NZ Hot Rod

LOOKING back 15 years to to this day in July 2004 you’d have found me with my hands firmly on the wheel of this magazine for the very first time with Rob Campbell (RIP) sitting beside me as we worked together assembling the very first fully digital m

THE concept of an aircraft bomber-style seat is now well entrenched in the traditional rodding psyche but have you ever considered taking that concept thru to the trunk and making a matching battery box. Frank Wallic has done just that and has these

LONG-TIME hot rodder and Tri-Five enthusiast Richard Adlington landed this two-owner 1955 2 door post sedan from Chattanooga. It was purchased from a retired pharmacist’s 22-car collection and came available during a “thinning of the herd”. The tudor

YOU’RE right Paul these must be pretty rare as I’ve never seen one or even heard of them. I’ve seen a few four-door sedans using the Ford body, but certainly not the coupe. I wonder why they made the change? Eddie Ford, Restored Cars Australia Magaz

I DON’T usually do this but being a slightly unusual car I decided to look up a few quick facts about the 1968 Oldsmobile 88 Holiday coupe and was very interested in my findings. The car was produced by General Motors as a full-size executive car. Th

DURING the formative years of Drag Racing at Ruapuna, Christchurch, one of the drawcards was Brent Thorpe who, between 1969 and 1978, campaigned several race cars of his own, even taking the driver’s seat in his brother Tony Thorpe’s T Altered. Arou

IN HIS own words: When I was a young fella back in the ‘70s, I lived in Whangarata - not far from the small town of Meremere – renowned as the location of New Zealand’s Champion Dragway. We lived there because my dad worked at the nearby Meremere Pow

NOT too long ago mufflers were considered a necessary evil with the performance crowd (that’s definitely us). Noise equalled power. Or at least, that was the general train of thought and of course, racket reigned supreme. You couldn’t have a hot rod

Tauranga’s Bert Dove has been a “car man” since he was a teenager living in Hamilton. Back in the 1960s, Bert was serving an apprenticeship at a joinery shop in Frankton, and the hot rod bug was fuelled by fellow workmates Keith McQuade and Roger Wel

A FEW years ago, Tim Garrett from Cambridge was asking around if anyone knew of a jailbar pickup which was for sale and it had to be a runner. At the time I had been working on one, and it just so happened the owner had another one in his shed at hom

PERFORMANCE can be measured in many ways. For drag racers, the 52nd Australian Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway was the epitome of just that. Perseverance is also a form of performance, and for this Gulf Western Oil-backed event, Willowbank mana

WHILE the Beach Boys sang about a real fine 409, it’s a 348 Chev W motor which is being squeezed into this Brookville bodied 1932 Ford roadster at GMS Hot Rods. The interesting project will also run full fenders, but with the typical hiboy wheel and

THE first Flatlands Motorama was held at the Autotron Expo in Rosmalen, the Netherlands on April 6 & 7. Event promoters are not beginners in our sport, Henry Van Uden ran a successful show for nine years the Rockin’Jalopies, and Miles Sherlock was pa

DURING Matt Brown’s high school years in the late ‘70s, he would cycle to Ruapuna Drag Meets. This struck a chord. I did the same thing a few years earlier. When Matt was still a student, he built a model of Ron Collett’s first rail. He even wrote a