June2017
Southland Branch - Vintage Car Club of NZ Inc. PO Box 1240, Invercargill 9840
Next Meeting including Annual General Meeting Ariki Lodge, 46 Ariki Ave, Otatara 7:30pm Thursday, 29th June, 2017
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Office Bearers 2016/2017 215 7136 216 5496 217 9667 southland@vcc.org.nz Treasurer Sheryn Warren 2170524 Club Captain Ray McCulloch 217 9667 Bulletin Editor Dave Harris 215 6068 or 0272016722 dcharris@southnet.co.nz Southland Branch website www.sporty.co.nz/southlandvintagecar VCC website www.vcc.org.nz VCC forum www.trash.co.nz/vccbb
Patron Chairman Secretary
Wayne Nicoll Gerry Pethick Janet McCulloch
Social Roster Bar Duty
Bar Open 4:30 pm to 9:00 pm
01.07.2017 08.07.2017 15.07.2017 22.07.2017 29.07.2017 05.08.2017 12.08.2017
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Peter Pryde Tony Warren Trevor Wilkey Lex Simpson Brian Dunick Ron Irwin Russell Jenkins
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From the Editor During the past month we had the Post War, Post 60 & Post 80 Rally. Unfortunately the organisers decided to run this rally as much as possible on gravel roads. In fact about 20% of the rally was run on gravel. While I have no objection to running my vintage car on gravel I do strongly object to running my Post 80 car on gravel. The vintage car was designed to run on gravel roads and it has sufficient ground clearance that there is no possibility of grading the high spots in the road, it also has mud guards that keep all the stones and mud in the mudguard. The later cars do not necessarily have sufficient ground clearance for gravel roads and the wheels are right out to the edges of the mudguards, meaning that stones and mud are thrown up along the side of the car. Those with expensive paint jobs find this more than a little annoying. In fact during the winter even the sealed roads in Southland result in mud all down the sides of the car as a result of many of the farmers slowly moving their farms onto the roads with their farm machinery, but that is beyond the control of our rally organisers. I have said it before and I will repeat it here. If we are going to attract more modern cars (as provided in our eligibility criteria) we need to correctly cater for them on our events. I know that when next year’s PW, P60 & P80 Rally comes around I will not be bothering to enter as I do not enjoy driving this car on gravel. After this year’s rally I had to investigate a failed fuel gauge and found that there was a poor connection at the tank. I am pretty sure this was affected by being hit by a stone as the sender unit is in behind the left rear wheel. While investigating this I found a stone wedged between the chassis and the fuel tank that could have eventually worn its way through the side of the tank. I still need to get the car up on a hoist and check where other stones have lodged. Last month I mentioned the issue of eligibility dates for cars in VCC. I have received nothing more from VCC National Office or those on the Executive who I had been corresponding with. I suspect they are hoping I will go away and that they can continue with their incorrect rulings. However at some stage they are going to have to reply to me on this issue.
Dave Cover Photo: 1928 Chrysler 72 at the Chrysler museum in Detroit. This car is a replica of the car that finished third at the 1928 Le Mans 24 hour race. July Rumour - Closing date for J uly Rumour is J uly 16. Rumour
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Chairman’s Report Another AGM has been and gone. Many thanks to those who have taken on positions of responsibility in the Club, either carrying on from the previous year or stepping up for the first time. Thanks also must go to the behind the scenes workers who help in other ways - assisting in the kitchen, cleaning the Clubrooms, lighting the fire, organising display vehicles for meeting nights etc. The Club could not function without all the voluntary help. We have a marvellous asset in our Clubrooms and they are the envy of many other clubs and organisations. A reminder that the Clubrooms are open every Saturday evening from 4.30pm for a get together over a few drinks and talk about old vehicles, plus lots of other subjects! Our monthly meetings have been streamlined a bit to make them less formal, and are followed by a display and talk about an interesting vehicle. If you haven't been to a meeting for a while it would be a good to see you back again.
Gerry
2018 Easter Rally Preparations are well underway with all venues and catering booked. Rally packs are to be collected on Friday evening from our Registration Desk located in the first squash court as you enter Stadium Southland. The Stadium will also be our departure point on the Saturday morning. This allows us to use both the Isabella and Yarrow Streets entrances for the swift dispersal of vehicles on the Rally. Entrants will have the opportunity to see our new Stadium facility which attracted so much attention as the venue for the World Shearing Championships. It is also intended to use the old Surrey Park School grounds for the Public Day on the Sunday. The general public will get to see entrants’ vehicles on display and our branch teams competing for the Pennzoil Trophy. Volunteers to help park the vehicles and marshal the field tests are required.
Glenys June Monthly Meeting Dave Harris will have his 1975 Johnston Formula Ford race car at the June monthly meeting and will tell you all about it. 4
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Russell’s Ramblings Bruce McLaren evening arranged by Transport World. Petrol heads filled two Readings theatres for the Bruce McLaren documentary film. This was from Bruce’s life as a boy with a severe hip problem that left him immobilised for some time. He was shown racing an Austin 7, Austin Healey, Coopers and Can-Am vehicles. The film was interrupted with motor racing identities and family members telling of his life. Outside the movies was a new McLaren sports car owned by a local. Theatre goers then went to the Transport Museum for nibbles and listened to McLaren’s first mechanic, Timaru born Walter Wilmott, speaking of his involvement with Bruce. He mentioned the failure to perform of a Ford engine (the Indianapolis 4.2l V8 converted to 3 litre for F1) and the frustration of waiting on BRM and other British engines. He also mentioned George Begg of Drummond working at McLaren for three months and then taking a chassis and other unwanted parts to New Zealand to make into a car (the McBegg sports car on display at E Hayes & Sons). Barry Clearwater from Gore had his Austin Healey on show in the Transport Museum foyer. This was a car that Bruce raced early in his career. Barry has over a long period of time restored this car back to original and had it out on the Southland Vero Rally. Barry Clearwater is presently restoring an army Indian. This will be painted red in the hope that it will make it go faster. Club Member Noel Sim and his brother Antony are both restoring 1938 Morris 8 Sports. Noel said his car was half full of mice and he thought of getting a piper to whistler them out. He has finished rebuilding the back of the body. Antony’s car you could call a barn find, original but requiring wood work to be replaced. Noel has two vintage Cloverleaf Citroens and Austin sevens as well as the Morris. Ray McCulloch has his 1938 Ford V8 Coupe back from the paint shop and has started refurbishing the inside. It is expected to be going for the South Island Easter Rally next year. Keith Thompson from Tuatapere has sold his XK150 Jaguar to a Christchurch buyer. It was driven to Christchurch after engine work was completed.
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Mid Week Run June 7th. A wet morning for the start of our run for about 24 cars and 56 people. On leaving racecourse we went out Findlay Rd, then onto Mill Rd, thru stop sign on to Makarewa then Branxholme, on thru Drummond and back to Waianiwa and on to Riverton highway turning into Steele Rd and wending our way to the Clubrooms for lunch. Thank you Louisa & Allan it was a good run and good roads. On entering club, the tables looked really lovely and the food was just super! A good time was had by all and very much appreciated. Thanks again.
Elaine
Louisa, stirring as usual.
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Cars at the Clubrooms after the June Mid Week Run
Mid week Run 5th July. Departing Racecourse Gates 10.30am. Meal $15.00 per person payable at start. Names & Numbers to Bill & Elaine Skeggs by Sunday 2nd July . Ph (03) 212 8786.
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A Visit to the Old Home Town We are Mike & Lyn Simpson, formerly of Invercargill and now living in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. We are members of the Vintage & Classic Car Club, Ballarat which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016/17. Mike is the VCCC Club Captain. Flying in from Melbourne we arrived at Queenstown’s International Airport on Friday 24th February 2017. Our ride, a 1963 Ford Fairlane turned up about an hour and a half later and we drove to Cromwell where we attended a wedding on the Saturday with the ’63 Fairlane and a ’53 Citroen as wedding cars. On Sunday we went to the Highlands Park motor museum and spent a couple of enjoyable hours recalling some NZ motorsport memories and viewing a few cars practising and racing on the track. We arrived in Invercargill on Monday spending the next couple of weeks with family. We spent about 3 hours visiting Transport World which is very impressive with such a massive collection of trucks and the display of early Ford cars & pickups from 1904 onwards is amazing. The display of wearable arts was an added bonus and not just for the ladies. Unfortunately I didn’t need to go to the toilet and since then everyone has been telling me I should have gone to see the set up in there. Maybe next time. The new museum complex is a credit to the Richardson family and all those involved in its development and we highly recommend you all add it to your things to do. We had a look in the Classic Car Warehouse in Spey St which had some desirable American classic cars for sale. On Sat 4th March we went and viewed the start of the Southland Veteran Rally in Esk St. It was windy wet and cold, but a few hardy souls brought out about 10 cars and 3 motorcycles for the rally to Riverton and back. Thank you to Ferg & Denise McDowall and Dave McKenzie who kindly arranged a ride on the rally in the Southland Vintage Car Club’s 1907 Darracq, but we had to decline because of other plans. At 4.30pm we went to the SVCC rooms to socialise and meet some members and as a result were invited to have a look at a 1912 Vulcan undergoing a total reconstruction along with a few other old vehicles stored nearby, thank you to Arthur Warren. I also learned a lot about some trams, trains and motorcycles while talking with Arthur. We made a visit to E.Hayes & Sons to view the collection that Neville Hayes has set up in his shop. From the 1910 Buick to a recently built Mini 8
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racer with a great range of cars, motoring memorabilia and mainly motorcycles displayed throughout the building. Of course the highlight was viewing the Bert Munro collection, but the other displays were well worth the visit. The day before we left Invercargill we visited the Motorcycle Mecca in Tay St. Impressed when we walked in through the café, we were amazed at the sight of all the vintage and classic motorcycles as we walked through to the museum. To see so many and varied makes and models of pre ‘70’s motorcycles with and without sidecars was an experience we won’t forget for a long time. We had our fathers with us and it was a buzz listening to them talk about some of the ‘30’s to ‘50’s bikes they used to own way back in time. I think they were wishing they were 60 years younger. We also went out to a bicycle shop in Gladstone to have a look at some brand new retro bicycles including one which was a Harley board racer style. We finished our two week visit back home to see family and friends and make new acquaintances in Invercargill with another feed of Bluff oysters and blue cod. Invercargill and the South have a great deal to offer tourists and we will be encouraging people to travel from Ballarat to visit. The VCCC Ballarat hosts their annual Begonia Rally (a three day event) on the weekend of the 3rd Friday in February and the 2018 event on 16th to 18th Feb will be the 47th running of it. The following week on Friday and Saturday is the annual Ballarat Swap Meet which is one of the largest in Australia. If anyone is interested in attending either or both events, please feel free to contact Mike or Lyn on mikelynsimpson@bigpond.com.au
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Post War, Post 60 & Post 80 Rally
The Post War, Post 60 & Post 80 Rally was held on May 20th and attracted a reasonable number of entries including three motorcycles. Unfortunately the weather had been very cold and wet prior to the event and did not look great on the day. I had entered my TVR and this created a bit on controversy with regard to its eligibility, being a 1987 car. However you try to interpret the VCC rules, all 1987 vehicles became eligible on 1 January 2017 but that is not the view of many members and not how it is viewed by VCC National Office and officials. The first problem with regard to the entry was that entrants had to select their own average speed. This is very difficult as you have no idea where the rally is going and what the roads will be like. Some people put in low average speeds as the previous PW, P60 & P80 Rally had spent quite a bit of time driving around Otatara with 50km/h speed limits. Others (and I was one of them) selected quite high average speeds as they like to actually drive their cars and don’t want to hold up other traffic. I decided that, in spite of the weather we would run with the top down. This may sound silly but this is how I normally drive the car. My navigator was quite happy with this as you can dress for the weather and we were still going to be a lot drier than those on motorcycles. In fact he had quite a bit of difficulty getting in and out of the car and probably would have struggled to get in with the roof on. At the start we were given our instructions and this included a start time. Clearly the start time was based on your average speed and those with higher average speeds were last to go. I was one of the last. Just as we rolled up to the start it started to hail but the hailstones were quite small and it didn’t last more than a couple of minutes. We headed out of the Clubrooms and turned left towards Dunns Road and straight out of town
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on Otatara Road, meaning virtually no 50km/h speed limits. The good news didn’t last as we were soon on unsealed roads totally unsuited to some of the cars. The first sections of gravel were fairly bare so I had no ground clearance issues and would have been able to run at reasonable speeds but was into slow traffic straight away. This only got worse as we soon found sections of road with a high ridge in the middle. I can assure you that some of those ridges are nowhere near as high as they were before we passed over. We had our first minor issue pretty quickly as the fuel gauge had decided to stop working and I suspect a stone had hit the terminals on the sender unit as it is just behind the left rear wheel. Whilst dodging the high bits of gravel we had to identify a number of items, letter box colours etc as well as look for the next instruction. We headed in a north westerly direction, finally making it as far as Otautau before heading home. The hills behind Otautau were covered in snow and there was a bit of sleet falling so we didn’t get too hot in the car. The return trip home included quite a lot more gravel and the rest of the roads were wet, making it difficult to maintain a quite high average speed, with many other cars on the rally travelling quite slowly and in convoy. Eventually we came back through Waianiwa and on back to the Clubrooms (where everybody seemed to be standing around the fire). After a drink or two we were served with a feed of pea, pie & pud followed by a nice dessert. Thanks go to the Rally organisers and especially to those in the kitchen.
Dave Results Post War Post 60 Post 80 Overall
Owen Davies Stuart Francis David North Owen Davies
1947 Buick 1978 BMW R100/7 & sidecar 1986 Toyota Corolla. 1947 Buick
Owen Davies receiving his certificate from chairman Donald Ward.
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AGM Presentations Best restoration - Bill Skeggs, for his Austin pickup
Best Mechanical Restoration - Ray McCulloch, David Calvert & David McIvor (absent) for the Club Darracq
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Service to the Club - Ray McCulloch
Out going Chairman Donald Ward.
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For Sale BSA C15 Motorcycle parts - Steve Winteringham 03 218 3228. 1941 Anderson Stationary Engine. In ver y good condition. Reasonable offer please. Contact Roy Shanks 03 216 6056 1958 Matchless 500. Good, fast r eliable bike. Sold with Rego and WOF. Ride Away $6,000.00. Phone Robert 03 2246160 1926 Model T Ford Roadster, electr ic star t (6 volt). Current WoF and in very good road condition. Full restoration mid-2000s, including leather upholstery and hood by Classic Autotrim Upholstery and complete engine reconditioning by Ray’s Rebuilds. Comes with some parts, wheel (spokes) and rims (in addition to the spare), luggage rack, jack and assorted bits and pieces along with various Model T Ford publications. Recent valuation available. $27,500 ono. Phone Hamish 0272 515 695. 1909 12HP Swift—Neil Calvert (03) 216 1141 Kearns Manchester Model 0 Toolroom Horizontal Borer. For milling, boring, drilling some turning, plenty of scope. Weight 2 tonnes. A proper machine. Contact David McIvor 03 217 4391. 1928 Falcon Knight Sedan, body all r ewooded and panelled, still requires some mudguards repaired, some nickel work done. A few spares with it, open to offers. Phone Bill 03 212 8786 1936 Ford C Model Flathead motor (r eco), chassis wheels etc. Dale Simmons 03 215 6615 1936 Ford C 2 door Rolling Body. Dale Simmons 03 215 6615
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Calendar Of Events Southland Branch Events
27th August Easter 2018
VCC National Charity Run South Island Easter Rally
Parts Shed The parts shed will be open the afternoon of meeting nights between 1 & 4 p.m. The following people can be contacted at anytime if requiring parts or information on parts in our Parts Shed. John Burke 217 8177 Alwyn Hoskins 215 9302 Neil Kidd 216 3788
Library The library will be open on general meeting nights between 7&9 p.m. Other times by appointment - phone 216 6056 Copyright of the contents of the “Rumour� magazine rests with the VCC of NZ (Southland Branch) unless otherwise stated. Views and opinions expressed in the Rumour are those of the authors of the articles and are not necessarily those of the Southland Branch of the VCC of NZ, the Branch Executive or the Editor. Mistakes will be corrected if possible if they are pointed out to the Editor.
Your Ad Here This space is available If you wish to advertise in Rumour please contact the editor. Rumour
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