DrivingourHistory
“For all Vehicles over 30 years old”
AORANGI - TRICAR
NEWSLETTER OF THE SOUTH CANTERBURY BRANCH OF THE VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF NEW ZEALAND INC.
CLUB ROOMS
19-25 REDRUTH ST. TIMARU SOUTH
Replica Timaru’s First Car Built by C. W. Wood
July 2024
NOGGIN AND NATTER First Thursday of the Month
Hi everyone. I have been reflecting on my election to the Chair of our Branch, and I must say that I'm humbled by the tremendous contributions many of our members make each week, each month, and each year, towards the smooth and efficient running of our Club, for all of our benefit.
Our AGM has come & gone, and whilst a good attendance was very pleasing, it would be nice to see some more members putting your names forward to assist our hard-working committee and Club. We do need to have more people involved for our Club to remain vibrant & viable! I get that some don't wish to commit to office-holding, however you can definitely assist and bring your 'unique skill-sets' to bear in a variety of ways. Please step forward and assist where you can - we certainly need further help around Club Captain responsibilities - a large workload area, and maybe you can help with rallies/events/organising in the future?
We also still have a need for further committee members, so please let's know if you can assist!
As discussed at the AGM - our 'AUTOMOTIVE NOSTALGIA' cruise ship enterprise had positive and some not so positive outcomes. We will sit-out this coming season, as it's a small offering of visits, and we will look forward to seeing what 2025-26 brings - both from the global geopolitical viewpoint, and our own organisational perspectives.....
Looking ahead for our Club activities upcoming:
June 22nd - Night Trial
Our Club Captain's Team have an 'absorbing' route planned! Please remember that if your club eligible vehicle is not roadworthy, or the lights are not up to scratch, then please bring your 'modern' !!
July 13th - Garage Raid to North Otago
Let's see if we can arrange a strong posse to send down to that??!!
Our mid-week runs are still very popular, and our last one on 13th June was well attended.
Each Wednesday between 9am - Noon, our Parts Shed, Library, and club-rooms are open. Be great to see a few more of us along to catch-up and view what the 'legendary' Parts Dept & Barry B our Librarian, do on our behalf, and maybe have a tea/coffee as well....or alternatively, see below if weekdays don't suit?
I note in the latest Beaded Wheels in the Editors' contribution - many branches loosely organise OCBC (Old Cars & Bikes Coffee) mornings - maybe that's worth considering for the future??
I'm looking forward to my year in the Chair of your SCVCC. It will no doubt present 'challenges', but I'm hopeful to engage more with each of you, whilst looking wider into our community and other like-minded groups. It would be awesome to foster the encouragement of the more diverse & younger older vehicle owners into our fold...
Best regards
Colin HAWKE CHAIR
PARTS DEPT. REPORT. June 2024
As Parts Manager, I'm responsible for all Items coming in and out of our Parts Dept. To the casual observer this could mean that I am all knowledgeable with identifying parts etc. “Far from the truth I say” I tell anyone who asks, that I wear the 'vest ' and accept the folding stuff or the Gold that goes with the passing of goods, as they go out the door.
That's not to say that I don't know the difference between ,say a gearbox and a differential. But telling you which car it belongs to is another matter!.
For this, I rely on the expertise of our wonderful Wednesday Team. This combined knowledge is backed up by years of work either in the Motor Industry or just years of dabbling around old cars!
Hence ,all the Items we display on our shelves etc. are due to the efforts of our Team and previous members of our Branch over the years.
So, do come on down and have a look around. You not only may find that part you need for your vehicle, you are also contributing towards the continuance and betterment of our Branch and the V.C.C. As a whole.
As always, we are open each Wednesday morning from 9am till 12 noon.
Barry Smith, Parts Manager.
Magazine Articles
I’m always looking for articles, even short ones, for the Tricar, or a photo or two of an event that you have attended in your club eligible vehicle.
Les-Tricar editor
NOGGIN & NATTER,
Thursday July 4th 7.30 pmClubrooms, Redruth St Timaru.
SPEAKER :- Richie Tompkins
Richie makes-up and markets 'old prints and posters' and he was instrumental and assisting SCVCC with our artwork and promotion of 'AUTOMOTIVE NOSTALGIA'. Richie lives and works locally having lived in the Czech Republic for some years. He regularly attends Swap-meets and Warbird events. His artwork and posters around old aircraft & World War kit is
KITCHEN DUTY :- Ashley Milliken & Graeme Jarvis
BAR :- Sandy McMillan
Bartenders Wanted
The Timaru District Council is offering evening classes in August for anyone wishing to aspire to being a Bar Person. If you are interested could you please contact Sandy McMillan, 027 6155150, as he has all the papers printed off and would be happy to talk to anyone about the requirements for the position. We require to have at least two registered barperson’s to be able to operate our club bar. No Bartenders No Bar!!
SCVCC Website Updates www.southcanterburyvintagecarclub.co.nz
To access other club newsletters go to www.vcc.org.nz scroll to News from our Branches as hard copy newsletters are not mailed out now.
Upcoming - More stories of various runs, online version of newsletter, information about upcoming events, members vehicles in gallery, Stories and photos from members are ENCOURAGED and can be sent through
Calendar of Events 2024 /2025 for the South Canterbury Branch of the VCC
July 11th Midweek Run
July 13th Garage Raid ( North Otago)
August 1st Quiz Night ( South Canterbury hosting)
August 4th Car Trials
August 8th Midweek Run
August 25th Daffodil Run
August 26th Flower Delivery for Cancer Society
September 8th Opening Run ( South Canterbury hosting)
September 12th Midweek Run
September 15th Continental Run
October 26th,27th, 28th Mount Cook Run
November 1st, 2nd, 3rd Safari Weekend
November 17th Vintage, Veteran & Commercial Run
December 14th Club Christmas Party
2025
January 1st New Years Day - Fairlie
January 19th Ladies Run
February 9th Chairmans Run
February 22nd Open Day
March 9th Mid Island Rally
March 23rd Motorcycle Run
April 4th, 5th Swap Meet
April 10th Midweek Run
May 8th Midweek Run
May 10th P Class Rally
May 25th End of Season Run
June 1st All British Day
June 5th AGM
MID WEEK RUN - THURSDAY July 11th 2024
START TIME 1.30 P.M. PLEASE BRING YOUR AFTERNOON TEA AND A SEAT.
For those of you at the AGM that heard the discussion regarding whether the Tri Car should be printed and posted to everyone here are the facts. I've done some calculations and the printing would be around $796.00 per month plus postage around $612.00. That is a total of $1408.00 per month or $16896.00 per year. And that's only if costs don't go up anymore. So from that, the $25 that our branch receives from your sub certainly won't go very far. The majority appear to be happy the way we are tracking with the email system and going forward I will be using a new format to send out the Tricar. Cheers Nola.
Midweek Run 13th June 2024
This month’s run was organised by Lynette and Barry Smith. After the usual pre run talk about 9 cars left the Club rooms on a very cool day and set off for a tour of the Fairview area and then the Levels area to a gathering place at Pleasant Point. From here 3 brave cars continued to the Hanging Rock Opihi Bridge Reserve and the rest of us returned to the clubrooms for afternoon tea and social session. A very interesting tour on a very cold day and appreciated by all the participants. Thankyou Lynette and Barry for an interesting run.
Next month’s organisers – Kevin & Ngadia Manchester
(Linda & Barry Yates)
All British Day
The run attracted a variety of cars, a fair few from outside the district - the Minis attracting the attention of many with two fitting in a parking space. With a briefing by Colin Hawke, the run started at Caroline Bay, creating a British traffic jam on Virtue Avenue before heading west to Claremont and the foothills of Mt Horrible, before reaching Holme Station and Bluecliffs. A gravel section was reached at Hillboro Road, before reaching Hunter and Wallaby country central, Waimate. While the end venue was the Town and Country club, most participants took advantage of the sun overhead, having picnics within the falling leaves of Seddon Square.
Shannon Stevenson.
(Dean Rae and Peter Morrison were presented prior to AGM as couldn’t attend.)
35 Year Badge –Wayne Irving
25 Year Badge
L - R Donald Goodman, Wayne Austin, Ron Laplanche.
Chairman’s TrophyColin Hawke and Grant Mitchell
Stephenson TrophyBest restored VehicleLex Westoby
Navigators Trophy –Helen Rzepecky
Parts Shed TrophyJohn Campbell
Notes From The Library by Barry Barnes
Those who attended the AGM will recall my beating off an army of challengers for the coveted Librarian position, who were too intimidated to even put up a nomination, so, dear readers, here I am for another year.
Joking aside, I would love to have someone show an interest in taking on the job and working alongside me on a Wednesday morning, with a view to taking over. It is not actually that onerous, and I enjoy it and would continue to assist for as long as I am able to do so.
I have just finished reading from the Potty Pateman collection, “The Strange Death of the British Motorcycle Industry” a very scholarly offering with masses of references that take up many pages at the rear of the book. It clearly illustrates that the die was cast many years before the Japanese motorcycle invasion I thought was the main cause. The author illustrated the tunnel vision by management, a general unwillingness to innovate, despite designers coming up with potentially brilliant designs, perpetuating inefficient production techniques, refusing standardization that could reduce costs, ignoring potential areas of market expansion etc etc.
Interestingly there is another book by Bert Hopwood on the same theme but from the perspective of a man in the middle regularly frustrated by inept or over cautious management.
I look forward to tackling it in the future, while in the meantime I am reading one of the Lionel Suter books on Studebakers and have already come across a most interesting section relating to the unique (and bloody awful) 4 wheel braking system, as fitted to my car, that Studebaker hastily offered when they realized its 1923 utterance that they would never fit 4 wheel brakes, was going against market trends, so the 4 wheel system was offered as an option that had to be ordered from the factory as it required a different gearbox casing and driveshaft plus various mountings of pivots on the chassis and front axle plus different steel disc wheels from the standard wood wheel offering.
The whole shebang works with what is effectively the same as a big wheel cylinder incorporated on the back of the gearbox which operates a system of rods and linkages when a plunger operated when the brake pedal is depressed allows a pump to pressurize the cylinder.
It is no surprise that this very expensive to provide system lasted only from late 1924 to the end of the 1926 model year with 1927 models coming out with a basically conventional mechanical setup.
I recently was able to respond to a couple of inquiries from unusual sources. You may have noticed reference to the one from Club Archivist Don Muller in the latest Beaded Wheels wherein a photo was reproduced of all the motorcycle entries at the 1958 Dunedin Brighton Rally, the first time motorcycles were accepted. I received a call from Don to say that David McKenzie, the son of Len McKenzie, the first rider in the line up and a Southland member called him requesting a copy of the photo which Don was able to supply. Don also received a call from another Southland resident, a non-member, who was the son in law of Bruce Dillon who also appeared in the line-up. This gent did not have an email address but as it happened knew Dave McKenzie and rang him to see if he could get a copy of the photo.
Within the hour Dave appeared on this gent’s doorstep and presented him with a framed copy of the photo. How’s that for a brilliant outcome. It’s a shame BW did not see fit to print a larger version of the photo in the first instance. Members who follow the VCC Facebook group may recall a posting showing 2 New Imperial motorcycles sold by Nevelle Ridd many years ago. Following the post he received a call wondering whether one of the bikes might have been one owned prewar by a family member. This sparked a revival of interest in the history of the machine and he tried to recall the name of the member he had bought it from back in the early 1970s. He rang me to see if I could remember, its over 50 years ago mind, and I could not place the guy. It was thought he resided in Christina Street in Invercargill so I consulted the old VCC membership lists held in the Library and found a name known to me after all and when I conveyed this to Nevelle he confirmed he was indeed the guy. So another little mystery solved!
It is very satisfying to be able to help in this way, so if there is anything you might think I could help with, please don’t hesitate to ask.
2024 Irishman Rally
Some 214 pre 1932 vehicles departed Rangiora and headed inland of Amberley and Waipara, crossing several farms and shingle roads before taking a drive around Waitohi Station, adjacent to the upper Hurunui River.
3
After lunch in Hawarden our rally route took us through the vast McDonald Downs Station to emerge high above the Canterbury Plains in the Okuku Forest. The following day the formal opening of the 70th Irishman Rally was marked by the firing of a homemade canon which shot pumpkins far out into the Waimakariri River. Not quite as loud as the backfire from a '28 Buick. The tour followed the Canterbury foothills south of Sheffield, crossing the Rakaia Gorge bridges and continuing down the Inland Scenic to Arundel. Here we turned into a fierce Nor' Wester and a bout of heavy rain on our way up the Rangitata, where, upon reaching the wide open valley, the rain stopped and wind was all but gone.
4
Lunch was at Mesopotamia Station where Laurie Prouting spoke to us all and summarised the history of the Station and his family's occupancy of it. Bagpipes were heard here over lunch, and the odd starter motor swapped out. A pleasant run back east then some chose to ford the Orari River before making our way to Fairlie.
Sunday dawned frosty in Fairlie, the route took us via Rollesby Valley to Burkes Pass, then on to Irishman Creek Station. We were able to visit the workshop and power station built by Bill Hamilton during his tenure there.
6
After lunch we were treated to a magnificent mountain vista as we crossed the Station, emerging on to the Pukaki Canal. Cars then returned to Strathconan Farm where field trials were held, and the award ceremony that evening rounded off three days of amazing back country motoring.
We thoroughly recommend participation in future Irishman events to any owners of vintage vehicles.
Clive Merry
Irishman’s Day One
Irishman’s Day two
Irishman’s Day Three
Irishman’s Day Three
Hi everyone.
The AGM has been and gone and you've still got me as your Treasurer. This notice is to say that all those who want their Tri-Car posted then please deposit $30 into our SBS account. 03 1355 0647203 00 before the end of July. Please use your surname as the reference and I will see your payment go through the account. If anyone who receives the magazine by email but would also like to receive a hard copy then please let me know and then deposit your $30 into the account above. Thankyou to those who have already paid.
Cheers and happy reading. Nola
Free to a good home
Free Item
A steel framed work table measuring 1220 x 1100 x 860 high
Contact Ashley Milliken 027 4358163
VERO International Festival of Historic Motoring Nelson 2026
I have recorded my interest in taking part in this event particularly as I took part in the 1972 International event also held in Nelson.
An integral part of the 1972 event were the Monte Carlo style rally routes to get to Nelson, 20 in number with starting points at centres throughout NZ, including 3 starting in Timaru.
I reckon it would not be a bad idea to set up a route to travel to Nelson over 3 or 4 days based on one of the 1972 routes for those from South Canterbury (or anywhere else for that matter) so we could travel more or less together and keep off the main roads especially SH1 as much as is reasonably possible. If you are thinking of attending and are interested in this idea please drop me an email bandcbarnes@slingshot.co.nz or give me a call. Where we go from there will depend on response.
Barry B
Rally is based in Oamaru 25-28 October 2024
Entries Close 27th September 2024
Hosted by North Otago Branch
Rally Information
The North Otago Branch of the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand (Inc.) cordially welcomes all members of the VCC and affiliated overseas Clubs to participate in the 2024 National 7th Commercial Rally.
The Rally will be based in Oamaru, rally packs will be picked up on Friday, from 5.30pm to 8pm at the North Otago Branch Clubrooms, Stoke St, Oamaru. Saturday and Sunday morning rally will start from the Park at the bottom of Wansbeck Street, in the Precinct, Oamaru. Saturday and Sunday evenings will be held at the Brydone Hotel, 115 Thames Street, Oamaru.
The Waitaki District has a rich history of farming grain and flour mills from the 1870s onwards. Sheep farming was also very productive and were the first district to successfully export frozen meat to Britain in 1882. Limestone is another outstanding feature of the Waitaki and remains a sought-after building material throughout New Zealand. Outcrops throughout the area can be seen when motoring plus wonderful views from the mountains to the sea.
The town of Oamaru has a long history of remarkable buildings built from the Oamaru Stone that can still be seen today in all their glory. The early days were busy with commercial activity and a very busy port.
The Saturday run will be approximately 70 miles long and Sundays run will be approximately 45 miles long and including visits to the limestone quarry and Clarks Mill, one of the only flour mills still in a working condition. Rally Regulations
1. This Rally is open only to Commercial Vehicles as defined in the rules of The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand (Inc).
2. Eligible entrants must be current financial members of The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand (inc) or overseas residents who are members of a recognised Antique Motoring Club.
3. The entrant must either be the driver, navigator or passenger of the vehicle entered
4. All vehicles must display a Vehicle Identity Certificate or Statement of Authenticity.
5. Entries close 27 September 2024 Contacts
Rally Secretary : Wanda Kent 027 440 1621
Rally Email: commercialrally2024@gmail.com Register Online: https://forms.gle/9U1CHFpui1mAXt7h7
Oamaru
Office Bearers 2024-2025
Chairperson: Colin Hawke (Glenys) 6889955/ 027 4896663
Vice Chairperson: Vacant
Immediate past Chairman Alistair Day
6886108/ 027 2025007
Secretary: Pauline Young (Wayne) 6861833/ 027 5399225
Treasurer: Nola Day (Alistair)
Club Captains: Gavin and Michelle Munro
Kevin Manchester (Ngadia)
6886108/ 027 2035007
Michelle 021 1726168
Gavin 021 0528264
Kevin 6864853/ 027 5178769
News Letter Editor: Les Rzepecky (Helen) 021 1220011
Clubroom Convener: Sandy McMillan 027 6155150
Parts Shed Manager: Barry Smith (Lynette) 6847405
Librarian: Barry Barnes (Carla) 6885105
IT Officer: Shannon Stevenson 6863263/ 027 2453519
Committee: All of the above
Identification and Certificate:
Swap Meet:
Alistair Day, John Lester, Colin Hawke.
6886108/ 027 2025007
6158135/ 021 1527758
6889955/ 027 4896663
Chairman: John Lester (Mary) 6158135/ 021 1527758
Site Convenor/ Secretary Michelle Munro (Gavin) 6864824/ 021 1726168
Treasurer: Nola Day (Alistair)
6886108/ 027 2035007
Ground Convenor: Barry Smith ( Lynette) 6847405
Committee: Gavin Munro (Michelle) 6864824/ 021 0528264
(Plus all above)
Krystal Munro 027 8567940
Glen Hawkins 027 2076625