The Pierce-Arrow automobile brand has an interesting history that many historians still talk about today. The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was located in Buffalo, New York and operated from 1901 to 1938. It was well-known for producing expensive luxury automobiles, as well as boats, motorcycles and bicycles in a factory designed by Detroit industrial architect Albert Kahn.
The company was formed by George N. Pierce, who was previously involved with manufacturing household items before his interest in automobiles. His first automobile was called the Arrow, which offered an engine mounted in the front of the car. For many years, owning a Pierce-Arrow became a status symbol, as the vehicles were owned by the super-rich or Hollywood stars of the era.
In 1928, the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana purchased PierceArrow to move into the luxury market. With the cash infusion, Pierce-Arrow introduced a new eight-cylinder engine in the 1930s which became very popular. For 1931, Pierce-Arrow introduced the following series: 43, 42, and 41. The higher the number designations meant the lowest priced car in brand’s lineup. Despite the economic hardships that came with the beginning of the Great Depression, the automobile had become the great symbol for travel and a necessity for many Americans. Pierce-Arrow advertising illustrations were created with a great artistic appeal, and sometimes were very understated. For example, the illustrations often placed the automobile in the background rather than the foreground. In addition, Pierce-Arrow advertising featured very stylish illustrations with fashionable automotive artwork that Americans admired.
Great History of Pierce-Arrow Advertising—
Great History of Pierce-Arrow Advertising—by
Robert Tate
Some of the talented artists who illustrated the PierceArrow print advertising campaigns included Louis Fancher, Ludwig Hohlwein, Myron Perley, John Sherdan, Edward Willson, and many others. The advertising would often feature the automobile in places not normally entered, and the messaging in the ads emphasized luxury, power and price. For example, one ad featured in this story says, “And now, again Pierce Arrow steps out with a new eight at $2,195.” For years, historians have said that the most attention-grabbing automobile advertising lists the price of the vehicle, along with engine performance and gas mileage. During the 1930s, all of the automakers were affected by the Great Depression. Studebaker had to declare bankruptcy and sold Pierce-Arrow to a group of Buffalo investors in 1933. Despite the change in ownership, Pierce-Arrow only continued to sell automobiles through 1938. In fact, the Pierce-Arrow manufacturing and sales in 1938 totalled less than 100 vehicles. In conclusion, Pierce-Arrow’s advertising featured great works of art illustrated by talented artists, which will always be a part of our automotive history
Assembly point—Tavistock Place, Waipukurau.
Meet at 9.00am—Depart at 9.30am.
1. Travelling North to the Waipawa Town Clock.
2. Turn right onto Victoria Street and through Bibby Street to Johnson street.
3. Turn left into Johnson Street.
4. Turn right onto Pourerere Rd.
5. Turn left into River Rd just before Tamumu Bridge
6. Turn right at the Patangata Tavern and over the bridge to Elsthorpe
7. Turn left when you are past Elsthorpe onto Kahuranaki Road and then left into the Elsthorpe Sports Domain.
Bring your own lunch, thermos, chairs and table etc.
The day will involve novelty events. There will be prizes for the individual categories on the day.
Activities finish around 3.00-3.30pm.
Finish the day off with a beer and nibbles at Patangata Tavern on your way home.
In the event of bad weather on the day, keep an eye on your e-mails.
As the Domain has a hire-age fee of $100, this will be divided up among members participating on the day.
Any questions phone Iain Gollan
06 858 9105 or 021 170 9978 nga-oki@xtra.co.nz Sunday February 9th—Gymkhana—Elsthorpe Domain—organised by Iain Gollan
Saturday 15th February 202—Central Hawkes Bay Art Deco Market
Russell Park, Waipukurau—10.00am—2.00pm
The Central Hawkes Bay Art Deco Market is back for its 3rd year. A day you won’t want to miss.
With over 60 New Zealand made craft, produce and artisan stalls, multiple food trucks and bougie picnic tables and cheese boards.
Waipukurau will be transformed back to the Art Deco Era with live music, Classic Cars and entertainment. Adults and kids alike will enjoy a fantastic fun filled experience down in Central Hawke’s Bay. Bring your classic car —and dress in your best finery. Contact Bruce Poole or Gary Weaver for more details
Thursday 13th—Sunday 16th February 2025—Hawkes Bay Art Deco festival
Tuesday 18th February 2025—CHB Branch Dinner and Meeting
To be held at the Waipukurau Club—Russell Street—Waipukurau
Arrive from 6.00pm Dinner 6.30pm Meeting 7.30pm
Main and Dessert $35.00 per person
PLEASE PAY EVA CASH ON ARRIVAL FOR MEAL.
Eftpos available at bar for drinks
Menu: Chicken Parmigiana
Roast Pork with apple sauce and gravy
Potatoes
Peas
Roast vegetable salad
Glazed beetroot and carrot salad
Mushroom salad
Dessert: Sticky date pudding with Ice Cream
Please reply to Eva with numbers by the evening of Friday 14th February 2025 06 858 9105 021 170 9978 nga-oki@xtra.co.nz
No late bookings please
If you have any dietary needs, please advise when you book your meal.
PLEASE NOTE: The CHBVCC branch will make payment for any late dinner cancellations or no shows, then an invoice will be sent to the member/members concerned.
CHB Branch Chairman GaryWeaverQSM
February Sun 9th
Sat 15th
Tues 18th
March Sun 23rd
Gymkhana to be held at the Elsthorpe Domain organised by Iain and Seton Sat 1st
MANAWATU BRANCH VCC
LADIES FRIENDSHIP GROUP
INTER-BRANCH “PICNIC LUNCH ON THE LAWN” Time From 11.30 am
Central Hawkes Bay Art Deco Market— Russell Park, Waipukurau 13th to 16th Hawkes Bay Art Deco Festival
Club Dinner and Meeting Waipukurau Club Sun 16th Manawatu Branch Veteran classification vehicles
Club run to Woodville to visit a private collection. Sun 9th Manawatu Branch Ruahine Ramble
Wed 19th Club Dinner and Meeting venue TBA
April Sat 5th Twilight run
Wed 16th Club Dinner and Meeting venue TBA
May Sat 17th
Club Run to Galloways in Norsewood organised by Ella and Henk
June
CHB Branch of the VCC—Chairman’s Report—February 2025
Now we are into 2025, 2024 was ok, but this year will be better. 2024 ended with the Gum Boot rally in Taihape, enjoyed by those that attended.
Seton and Judy hosted a time event at Pukeora. This event is not a hill climb.
On Saturday 18th January Paul & Judy Jensen hosted our 1st Committee Meeting for the year and a day at the beach, well attended and enjoyed by all, and the weather did behave.
Ideas were put forward for future monthly meetings and venues.
Sunday 9th February a gymkhana at the Elsthorpe Domain has been organized.
CHB Art Deco Market Saturday 15th February at Russell Park Vintage Cars requested for this event, plenty of things happening lets dress up and have some fun.
Laurie & Gloria Malcolmson will be representing the CHB Branch of the VCC Club, at Clubs awareness day in Dannevirke on Saturday 15th of March.
Twilight Rally coming up soon.
Sad to read Andrew Andersen a life member and founder of the VCC has passed-RIP.
Thoughts for the AGM. Gloria will resign from the committee at the AGM, also time to elect a new Chairperson as I will have served 3 years and will be standing down as per club rules.
All the best for this year 2025
Regards
Gary Weaver QSM Chairman
From National Office
All renewal to be sent two months in advance of expiry date. Any queries please contact Keith Hopping—keithhopping@gmail.com
Club Captains Report—Laurie's Lot—February—2025
Over New Year ten branch members travelled to Taihape for the 40th year of the Gumboot Rally. Meeting in Woodville for morning tea, then going to the Clements' property for lunch. There were members from the Manawatu and Wairarapa Branch there. After lunch we all departed for Taihape via a run organised by Ken and Annette Foot. Rain before and during the rally meant muddy roads greeted the Rally participants. There were a wide range of vehicle types. Manawatu Branch members were the lucky rally winners.
The Beach run had a very good turn out, forty four people including visitors from the Waitemata and Hawkes Bay Branches joining us. Thank you to Paul and Judy Jensen for organising this event and for the use of their property and for the meat they supplied to add to our salads for lunch.
Sunday 9th February we are having a Gymkhana at the Elsthorpe Domain, organised by Iain and Seton.
Saturday 15th March the Dannevirke Lions are having a club expo day. I have booked a stall to hopefully attract some new members.
Sunday 23rd March will be a club run to Woodville to visit a private museum type collections.
Saturday 5th April is the twilight run. More details to follow closer to this event.
Safe Motoring
Laurie Malcolmson Club Captain.
Vintage Automobilia Auction
STEVE TROTT IS DOWNSIZING HIS COLLECTION
Get ready for a thrilling auction experience! Explore an exciting collection of vintage automobilia and petroliana, featuring enamel signs, petrol pumps, hubcaps, radiator badges, AA badges, pedal cars, money boxes and so much more. There will be in excess of 100 quality lots.
Register your interest now: vintageautomobiliaauction2025@gmail.com
Once you register your interest we will be in contact to give you event information and catalogue details. Floor bidding and online bidding will be available on the day. The photos show examples of items that will be for sale at the auction. Once the catalogue is finalised in December, there will be no sales of catalogue items before the auction.
Auction Date 14th February 2025 Location Napier City
Viewing from midday—auction starting at 2.00pm—(Other viewing times will be confirmed)
Email any enquiries: vintageautomobiliaauction2025@gmail.com
The hydrogen-powered car fuelled by sewage—by Simon Wilkes
A project named Waste2Race at the University of Warwick, led by students and engineers at the WMG department, is developing a hydrogen-powered car fuelled by sewage.
The hydrogen used to power the car comes from Wastewater Fuels’ water treatment technology that treats any wastewater and turns it into a hydrogen gas.
Hoping to smash the speed record for a hydrogen-fuelled car, the team at the university is working hard to complete the Waste2Race project by 2025.
Recently, manufacturers such as Alpine and Toyota have also been exploring hydrogen as a fuel for their racing cars as BMW just announced their plans for its first hydrogen car on sale from 2028.
Warwick’s Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research), Professor Kerry Kirwan, explained: “Fifteen years ago we built the WorldF3rst racing car that showed that high performance and sustainability could be achieved together.
“The Waste2Race platform builds on that pedigree and brings it firmly into today’s arena.
“This sort of collaboration with our local, regional and national partners is a great example of how business, universities and the endless curiosity of our researchers and students, can break barriers and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
“We’re incredibly proud of the ingenuity of the whole team and wish them all the best of luck in their land speed record attempt.
The hydrogen-powered car fuelled by sewage—by Simon Wilkes
Sustainable materials
Ginetta, the supercar builders from Leeds have built the Waste2Race Le Mans Prototype class 3 car (LMP3), sourcing some of the car parts from sustainable materials including a wing mirror from beetroot waste.
The steering wheel was made from a hundred per cent biosource materials and the car battery was recovered from a crashed vehicle.
With the chassis completed, the next target has been to develop a sustainable powertrain as the team works on converting a supercharged V6 engine to run on hydrogen.
They have fitted bespoke injectors, hub-motors which include recycled magnets on the front wheels and have enabled energy recovered from braking to be stored in the battery.
As much as the project aims to break speed records for a hydrogen-fuelled car, researchers at WMG will also use Life Cycle Assessment analysis to ensure the car leads the sustainability race as well.
Exciting project
The hydrogen produced by Wastewater Fuels is being trialled at Severn Trent Water and the Head of Asset Intelligence & Innovation at Severn Trent Water, Richard Walwyn, said: “Severn Trent is proud to be supporting Wastewater Fuels with the development of the technology to fuel this exciting project.
“We have a firm commitment to support technologies that have positive impacts on our environment, from reducing the process emissions at our sites, to developing the circular economy in our region and helping partners like the University of Warwick to realise potentially game-changing new technologies like this.”
Future net zero economy
Dr Daniel Carlotta-Jones (EngD), Chief Engineer at Wastewater Fuels said: “Recovering value from waste streams is going to be an essential part of any future net zero economy.
“One of the most important areas to target are wastewaters, something that is constantly being produced by society, industry and agriculture. Chemicals, energy and fuels can be recovered, the latter being what we are focused on producing with our Microbial Electrolysis Cells at Wastewater Fuels. “Teaming up with WMG with the Waste2Race car project shows conceptually how we can process our waste streams in better ways that can deliver value for everyone.”
Farmers could be onto a good thing too?
Malcolmson
Taihape is home of the annual Gumboot day, first celebrated on 9th April 1985. This festival was devised by local business people who decided to capitalise on its rural image.
The 40th Gumboot Car Rally was well attended by the CHB Branch, Bruce Poole, Neil Cox, Rod and Scarlett McKenzie, Lynn and Sandra Cross, Tony Prebensen, John and Laurie and I met in Woodville at the Windmill Cafe for morning tea. We left there about 11.00am heading for Glyn and Cathy Clements place for lunch. The weather was horrible with wind and rain. There we met up with some Manawatu folks and also people from Wairarapa. Ken and Annette Foot set a rally for us which took us on some rough back roads to Taihape. Once there, we all booked into our Motels rooms unloaded and had a couple of drinks before dinner. Dinner was at the Gretna Hotel the food was lovely, but with so many of us, it put them in a bit of a spin.
There were cars from 6 Branches that started the rally on New Years day. We all met at the Taihape Memorial Park for our rally start. It was drizzly and showery all day. First part of the rally took us on back road which were windy and some gravel. Our lunch stop was at the Manaweka School which was great as we were undercover and the school opened up classrooms and the toilet block for us.
The afternoon rally took us on State Highway one down towards the Rangatira Golf Course where we turned right. Our back road journey took us on some terrible roads some we went on the day before. The rain made them very rutty and slushy, these are classed as minor roads. On our journey there were also 6 yellow containers around the whole trip which had playing cards in them. We had to take a card from each one and give them to Robert at our BBQ place. Robert added the cards up in his own special way then he flipped a coin to see if it was going to be High or Low. It turned out to be high and top place went to Judy and Chris from Manawatu VCC. It was sad about the weather, but everyone just got on with the rally and had an enjoyable day. After the BBQ we went back to our motel where we had a few drinks outside with some of us cuddled under blankets. Great time, great company and we have booked for the 2025-2026 Gumboot Rally.
Saturday 18th January 2025 Beach Run organised by Paul and Judy Jensen
The weather played its part on this day and there was a great turnout. Forty four members including visitors from the Waitemata and Hawkes Bay Branches. Many thanks to Paul and Judy Jensen for organising this event and for the use of their property. Wonderful day and company, the food was good too.
Central Hawkes Bay Branch oftheVCC— Directory
Chairman Gary Weaver 027 442 8920 weave@xtra.co.nz
06 858 5099 or 027 457 8945 pat.neil2016@gmail.com
Committee Gloria Malcolmson
06 374 9823 or 021 579 133 supagran14@yahoo.com.au
Catering—Eva Gollan
06 858 9105 or 021 170 9978 nga-oki@xtra.co.nz
Raffles Scarlett McKenzie
06 858 9562 or 027 446 7198 rod.mckenzie.wpk@xtra.co.nz
Beaded Wheels—Heather Cheer
06 374 0864 or 027 235 6649 ghcheer@xtra.co.nz
Ruahine Ramble Sunday 9th March 2025
FORMAT
9.00 AM Meet at Clubrooms, 684 Kelvin Grove Road, Palmerston North for a tea/coffee before the Rally 9.30 AM Rally Briefing
10.00 AM First car away All VCC classification vehicles
Run length 110 Miles this includes one gravel road Fuel is available
Bring your own Picnic lunch plus chairs or blanket Rally Entry Fee includes a Plaque Run will conclude at the Clubrooms for Prize Giving and BBQ Dinner
Please bring your own Drinks for the BBQ (water/tea/coffee will be available) Please advise any dietary requirements (GF, DF)
ENTRANT
NAME
NAVIGATOR/PASSENGER NAME NAME
TELEPHONE ( ___ ) ___________ EMAIL
ADDRESS
VEHICLE MAKE/MODEL/YEAR
VEHICLE REGO. NO. ______________
RALLY ENTRY @ $20.00 / Per Vehicle $20.00 BBQ / per Head @ $15.00 / No. of People $ TOTAL $______________
PAYMENT DETAILS
Please make payment via Internet Banking Vintage Car Club of New Zealand Manawatu Branch Incorporated 03-0718-0027253-01 Ref: Name, Reg No. (Ramble rally)
Please send completed Entry Form to Organisers: Derek Haycock, derek.and.beck@inspire.net.nz or 375 Albert Street, Hokowhitu, Palmerston North 4410 Cell 0274 419 153 Derek
If you haven’t received an email confirmation of entry by the closing date, please contact the Organiser.
**ENTRIES CLOSE: Saturday 1st March 2025
For Sale
Goff and Judy Briant need to move their two cars on to new owners. Both cars have been well rallied around the Manawatu over the past years and both come with a selection of spares. Located in the Marton area. Contact Judy on 027-254-7601 or email gjw.briant@xtra.co.nz
1927 Essex Sedan
The engine has had a complete rebuild approx 2014, otherwise a very original example. Spares include, vacuum tank, brake bands, engine block, sump etc.
1939 Nash 400
Asking $12,000 or near offer
A great cruising car. I believe there may be an overdrive unit with the spares that go with the car.
Asking $20,000 or near offer
Angela Annear
An authorised Travel Broker for Searle Travel Ltd.
Consultations are by appointment. Angela Annear Travel Broker
10 Brooker Place, Waipukurau 4200, Central Hawkes Bay.
For more details: Email: angela@searletravel.co.nz
Phone: 06 858 9082 Cell: 027 281 1306
Website: www.angelas-travel.co.nz
Free Advertising available for members OR non members for PRIVATE SALE Vehicles, parts, machinery etc, please contact Gary Weaver, Kaye Carswell or “The Bleat” Editor joycecalder@gmail.com to place your advertisement.
Four luxurious units available to hire
Contact us now so we can show you how to add luxury to your event
06 857 8757 or 027 235 5996 karen@premierloos.co.nz www.premierloos.co.nz
We now have CHB VCC windscreen stickers available Contact TREASURER accounts@wpkmotors.co.nz
