoms wearing a track out up to the stage for the multitude of trophies and prizes they won with their awesome builds in the shed.

Their C10 “Mac Daddy” Pick-up taking away the main prize of the show but their lil Coupe chasing it all the way with its own haul of trophies.

The lil Red Dune Buggy in the show hall also impressed the public with a heap of prizes heading its way.

It’s not just the show hall and camping area that is awesome to check out. The car park for the day visitors is just as awesome! The cool rides rolling in to come check out the show is massive as well. This revolving show just seems to keep changing with awesome rides rolling in and out all day.

I know the first time I rocked up to this show, I spent most of the day just wandering around the car park! It seemed so incredible to have so many cool cars lined up!

So, the next time I went I decided to take

a tent and camp up under the trees so I could fully check the place out and get amongst the nighttime entertainment with the live bands going on.

The camping seems to have gotten bigger over the years with it now spreading into where the day visitors used to park, which shows just how popular this event is and how much the scene is growing. It’s cool!

Saturday night is the big party night with a line up of cool bands rockin the stage for the campers with a cool light show and sounds cranking!

Saturday is definitely the busy main day here, but Sunday is still rockin with the show halls open and what’s left in the swap meet to check out.

There really is something for everyone to check out at this show. It’s definitely worth grabbing your refreshments and going for a wander around the camp area! The cool rides lingering in there to wander past is pretty damn cool and if you’re seriously looking, you could take a new ride home for yourself with what’s for sale.

If you haven’t yet ventured into this show, make sure you get it into your diary for next year! It’s well worth putting the weekend aside for this one!

Al and April winning a spot with their awesomely restored classic Porche

PRESS PLAY TO SEE THE FULL VIDEO

The Kruzin Kustoms crew definitely wore a track out collecting all their trophies for their awesomely built C10 Pick-up including the Mothers Shine award.

Meatstock HAMILTON 2025 HOLY! Park up and brace yourself for this crazy cool weekend of cool rides, bbq’s, beers and wickedly cool bands for a crazy cool weekend of entertainment!

For the second year running, Meatstock rocked into the Mystery Creek show grounds just out of Hamilton to set up for what you would think would be a BBQ festival.

BUT this is not just your average “show us ya bbq” event!!

There is honestly something for everyone going on over the weekend for anyone to GET AMONGST! You don’t even have to leave, you can rock on in on the Friday, set up camp with your Motorhome, caravan or tent and get ready to party the weekend out!

Matt Turnwald who runs the Takapuna Rocks weekend, teamed with the Meatstock crew and the Rotovegas Knuckle Draggers Custom Car Club to put on a massive indoor display of cool custom rides and bikes. Along with the Old Skool Lowriders Club and a few other muscle car owners, this made for an awesome display to wonder around inside the main Mystery Creek pavilion hall.

In amongst this awesome display were various bbq supply stands with a huge variety of goodies for cooking up a storm.

All sorts of spices, herbs, flavorings and cooking tools were available to check out and purchase with tastings going on as well for those keen to try something new.

At the back of the hall, the Mitre10 Demo Stage was set up for the Master Chief, and Master Butcher Awards along with interviews with competitors and suppliers to the vocation.

Everything from a bar from Better Beers to games were set up in the hall just in case the weather didn’t play ball, but on this weekend, it certainly did with three gorgeous days to get out and get amongst the activities going on outside.

The grounds around the show hall were packed with bbq cooking displays from open pit wood burning slow cooking to compact pizza ovens turning out pizza’s flat out for tastings to the roaming crowds of people meandering through the displays.

From massive commercial built bbq’s for feeding the tribes to simple tools for cooking at home or on the boat were there to check out. The variety of designs from barrel to plate bbq’s and ovens is incredible when you see them all at once, letting you suss out the various cook styles each has to how you desire your tucker to taste like.

Small smoker bbq’s to massive smokers and pressure cookers were all being used and demo’d and not just for meat either.

This isn’t just for the backyard bbq’er either, commercial chiefs were full noise demonstrating just what could be done if you wanted to go bigger than your mate, a couple of beersies and flames on a summers evening!

Of course this is a bbq festival, so flames are compulsory no matter how big the bbq!

If all these bbq demo’s had you dribbling and your stomach going WTF! There were also a heap of retailers selling everything you could possibly imagine scoffing to feed the machine!

From burgers and kebabs to full-on meals and finger bites were available from the mobile vendors and if the bbq demo’s got you thinking, you could even buy the eye fillets or a rear end of a cow to take home and cook up yourself!

This really is an event for anyone who likes to cook or just eat what’s just been cooked! How cool is that!!!

Now this weekend doesn’t just stop at the hundreds of bbq’s and cool rides on display!

In the second hall at Mystery Creek was even more entertainment.

Pool tables, darts, driving simulators and even an arm wrestling championship was set up for all to get amongst.

This awesome air-conditioned hall was a welcoming retreat for many who just wanted to chill out as well.

With the throwback in time to cooking a whole pig over an open flame, it only seemed right that good ole knights in shining armor would be there to battle it out on the field in some amazing Buhurt fighting.

The New Zealand Stage & Screen Combat school had an awesome set up of entertainment.

Complete with axes, swords and hammers, it was all go in the battles to see which clan would conquer the other with their own techniques of battle.

The New Zealand Stage and Screen Combat School had an epic display going on with teams from Australia visiting to battle it out in what seems a crazy thing to do, but DAMN COOL! In full polished armor suits and helmets with chain link protection, these guys and girls certainly go hard to show what this sport is all about, taking it right back to the medieval era of battling for King and Country then hang a pig over fire with a turnip in its gob when you’re done!

If you felt like grabbing hold of some of the medieval action yourself, targets were set up for axe and spear throwing along with archery if you fancied yourself good with a bow and arrow.

The NZSSCS team were on hand to teach and show you the techniques of getting your own dinner if you ever venture into the forest or couldn’t find a BBQ pitstop.

You could even enter the competitions for each discipline on the Saturday.

So now that you have battled it out with the neighbouring clan, ripped a back quarter off a pig to sustain yourself, checked out some very cool olds-cool rides, you might as well grab a cold beer or a wine and sit back for one hell of a cool concert!!!

Did I mention there is actually two days of this? You better grab a sizzling mushroom covered steak, pork kabab and a sweet corn cob hot off the bbq as well because this party is just getting started!

The Meatstock crew arranged for twelve, yep, twelve awesome bands to rock the outside stage starting on the Friday arvo through to around midnight on Saturday.

Massive bands like Mirage, Muri, Ladyhawke, Coterie and Salmonella Dub Sound System rocked the stage to the eager crowd on the Friday into the night before kicking back into action on the Saturday with The Boondocks, Retro Valley, Cordian, Masaya, Kora, Devilskin and Shapeshifter fully pumping energy into the grounds to have the crowd of around eleven thousand people bouncing and rocking out to the awesome sound system and light display.

Getting to see big name bands like this does not come around too often and to party up with twelve awesome bands all in one weekend, surrounded by an awesome crowd of people fully enjoying the bbq atmosphere as if a party in your backyard is simply “too bloody cool!”

Parking up on the grass on the Saturday arvo with a few mates to catch the bands with a cold one was like all the rewards coming home!

The NZ talent we have here with these bands is so cool and it is awesome that Meatstock grab the opportunity to show them off.

The homegrown sound from the various genres defines NZ on so many levels, you simply have to appreciate the talent of these musicians!

Kora had the crowd grooving and bouncing as the Saturday arvo vibe kicked in after Masaya set the stage for the evening with their cool vibe.

Straight after Kora’s awesome gig, you could see the crowd was ready with people filling the arena ready for a high energy LOOKOUT session with Devilskin up next!

For me, “Devilskin” is an all-time favorite band and I’ve seen them a fair few times now, but the energy Jennie Skulander was packing on the openair stage with thousands of people in awe, banging them mullets’ and raising them horns was epically cool!

P Digsss -Shapeshifter rocked the crowd to end the night.

The entire band hit that stage like a rollercoaster with eleven thousand people bouncing to the incredible energy Jennie packs with her voice and performance.

Nail swapping his collection of art worthy guitars throughout the entire session for a new sound each time with Paul Martin banging that bass and throwing picks to the crowd while Nic Martin kept them all in time banging the skins hard!

It was certainly a most epic performance to say the least!

Next up to grab hold and entertain the crowd was Shapeshifter. By now the night had set in and the light display was about to fully kick off on the stage!

With Shapeshifter’s vibrant punchy hard rocking sound rocking the stage, the visual display was incredible with the back screen graphics and beams of light blasting through the night light into the crowd having the entire arena rocking out to rage the Saturday night out.

This was one hell of a party!

Shapeshifters visual display was just as outstanding as their performance!

So, I guess what I’m getting at here, incase you are still not sure. If Meatstock say “come around for a bbq” JUST GET AMONGST!!!!!

This is honestly one hell of a weekend!

From wandering around cool cars to check out, to sussing out bbq’s and food cooking ideas and watching knights in shining armor smack each other with axes, plus wicked cool bands, there is honestly something for everyone.

It was super cool to see so many kids on shoulders raging out to the bands which you just don’t normally get at rock concerts. It’s so cool to see our next generation of metallers coming up!

Cheers to Matt and the Meatstock crew for letting us get fully amongst this event to capture here.

Meatstock has three other events in Australia as well, so it would be well worth checking that out! Just saying!!

GET AMONGST! 

The family atmosphere rocking the entire weekend

UNDER CAR S P E C I A L I S T S

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COMING EVENTS...

Check out what’s coming up and what’s going down. > We checked out the awesome line up of Pre 49 hot rods at the Cambridge raceway after their cool event cruising around the Waikato > Plus the awesomest beach party in Orewa with the Rodders Beach Festival during their awesome weekend event

MAVS Motorcycle Parts had an awesome display of custom bikes to check out!

KORA had the crowd bouncing into the nights entertainment

Shapeshifter put on a massive light show for their performance in the dark

Rotovegas Knuckle Draggers Custom Car Club wow’d the crowd with a missive display of cool custom rides

Old Skool Rydz Lowrider Club had a great show of lowriders lined up

Kruzin Kustoms build MAC DADDY showing how custom never ends!

Paul Martin was bangin that bass for Devilskin’s awesome performance!

Photo credit from the man himself Andy Kelly

Rotovegas Knuckle Draggers Crew

BBQ Wars winners!

Some cool-as custom artwork trophies up for grabs

cert!

posal on stage mid Devilskin con

Nothing quite like a marriage pro

Jennie Skulander - Devilskin giving it to the massively pumped crowd!

Nail from Devilskin shredding that axe!

Jennie Skulander from Devilskin could kick the Energiser Bunny to touch with her performance!

Devilskin fully had the arena bouncing with a power house performance!

Charlie & Michelle’s Smokey & the Bandit full resto Kenworth complete with the Pontiac on display

PRESS PLAY TO SEE THE FULL VIDEO

Check out HOT ROD REVUE’S YouTube channel for more great videos https://www.youtube.com/c/HotRodRevuetv

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26th - 30th March, 2025

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