PHOENIX
Into a New Year of Motoring.
(The Riley at Lochinvar Station. Editor’s photo.)
NEWSLETTER
WAITEMATA BRANCH DIRECTORY
CHAIRMAN: ROBERT CHAPMAN 021 038 3281
robman@orcon.net.nz
CLUB CAPTAIN: STAN SMITH 0274 775 475 vintageaircraft@xtra.co.nz
SECRETARY: JACQUI GOLDINGHAM 09 44 58811 waitemata@vcc.org.nz
TREASURER: JACQUI GOLDINGHAM 09 445 8811 goldienz@orcon.net.nz
BRANCH DELEGATE: IAN GOLDINGHAM 09 445 8811 goldienz@orcon.net.nz
EDITOR: MICHAEL GREIG 027 24 55 786 094456760
SCRIBE Moveable Feast
michael.john.greig@gmail.com
PAST CHAIRMAN: BRENDAN LAMAIN 021 132 4557 brendanandterry@gmail.com COMMITTEE: MAX JAMIESON, MIKE HOPE-CROSS, HAMISH ANDREWS.
COMING EVENTS
MARCH
North Shore Airfield Gymkhana & ¼ Mile Standing Sprint –Sunday 2nd First Club Night 2025 Tuesday 4th
Art Deco Hawke’s Bay – 13-16th
Ellerslie Car Show, Sunday 9th
Wellsford/Warkworth Swap Meet 22nd
Either: Shed Raid or Gymkhana. Date and details tba
Brit & Euro Car Show 2nd . Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga
60th Maunga Moana Rally Taranaki –21-22nd
Re- Run to Huia Details TBA National N.I. Easter Rally, Waikato 1821st
MAY Kaipara Airfield
Wings & Wheels –Sunday 18th
JUNE AGM 3rd
JULY R’Oilcan Date tba
Nelson Swap Meet Saturday 8th Levin SwapMeet 15th
o NS Airfield Gymkhana and ¼ mile Standing Sprint. Sunday 2 February 2025. At North Shore Airfield, Postman Road Dairy Flat. Look for the VCC signs. Start 1.00 pm. Excellent dinner and bar available after the event at the Aero Club Rooms. Numbers are needed for admin purposes so, if you haven’t done so, register your interest NOW with Stan Smith, 0274 775 475 or vintageaircraft@xtra.co.nz
o Ellerslie Car Show 9 February 2025. The Branch is having our usual display. Your chance to show off. Volunteer at club night to enter your vehicle or prepare to be shoulder tapped. Full detail as to time and place for arrival on the day will be advised.
o Brit & Euro Show. 2 March 2025 at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga. The Branch have 18 spaces reserved to show off our finest. Register your interest with Stan Smith, 0274 775 475 or vintageaircraft@xtra.co.nz to have your car as part of our display. Or expect to be shoulder tapped.
o Kaipara Airfield Wings and Wheels. Weather dependant, off course, but the date has been set for Sunday, 18th May. Ladies and gentlemen, mark your diaries.
o And there is more being worked on, with details to come.
Club Night. Now the First Tuesday of the Month, until further notice. See you at the RSA Room, King George V Memorial Hall, Library Lane, Albany, 7.30 pm .
Such a wonderful butterfly released from its workshop.
Christmas Lunch.
Sunday 8 December.
Team Talbot were 10 minutes late and arrived to find all but one or two of those attending already seated and ready to party! 22 of us in all, or was it 23? Hard to be sure with people moving around catching up with others.
And it was great seating. A table all to ourselves on the verandah, in the shade with a cooling breeze. Just the place for a sunny summer’s lunch
The decibel level continued rising, orders were placed, drinks bought in and the staff at ‘The Albany’, the historic pub known for many years as ‘The Wayside Inn’ at, well, Albany of course, were soon serving us our lunch. This caused the noise level to drop a bit, but not by much and not for long.
Then it was raffle time. Gilly Smith, as Santa’s elf, arranged for the draw, the lucky winner was chosen, Gilly delved into the Christmas stocking and awarded the confectionery prize. Then there was a second draw, then, hooray! a third draw, then a fourth, and fifth…. And so it went on until all of us at the table had won, some 2 or 3 times depending on their number of tickets. It was the Santa’s stocking that kept on giving.
Meanwhile, out in the car park the line-up of quality machinery was impressive – Jowett Javelin, Talbot 90, sports Prefect, a brace of 12/4 Rileys and Vaughan Beesley’s 4CS Ansaldo, on its maiden Branch outing in its new livery. The Benbrook R’Oilcan winning Honda Kermit was also there, parked at a discrete distance.
Big thanks to Gilly and Stan Smith for putting this on for us. A great start to the festive season
Kevin Beesley
Contrastinred–FordPrefectand4CSAnsaldo
Seasonal food affected motorists, with their cars turned out, well done!!
The funds raise from our Christmas lunch raffle were donated to Auckland City Mission, at the Franklin Rd light display by the treasurer.
Vaughan at the tail end explaining that construction is in ply as he has no panel beating tools. (True!)
Bunty always well presented.
The Green Benbrook party always in attendance.
The ’25 Roycroft Trophy Races – Hampton Downs, Sunday 26 January.
The weather for the Roycroft was somewhat better than the forecast. Sure, it was a little wet. There were passing showers, particularly mid-morning but these eased later in the day and it was dry for both of our 8 lap races.
A damp track for the first run added to the excitement. Robert Moston’s day out was cut short and his C Type Jaguar suffered a bloodied nose when it sledged into the Armco barrier on the first turn off the start. “Nothing I could do about it”, said Robert, “Away she went. Wasn’t even going fast. Maybe I should have left my worn old road tyres on rather than change them for my racing ones, as I did. “
Morley Faulkner’s 1964 Triumph Spitfire Macau
Replica crested the rise to be faced with Kevin Andrew’s1958 Speedex headed in the wrong direction following an unscheduled 180-degree turn.
Not to be outdone, Nigel Russell pulled a full 360, pirouetting his Stanguellini delicately around to continue unflustered in the right direction.
And all this on the first lap.
The start itself was interesting, with Hamish Andrew having to pull the ’59 M17 Buckler into the slip lane rather than onto the grid in order to secure the bonnet clips he had left undone. The Benbrook Gemini MkII, 1959 vintage, spun off the line somewhat better than the Stanguellini which hesitated in place with sustained loss of traction.
Team Jaguar before the Armco barrier incident
The race was a stirring contest between Brian Ashworth’s beautifully presented 1962 Daimler SP250 and ‘The Cream Cracker’, Grant Kern’s formidable 1950 MG TD, with the lead changing lap on lap until the SP250 finally prevailed. The second race was less eventful but, being handicap format, equally dramatic with the cars bunching as they came down to the hairpin. Again, the SP250 and MG went wheel to wheel with the Daimler coming in ahead. The winner, though was Peter Benbrook who was really flying in the Gemini, followed home by Hamish Andrew in the Buckler, a credible effort.
Barry Garland’s immaculate 1957 Lotus 11 circulated consistently, adding class to the proceedings and Doug Raynard, from Hastings with his 1961 Austin A40 Farina exemplified the spirit of the event. The Austin blew its head gasket in qualifying and Doug set to replacing it with help from, and a gasket provided by, Peter Benbrook so as to be ready to go when the racing started.
Piers Faulkner’s 1968 Formula Vee faltered and did not start. Ignition troubles. Unfortunate. Wayne Hayward’s Triumph Lotus Special was another Qualifying Run casualty and dropped out thereafter. Next time. Evolving circumstances required us to apply a little imagination in awarding the trophies, which went to…
SP250 pilot Bryan Ashworth (left) is included. He was a strong contender.
- Peter Benbrook – overall winner and winner of the Roycroft Cup
- Hamish Andrew – 2nd overall and winner of the Roycroft 2nd place cup
- Doug Raynard – winner of the pre ‘60 Saloon Cup. A year out, but hey, his ’61 Farina was the only saloon, and he put in a sterling effort
- Morley Faulkner – the Pre 45 Grid Cup. There was no grid as such, but Morley is a staunch competitor, and we figured he was pre ‘45.
Big thanks to;
Jacqui Goldingham as our Clerk of the Course and without whose efforts the event would not have taken place.
Marcus Ling for stepping up as our Speed Steward.
Kevin Andrew as our trusty scrutineer.
Ray Sanders, VCC National Speed Steward for his presence and input on our behalf.
Kevin Beesley
Ian and Jacqui Goldingham, Julie Benbrook, Kevin Beesley
Photos:
Usual suspects lurking with intent
1"Lord give me strength! I told them I wanted short reach plugs." Peirs Faulkner and misfiring Wainwright Formulae Vee.
Hamish Andrew being helped into the Buckler.
Kevin Andrew having to do it all by himself.
Nigel Russell colour coordinated with his Stanguelini
Doug Raynard relacing his Farina's head gasket.
MG TD leads SP250 leads Gemini leads Stanguelini leads Lotus 11.
Bloodied nose on the Jag after the Armco Incident.
Fformidable machinery-the MG TD engine room.
Hampton Downs Control Centre
Peter goes wide, Nigel goes for the brakes, Speedex, MG and SP250 coming up behind.
From our aviation and Riley correspondent, Good morning, Michael,
Attached are three photos I took last month at Inchbonnie on the West Coast. The occasion was the 90th anniversary celebration of New Zealand's first scheduled airline service, when Bert Mercer picked up two passengers from the express from Christchurch at Inchbonnie on 18 December 1934 and flew them in DH83 Fox Moth ZK-ADI to Franz Josef Glacier. They returned in time to catch the 4.30pm mixed train from Greymouth back to Christchurch, which stopped at Inchbonnie at 7pm.
Also present for the December 2024 event was the original Fox Moth, ZK-ADI. I can't think of any other country where the original airliner that started its air services 90 years ago is still airworthy.
The Model A Ford was present on an airstrip near the present Inchbonnie railway halt. Somebody has gone to a great deal of trouble to replicate a Canterbury University Ski Club member's car, complete with thermette, canvas, no 8 wire, chains, wooden skis, evidence of gravel roads and doubtless other details.
The Fox Moth couldn't land at Inchbonnie because the original aerodrome has reverted to farm paddocks and is in no fit state, but it flew over the gathering. Tiger Moth ZK-BEF was able to land on an airstrip near the restored railway halt and later that afternoon flew a reenactment from Inchbonnie to Franz Josef and back to Greymouth.
The Fox and Tiger Moth need the whole page to themselves. Beautiful photos from our own John King.
From The Acting Chair
The holidays are over. Time to get back into the fun stuff.
The Branch year got off to a flying start with the Roycroft Trophy races, Hampton Downs and continued a week later with the North Shore Airfield Gymkhana and ¼ mile Sprint. Following hot on those heels is first club night, 4 February, then the Ellerslie Car Show, 9 February.
The Roycroft was a great success, a showcase of what the Branch is capable of. Competitive, convivial and fun. Long may it continue. And your committee, which met on 28 January, has a varied calendar of events in train to ensure it does so.
Nothing happens, though, without input. Please bear that in mind as June and our AGM approaches and we call for officials and committee members to stand and be counted. However, your committee doesn’t have a monopoly on ideas. If you have thoughts on possible events or a venue you think worth visiting, then please let us know. Remember also that contributions to ‘Phoenix’ are always welcomed by our worthy Editor.
Mostly though, join with us and enjoy our events and the wonderful motoring N.Z. has to offer. Don’t let an opportunity go by.
Compliments of the season to all.
Kevin Beesley (Acting Chairman)
A word from the Chairman. (Still in gentle recovery mode.)
Happy New Year everyone and a belated thank you for all your best wishers. I am certainly ready for some vintage motoring in 2025 and your company. Our 9th February event, the Classic Car Show at Ellerslie Racecourse is still in need of more cars for display. you get free tickets to the show and our club gets a cut from the gate. Phone Kevin Andrews at 0274989454 for the free tickets.
The following month we another have a display event on the 2nd of March at Lloyd Elsmore Park please consider coming along with your car the public are always happy to enjoy our cars. Details to follow next month. Hope to see you all on the road soon.
Chairman Rob.
Editorial Notes from a Far-Off Island.
I am typing away on this coastal land; to the north the hills are green with forest and clouds caught briefly as they progress on their journey, the southern hills, brown and dry with stunted grass. Between the hills, known as the Wairau, meaning a hundred rivers, the area was renowned for its harakeke, the flax , prized for its weaving qualities, the fish and other resources. It is a town supporting a wine industry, a mono crop that covers the land as far as the eye can see, with seasonal workers from Melanesian, peoples from Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomons, Tongans and from Samoa.
I look out on the small orchard, which is giving me large juicy plumbs and pears for breakfast (it is bottling season in full swing) and next will be the Black Boy peaches. The walnuts are large and last year’s crop still awaits consumption.
In this healthy environment under strict supervision, exercise and reprogramming, I am losing weight and girth. Having reached a loss of 10 kg and falling, a new delicate form is arising, clothed in smaller attire, perhaps to be more terrifying on the dance floor, at the wheel of the Riley and challenging in the saddle, I shall return!
A new passion has arisen in this fertile soil; a back to basics move into timber with traditional tools. Joining the local Men’s Shed and the Woodworkers Guild, I have crafted a Bodgers shaving bench and continued with the obsession of making walking sticks as gifts. Motoring nobility have been presented with these fine crafted heirlooms that will be treasured and passed on to generations to come. Recipients include the House of Hearne, Lairds of hills of Oamaru; the well campaigned, Major Upsett, the Honourable Earl of Preston; and reining from the saddle in the valleys of Havelock, the Role Model, vintage driver and bikeress, Alison Moores. To the well acknowledged, Geoff Edwards, Vintage pursuer, Enthusiast, a great supporter of Vintage driving; a fine supporting staff was presented. Your time may indeed come…Prepare for the day!
An appreciation of Andy Anderson
The last of the original founders of the vintage car club, Andy Anderson, died recently. He was just short of turning 97 years old. In December 2023 he had just received his final speeding ticket of 130kph, with the proud comment that “it was money well spent!”
Andy and three of his friends owned, unofficially, a Model T Ford as boarders at Christs College. One of the co-owners was Mike Haggitt who went on to talk Lucy Wills into selling him her farm ute, a three litre Bentley. Haggitt drove this for another 40 years.
Andy and a small group founded the Vintage Vehicles Association after a trip to the Rakaia Hutts in Canterbury in 1946. They were all university students at Canterbury University. Basically, the club was made up of what would be referred to today as a gathering of boy racers. Only they were driving elderly vehicles many of which were only 20 years old. Andy acquired a 1913 Panhard Levassor as his first carriage of choice.
The club went into recess for a period but was revived as the NZ Vintage Car Club after the success of the film Genevieve. Rob Shand became the first president and Andy Anderson the club secretary. Andy's wife, Molly, was the editor of the first Guff Sheet which morphed into becoming known to this day as Beaded Wheels. Molly edited this for over 10 years and gave it it’s stable reputation and reliable base. When Rob Shand stood down as president in 1963 and Andy became president.
Andy owned a number of vehicles including a 1921 Napier 40/50 tourer and Molly purchased a 1914 Humber which is now in the Bain collection. The Colonial model Napier gained fame as being Andy’s Chief Marshal’s car seen everywhere on the Haast Rally, and today the beast slumbers away at the Southward Museum, it’s repose well and truly deserved.
Anderson’s 1921 Napier 40-50 Colonial Tourer
Andy Anderson road racing the Panhard against Spud Jackson in his Sunbeam 14/40
Andy & Ian Taylor charging along in the 1914 Sunbeam IOM Works racer
The VCC was gifted by Bill Hamilton, of Hamilton Jet fame, his 1915 Sunbeam IOM racer. This ended up in Andy’s custody and I well remember a darkly whispered management committee tussle as to how it was going to restored. That’s another story and I’m in the process of collecting background information before I write anything more. Suffice to say the car now resides in the UK.
Andy's great contribution to the VCC was as organiser of the 1965 Haast Pass Rally and the 1972 International Rally in Nelson. They were both huge successes and put the NZ VCC on the world map for vintage motoring. He also co-organised, with his brother-in-law Gordon Sharpe, the Southern Festival of Speed. He had considerable organisational skills, his family mentioned that his overriding ability was to use his “persuasive enthusiasm “on the uninitiated” by always urging them “to give it go”!
I moved to Christchurch in 1973 and from my perspective he was this autocratic, towering figure of a man with a booming stentorian voice who looked past any enthusiast who only had an Austin 7. It was about this same time that Andy became a strong supporter of the emerging North Shore Branch. His “old boy” network of Spud Jackson and Michael Pointon helped our” old guard” determine the unique shape of the Branch and its later future in the formation of Waitemata Branch.
It's worth reflecting on the genesis of the Vintage Car Club. Rob Shand and Andy Anderson were both products of privileged backgrounds, with family money and private school education
with the lifetime connections which so often go with this. Shand was a maverick and born in the wrong century. Anderson was a dreamer also possibly should have been born in an earlier time. They both conformed with the old saying that it takes one generation to make the money, and two to lose it.
I deeply respected Molly Anderson. She was visionary and nothing got in the way of her achieving her vision. I was a child during the early period of the Club but I suspect without Molly Beaded Wheels would not exist. When Andy and Molly moved to North Canterbury Molly proceeded to promote the need for recycling in the community. She established a thriving recycling centre and when Christchurch City Council was considering moving towards recycling some of their rubbish Molly Anderson was the person who advised on how to go about it. Molly was a truly impressive person.
A few weeks before his death Geoff Edwards and I visited Andy at the Charles Upham Memorial Home where he lived out his final days. Upham was another North Canterbury autocrat. Andy was fast asleep with an open book alongside him but sprang into life when he realised, he had a fresh audience. His recall of the first Irishman Creek Rally and the events around organising that rally were clear as a bell. He was the last survivor of that event. If we asked him about anything that was slightly contentious, he brushed it aside with a wipe of his hand.
Those of us with a love of real vintage motoring owe much the Shands and Andersons. These larger-than-life characters were possibly out of place in their own generation. Their spirit and dreams live on every time we sit behind the wheel of an old car and motor toward the horizons they saw so clearly.
Andy Anderson.
Vale
Garry Moore Banks Peninsula Branch & FOB
A selection of snaps I took when on the Targa Rally in the Mighty S Class Ex Russian Embassy 300 SE Mercedes. It was a short tea break with requested snackeries with FOB, the Deadly Danny, Master of the Fearful Red Lancia and the elegant H6, and the well travelled 350 Z Roadster, (that is why I bought mine).
The below vehicle is having extensive milage to iron out possible problems which are awaited with great excitement. I hope to visit again before I return to the Northern Pastures. Uncle Mike.
Taken from the early issues of ‘Progress’, the newsletter of the North shore Branch before the formation of the Waitemata Branch. As a young member of the Branch, I had become involved with the ‘Long Range Dennis Group’, ( those pottering around with the Dennis bus Project), committee member and onwards to assistant to the then club captain, the legend, Frank DeLatour. I had run my Velocette MSS and James Captain at the Pinchgut Road Hillclimb at Kaukapakapa. To the merriment of John Gairdner, I had listed my 1905 Kokin Barber’s chair as a Veteran Commercial, single seater, the ‘‘One Lever” Model with the head office of the Vintage Car Club. For years I would get invitations to events.
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.
PHOENIX
The OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER of THE WAITEMATA BRANCH of the VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF N.Z. INC.
CLUB NIGHT
Tuesday 4th February 2025
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.
Danny Ryan's Steam engine from the Makaroa.