PHOENIX Number 336 February 2024
FEBURARY 2024
NUMBER 336
PHOENIX
Perfect period advert supplied by Chairman Rob from a Punch Magazine of the time.
NEWSLETTER OF THE WAITEMATA BRANCH VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF NEW ZEALAND
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WAITEMATA BRANCH DIRECTORY CHAIRMAN: CLUB CAPTAIN: SECRETARY: TREASURER: BRANCH DELEGATE: EDITOR: SCRIBE PAST CHAIRMAN: COMMITTEE:
ROBERT CHAPMAN 021 038 3281 robman@orcon.net.nz STAN SMITH 0274 775 475 vintageaircraft@xtra.co.nz GRAEME BANKS 027 500 3806 grabannz@gmail.com JACQUI GOLDINGHAM 09 445 8811 goldienz@orcon.net.nz goldienz@orcon.net.nz IAN GOLDINGHAM 09 445 8811 027 24 55 786 michael.john.greig@gmail.com MICHAEL GREIG 094456760 ROBERT CHAPMAN 021 038 3281 robman@orcon.net.nz BRENDAN LAMAIN 021 132 4557 brendanandterry@gmail.com MAX JAMIESON, MIKE HOPE-CROSS, HAMISH ANDREWS AND ROB SCOTT.
COMING EVENTS Looking Forward……… Month
Waitemata
Other Events
Feb. ‘24
4th Glen Afton Bush Railway. 11th Ellerslie Car Show Lochinver 19th &20th
March
3rd Brit. Euro
April
Swap Meet with Highland Fling 26-28th Vintage Austin Manawatu Branch, Feilding area. Register
Swap Meets
13th Editors Birthday. No Pressure. May
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PHOENIX Number 336 February 2024
Month
Waitemata
June
A good month for AGM.
Other Events
Swap Meets
Club Night February 1st. See you at the RSA Room, King George V Memorial Hall, Library Lane, Albany, 7.30 pm .
Hi team, our great secretary and delegate, Graeme Banks has had to resign his positions due to health reasons. We hope to be able to step up and help out until election time in June, so bear with me while I learn the role!!!! All the best to Graeme give him a ring and talk cars ! (details in Branch directory, previous page). Jacqui Goldingham VCCNZ Waitemata Branch Acting Secretary
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Our next event is Feb 4th trip to Glen Afton vintage railway, make your own way out there by 1130 am 1200. Fun for the whole family and friends all welcome. train ride and café on site cash or eftpos.
Please make your own way there: It is approx. 12 km west of Huntly, 1153A Rotowaro Road, Huntly. Ph 07 828 4851 Or see us on Facebook. (Directions and Map on next page)
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Your Car is needed. Must show the punters the best of the branches sporting offerings, something to aspire to! Contact Kevin Andrews at 0274989454 L Lloyd Elsmore Park ,Pakuranga. 3rd March, Sunday 10.00am to 3 pm.
Auckland Brit. Euro Car Show Great event for the family, meet up with friends fron the other onemake-groups. Wide brimmed hats and long sleves plus the obligatory rain wear . Central Brit & Euro Theme will be Hot Hatches. fun day out for people of all makes, models With quintessential classics like speedy Mini Coopers, fierce Ferraris, luxury BMWs and dapper Bentleys on display, there’s something for everyone – whatever gets your pistons pumping.
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For the coming 2024 show the central Brit & Euro Revival Theme will be 'Hot Hatches'. Iconic cars such as th
Must mention the Branch Hero and Racer with his team, Team Harris are attending another race event at Feilding this weekend and with him goes our wishes for a successful event that is supported by the Branch with our Best Wishes and Regards. The Automobile (UK magazine) in a current issue-December, featured early Founding Member of the Branch (at that time, the North Shore Branch), Richard Stanley and his 1924 20/60 Sunbeam. As a young and innocent member in 1974, I was very impressed at the story from its conversion from tractor into fine motoring vintage car. The Branch at that time had Vauxhalls and Sunbeams and many other fine marques. I drove Keith H’s and John Gairdner’s and once Harold Kidd’s. Great treasured memories. My mother remembered Sunbeams as Vice Regal cars in Burma in the 1920’s and 30’s.
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There are monthly events in the area that can be enjoyed for many of the interests that members have.
Our local Branch, Auckland, has the mid-week tour that goes to interesting collections where lunch is taken and good company to chat to. The trips are alternating ones to the North and South.
Another one to attend is the monthly Saturday Motorcycle Section. A large group of active riders and presented by Martin Spicer who arranges a marvellous range of very interesting and knowledgeable speakers. It finishes with an afternoon tea, great gossip and chatting and the library and spares are open.
The North Shore Branch has two periods of Shed Time. Not conversant of the times, will await details. Perhaps try the website.
Our own select Branch, Group, Conspiracy, could have an afternoon tea, meeting or the like. As most of us are not in paid employ, what say thou? I am prepared to present a variety of flavoured refreshments, ranging from a variety of teas, coffee in many forms and chai. Nibbles and tapas may be forthcoming.
Some central position to meet . Bayswater, due to its position on the Peninsular is an impossible place to get to or leave at any time of the day. Mind you the ferry service is an option if you have the Gold Hop Card. Something for the visiting motorists to meet up with us. Let us hear your thoughts.
See you on Thursday night, first meeting of the year. W Must mention t Hro
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They taunted him cruelly about his poorly fitted Thrunge Coupling and wiper, hand driven, at scrutineering.
Chairmans Report. Well Happy New Year everyone. Hopefully everyone's rested and looking forward to our coming events. Next weekend on Sunday the 4th is a visit to a working Steam Railway. It will be a good run and there is a café on site so you will not go hungry. The following weekend the 11th is the Ellerslie Classic car show. We have only two cars entered so far; we need six. Phone Kevin Andrews now 0274989454 and let him know your car is available this saves him phoning around. The club also gets a cut of the gate so well worth the effort. Our Hill Climb for this year has been postponed to next year. The simple fact is we have to run at a profit. The three previous events we and the HRSCC, our cohosts, have run at a loss which is not sustainable. Graeme Banks our secretary has advanced cancer, and we will not be seeing him at events. He sends us, his car family his very best. Now at home and I suggest if you want to contact you send him an email (his address is on the header, the Branch directory) with your phone number included and let him get back. He is an extremely popular guy and member of many clubs, so if a response is not immediate you will understand. He has decided to dispose of his vehicle fleet. We know of the range of his interests and if you are interested, please contact him in the first instant. Rob. P a g e |9
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1926 Vauxhall / Cirrus Special Why would you put a 4-cylinder aero plane engine in a Vintage Car? Well for a start here is a bit of background to the project. Followers of “sporty” motoring in England after the First World War, would have seen a surplice of aero engines, mainly from planes, but some larger ones from Zeppelins. Enthusiasts were buying the motors cheaply and fitting them to an Edwardian or Vintage chassis and having a run at Brooklands – some obtaining very high lap speeds. Being fortunate enough to get to the UK several times pre-covid, I was really switched on to the need to build and aero-engined special, but where to get the basis??
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I should say I have had Vintage cars for around 65 years, most of which I have restored. I located a Cirrus, 4-cylinder motor in bits under a house in Ipswich, it having dropped a valve sometime earlier and badly damaged the head and piston. A few chassis were inspected but, in the end, I settled for a14/40 Vauxhall. It had wire wheels, 4-wheel brakes and was suitable all round, so now it was all go. CHASSIS: I measured the chassis, and the first job was to move the bulkhead and steering box back 78cms. This in turn necessitated relocating all the brake X shafts and as the chassis rails diverge, it wasn’t simple. The engine was mocked up and mounted and I was on the lookout for a gearbox. A large, veteran De Dion box was acquired, and I had to fabricate a subframe to mount the box. Rear suspension was originally by torque tube and counter lever springs. As I was now having an open tail shaft the suspension was converted to semi-elliptical. Hartford shockers were mounted all round. MOTOR: The missing bits, push rods, valves, pistons, and rings, etc, were located once I broke into the Vintage Aircraft set. It is 4-cylinder, OHV, air cooled and dry sump. When you remove the prop and fit a fly wheel, the front has become the back, so it turns the wrong way! The other problem is that the motor was designed to run with the barrels hanging down, so when turned up the right way for my application, lubrication was a can of worms, but it seems to work. Aluminum ducting was formed and fitted around a neat, small fan (Porsche 911) to blow air around the cylinders, and this too has been a success. GEARBOX: Veteran De Dion 3 speed and massive. I think it could have been from a truck. I wasn’t sure what the problems may be by running it in the opposite direction, but there is none. It is big and crude and a joy to use. DIFF: My sums showed that I needed a ratio of about 2: 1. But this just isn’t round in cars or trucks. However, in England in 2018 I stumbled on a crown wheel and pinion in housing that was 1.8: 1. Diff wizard, Geoff England, made up a rear axle out of all sorts of odds and ends and we mounted it. Prop shafts joined front to rear so we were fairly complete and ready for a start. Without too much trouble it fired up, had oil pressure, and when I engaged gear, the wheels turned in the right rotation!!I had fitted a 2” SU and clutch, box and diff worked. BODYWORK: I framed a variation on a Vauxhall body, and had it skinned in Melbourne by wizard, Brian Mills, Steve Bodrog made a bonnet, a piece of art. I made the guards using VW Beetle panels as a basis. Instruments came from a P a g e | 11
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variety of sources ranging from a pressure gauge from New Farm Powerhouse to odd aircraft gauges and switches. DRIVING: The original donor fly wheel was fitted with a ceramic button plate and along with the 1.8: 1 diff, it just wasn’t suitable, so the clutch was re-hashed with a conventional plate and I had a crown wheel and pinion made in England that was 2.2: 1 ratio. On a recent trip to Armidale we were delighted with the performance. It does 50mph at 1000rpm and has torque to burn, flying up the bigger hills on the New England Highway. It is not quite so happy in city traffic, but I can cope. It has about 155HP gives about 12 mpg from almost 7litres. Overall, 5 years has been one big folly but great fun. Joe Wilson. Editors notes: Joe had sold his 23/60 Vauxhall to Keith and Dee 25 years ago and keeps up to date with our newsletter. I saw the article on the car in issue 54 of Country Motor Australia, and contacted Joe who has supplied this material. One of his other motoring devices is a ’39 Citroën Light 15 Cabriolet. Restored in NZ
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in the ‘80’s by Jim Crook. Went to Australia in 2000. Any early history, he would be pleased to hear.
Photos from Joe, woefully poor presentation from the editor, but there is always and excuse to use when I find it somewhere. Quite prepared to take one on one lessons.
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For those not wanting to go south for the steam event, go north!
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Yes, this fine, very fine car is still available from Graeme Brayshaw. As we have experienced this car over the years in its natural environment; the track and the hillclimbs, take this chance to be custodian for this part of New Zealand’s motoring history. Keep the torch held high for the future of historic and vintage motorsport. Train up the family as pit crew and enjoy the weekends away. That bouquet of castor oil, the contacts with the heroes of the track, past and present, be part of that pantheon of the Gods! He is also looking for someone to take on the motoring repair books that came from the workshops that kept his collection so well prepared for many events. This can be seen as a sacred responsibility, to look after such arcane and specialised knowledge. Cooper Norton MK8 1954 Historic NZ Racing Car. Finished 11th 1955 NZIGP. Won Ultimate Echo Race Ardmore 1957. Last run Hampton Downs 28.6.23. Good Condition. Offers. Contact Graeme 027 7128877 or 09 2688545 brayshaw@xtra.co.nz
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Next Issue: Sorry for the lack of challenging material but there are a few things going on at present. Another overseas article which I am sure will be enjoyed. The chairman presented me with some good material which will be copied, I and sure. I regret not thanking the organiser and the Ryders ‘Event Centre and Projection House’ for the marvellous welcome and superb catering. Photos will be included. I will be look for reading material so that we can be prepared for those periods that motoring is in a resting period. ‘Silk Riders’ from Jo and Gareth Morgan’s incredible journey in the trail of Marco Polo. Includes the late Bryan Wyness, Branch member with the XK120 which was motored and enjoyed. Bryan gave a talk one night for members down in the old Boating Club Rooms in Bayswater and shared the story and showed some of the items he returned with. A great evening. Don’t forget Mac’s Garage. Top advice, professional service and well known and respected in the Vintage Austin and Riley world. 09 443-3733, found at 4 Ashfield Road, Glenfeild.
Aegis Oil is a local firm headed by Paul Radisich, famous on the track. He gave a talk at the Auckland Clubrooms on the product. There is a Vintage and Classic range and well suited to our cars. Please support them. Members gave testimony to the use of soluble oil in the radiators at 5% rather than antifreeze.
As a threat for the rest of the Year, an event is held at the Devonport Wharf on the first Sunday of the month. There is a Tango Milonga (Afternoon Dance) that runs from 3.30-6pm. You may join me for the exercise. I will be spending the afternoon in the arms of young and not so young women. I know there are no challengers to this.
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PHOENIX Number 336 February 2024
PHOENIX The OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER of THE WAITEMATA BRANCH of the VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF N.Z. INC.
I liked the cover, a NZ author. I have not read The Vintner’s Luck but have heard it on the radio in the evenings.
CLUB NIGHT THURSDAY 1st February 7.30 pm at the RSA Room, King George V Memorial Hall, Library Lane, Albany. Take Exit 410 Oteha Valley Road. Travel west along Oteha Valley Road, ahead through 2 roundabouts and straight ahead at Traffic Lights into Albany Highway then almost immediately RIGHT into Library Lane then very soon go right again into the parking area. The RSA Room is at the rear.
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