VCC CENTRAL OTAGO Pns MARCH 2023

Front Cover: (Ford Model T Tour in Cromwell Historical Precinct – Gerry Spencer)

The Rear End: (The Cray Pot, Jackson Bay, West Coast – Graham Taylor)

Editorial

This is my last magazine as Editor, thanks to Garry for taking over. It’s been rewarding to put them together, and most of the articles I researched and wrote were as much for my fun as anyone else’s.

There were a couple of things that were working well, but then lost traction with the audience, so they have been quietly dropped: My First Car, and Historic Photos.

Recently I read a book on how to write well – probably too late in my case, but those budding scribes out there may benefit. Here are a couple of exercises from it:

(a) Write your story normally without constraint. Remove 20 words from within it. As you do so, you have to decide what to leave out. Repeat until cut to 50%, and then you the essential elements remaining. You have probably found your “voice”, and in doing so made it more readable!

(b) Write your story in 200 words, using only 50 words. So, when you have reached 50 words, you have to reuse some of those words. The other restriction is to hit 200 words exactly, not 199, not 201. Try it. Although this is much harder than the first exercise.

(That was 200 words!)

Gerry Spencer

editorCOVCC@gmail.com

Copy deadline for next edition by the 25th of each month Circulation: 223 © 2023 The opinions and information presented here are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the club or its officers. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information or opinions expressed. E&OE.

BRANCHOFFICERS2022-2023

Rally Conveners: Blossom Festival: EwenDuthie,AllanPorter,BryanAnderson

National Daffodil Day Co-Ordinator: GrahamTaylor,WendyMartin

Moped Rally: JohnMartin

CLUBEVENTSCALENDAR

Please take care to read and copy to your diary!

Wed8Mar7/8pm ClubNight. Guest Speaker; TBA

Sun12Mar10/11am SundayRun will be to KiddsBush for a picnic. For those not aware, travel to The Neck (nearest point between Lakes Hawea and Wanaka), on the road to Haast. Turn right onto shingle road (Meads Rd) 6 km to camp ground. There is shelter and toilets there - a very pleasant spot. All meet at Hawea petrol station, from 10.45 am leave 11.00 arriving Kidds Bush 11.45 ish. Alex, Cromwell, Q/town, meet at club, leaving there 10.00. For those that want to fish we are beside Lake Hawea, and Bush walks, and maybe a bbq. Bert

Mon13Mar10:30amInformal ‘CarsoverCoffee’ – café at Wanaka Airport, 2nd Monday of the month. Graham Taylor

Sat25Mar

The SouthIslandClubCaptain’sTour will be dropping in.

Tue28Mar7:30pm CommitteeMeeting at the Clubrooms.

Wed12Apr7/8pm ClubNight. Guest Speaker; TBA

Sun16Aprtba SundayRun probably to Mt Cook area, TBC

The Clubroom & Parts Sheds are located at Litany Street, Cromwell

Club Nights – doors open from 7pm on 2nd Wednesday of the month (except Jun & Dec)

Midweek Muster at the Parts Shed – Wed mornings from 8:30am, except for Club Night Wednesdays

OTHEREVENTS,NATIONALS&c.

VCCBranchesthatwouldlikeanyoftheireventsnotedinourmagazine, pleasecontactuswiththedetailsateditorCOVCC@gmail.com

FormoreinformationontheseandothereventsinBeadedWheels, checkbranchnewsletterswhichmaybefoundat http://vcc.org.nz/news-from-our-branches/

Fri-Sat17-25Mar

SouthIslandClubCaptain’s(SICC’s)Tour. See details in BW p50. You can join/leave at any point in the tour if amenable. Contact Alon Mayhew 027 202 9491 sicc@vcc.org.nz or alon.tracy@xtra.co.nz

Sat-Sun8-9Apr

Wheels@Wanaka (see flyer). Club members will be involved as volunteers (as marshals), or in the “Tractor Club” etc. We need more people to help park cars from 8 ‘till 10 on the Saturday, and where possible VCC cars will be parked together with the flag flying! If you can help, contact Murray Pryde on 03 443 5020 or nzpryde@gmail.com . Also enter your vehicle online at https://events.humanitix.com/wheels-at-wanaka2023/tickets

NewMembers

Welcome to our latest additions:

Tom Hedley, who has Models A & AA

John Pearce, who is restoring a 1950 Bedford K series

Hope to see you soon.

Chair’sReport

Four members of the Committee and a couple of cars represented the club at Chris Miller’s funeral. We will miss Chris’s wise head on the committee and his company at club events. Gaynor has expressed a wish to continue involvement with the club and we look forward to seeing her at future events.

The clubrooms refurbishment is going well; painting is complete in the kitchen and toilet areas and Rose and Mel (with a bit of help from John W) have the curtains up in the main hall. Good progress has also been made in the toilet vestibules and the rear foyer; these may well be finished by the time you read this. Next will be replacing the vinyl in the toilets due to the new bowls being a different shape.

If you see them make sure you thank Rose, Mel, John, Alf, Ewen, Graham, Bryan Anderson and Steve Reynolds for their work on your behalf.

Thanks also to Gerry who is stepping down as Puff ‘n Stuff Editor after two and half years. Like previous Editors he has added his personal touches to the magazine, keeping it in line with the changing needs of our branch.

The Model T Tour departure from the clubrooms on 14th February went well. John Martin also opened the parts sheds for them on the 13th and managed to prise some money from them in exchange for Model T parts. Great to see our clubrooms being used for events like this.

Our February Club night speaker Damon Leitch from Highlands gave us great insight to the development of the circuit. He then answered the many questions on motor racing and the attributes of the various cars at Highlands.

I am off to the National Executive Meeting in Christchurch (moved from Wellington due to a lack of suitable accommodation there) on the 4th and 5th March. The main items of business are the structure of the club under the new Incorporated Societies Act and how length of membership awards are handled in the future. I will be presenting our branch view as agreed in the discussion at the February club night.

Noel Hassed

NewCurtainsfortheClubrooms

Rose Grindley

With the recent painting and general tarting up of the Clubrooms, it was decided to go all-out and also purchase new curtains. As some of the women on the Committee, Mel Wilson and I were tasked with this purchase. So, one beautiful Thursday morning, we met in Cromwell, tanked up on coffee and petrol, and set out for Frankton and the Spotlight Store.

We had a reasonably tight budget but felt confident that we could find something to do the job. Various options were discussed: Should we go with a “car design”? Fords? Holdens? Should we get British Racing Green perhaps? What about COVCC colours in a tartan fabric?

At the end of the day, we went for taste and style and purchased something that would set off the timber on the walls. Because we required a number of curtain pairs of different sizes, and we were relying on getting these for sale price, the store didn’t have all the sizes that we needed. So, regretfully, Mel and I had to retreat to a cafe for lunch while we made the curtain order on-line. The curtains arrived within the week and we did a quick sewing job to shorten a couple. They are now hanging stylishly in the Clubrooms.

And we managed to come in well under budget!!

Fish & Chip Run to Jackson Bay

As one who misses lots of rallies it was a great pleasure to join the run starting at the Hawea Service Station and travelling to Jackson Bay and back, ostensibly to enjoy fish & chips and other delicacies at the famous Crab Pot.

I particularly want to thank Graham Taylor who took the role of tail-end Charlie and was very much my minder for the trip as I was driving my 1926 Model T tourer which incidentally completed the 400km trip Wanaka and back without a hitch.

Since all the other cars seemed to be 30 odd years younger I took somewhat longer - about 8 hours actual driving time so I was well and truly last to reach both ends but enjoyed every minute of it.

Many thanks

Graeme Thompson

1926 Model T Tourer

Photos – Graham Taylor & Graeme Thompson

TheFirstMentionof“Jeep”

The Jeep as we know it was a product of WWII. The name is somewhat mysterious and several theories have been offered for how the name arose.

These two examples from Papers Past show the early adoption of the name for the military utility vehicle, both in 1941:

“Ford has an assembly line turning out these little ‘jeep’ cars (tricky little things that can climb up the side of a mountain) to carry machine guns, small cannon, and four or five soldiers.”

“Speech of young American soldiers - we learn there that jeep means a command car; peep (son of a jeep) means a bantam car; a hell buggy is a tank, and so is a doodle-bug; a tub is a scout car, and, as you may have guessed, a scatter gun is a machine-gun, and a popsickle is a motor-cycle.”

Before that Jeep was a ubiquitous term of sorts, used to designate a variety of odd vehicles, gadgets, and other things, until its usage settled down to mean the 1/4-ton vehicle.

But really the first mention of jeep was the character ‘Eugene the Jeep’ in Popeye cartoons in 1936!

WhatCarisIt?

In a clip of the legendary investor Warren Buffett talking, he mentioned a company they had bought that in the early days used to be a car company. Rather than telling you about it, I’ll let you find out for yourselves via a series of clues:

1. This company created some buzz in 1911 when it won the first Indianapolis 500 race.

2. They were credited for inventing the rear-view mirror.

3. They were known for pioneering the V16 engine (although beaten into production), and for the use of aluminium in auto manufacturing.

4. One of their cars was driven coast-to-coast (of the US) breaking the record of Erwin George Baker (1882-1960) who had received his nickname "Cannon Ball" from a New York newspaper writer after a record-setting transcontinental drive in 1914.

Name of the company: __ __ __ M __ __

Match the Car to the Movie

1967 Austin Mini Cooper S 1275

1966 Alfa Romeo 1600 Duetto Spider

1966 Ford Thunderbird

1985 Modena GT Spyder California →→ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (actually “replicar” 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California)

1967 Shelby GT500

1976 Ford Gran Torino

1976 AMC Pacer

1973 Ford Gran Torino

1 and 2

6 sound proofing sheets, black, no logos, 800 x 460 x 2.1 thick. $90

Gerry Spencer

mr.gwspencer@gmail.com

Puff ‘n Stuff DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT RATES (Member’s wanted/sell adverts free for 3 months)

Full Page $300 (for 12 months)

Half Page $150 “

Quarter Page $80 “

→ Contact the Ed for info

PositionsVacant

At the next AGM in June there are some positions becoming available so please give them your consideration:

Club Captain

Bert has done a great job the last three years, and has shown a pattern to emulate. The rôle is to organise Sunday Runs and speakers or other activities for Club Nights.

Parts Convener

Please speak with John Martin about what is involved.

Also some more Committee Members would be nice.

Stickers

Let others knowwhich branch you belong to at events away from home. These are produced locally and are made of highquality vinyl. They are external stickers and go on the outside of the windscreen oron the body-work. (They are easilyremoved with a hair-dryer.) Cost $3 each. (A small profit goes to our club.)

To order contact The Secretarygtml@xtra.co.nz

Graham Taylor Mechanical Ltd

114ShortcutRoad,Luggate. gtml@xtra.co.nz4431416

0272489942

MAXXISTYRES -- MIXTECHBATTERIES — SPAREXAGPARTS