Picton Rally For Veteran Cars

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28552, 3 April 1958, Page 15

Picton Rally For Veteran Cars

A MID a cacophony of sound emerging from under the bonnets, more than 100 veteran and vintage cars from different parts of New Zealand will chug and wheeze their way into the main street of Picton on Saturday morning for the biggest rally of pre-1931 cars organised in the southern hemisphere. The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand has arranged the rally in conjunction with an oil company as part of the Picton Easter Festival. About 80 of the cars from the South Island will leave the corner of Madras and Tuam streets tomorrow morning at two-minute intervals between 5.30 and 8.30. Many will take more than 12 hours to cover the journey to Picton, but to assert to one of the proud owners that his car might not last the distance would be regarded as heresy. There is

no time limit for the journey, so the “single-banger” machines will be able to ppp their way merrily along the highway at the high cruising speed of 15 miles an hour. Northern Entries The North Island contingent of cars will be shipped to Picton, some after long trips to Wellington. On Saturday, the cars will compete in speed trials in the main street of Picton, the drivers holding grimly to the steering wheels or tillers as their mounts shake violently at high revolutions. The usefulness of such vehicles without doors will become evident when potato races and other novelty events are held in the Waitohe Domain on Saturday afternoon.

Besides the curiosities of the pre-1914 era. some other famous makes and models of cars will be represented. A 7|-litre Mercedes which quaffs petrol at a phenomenal rate, several Bentleys of the time when the marque was the most-desired sports car in th? world with a top speed of more than 80 miles an hour, and a Stanley Steamer which hisses like its railed counterpart, are only a few of the more interesting entries. Real Test A North Island competitor from Carterton, Mr R. Porter, has decided on a real test for his 1900 De Dion Bouton. On the journey to Wellington, he will tackle the formidable Rimutakas in the tiny 499 c.c. car—smaller in engine size than some of today's motorcycles. Three cars are entered by a Christchurch member of the club. Mr A. Shadbolt. They are a 1903

Western, a 1901 Northern, and a 1904 Orient—cars which have been restored to their original conditions and would sell to enthusiasts in the United States for about £2OOO each. Mr Shadbolt has put thousands of hours of work into the cars after digging the parts of them up from farmers’ paddocks or resurrecting them from scrap and wrecking yards.

Model T Fords,- the best-known cars ever built, appear in the entry list alongside such longforgotten names as Metz. Briton, Minerva, Arrol Johnson, Oakland, 0.M., F.N. Others show the great, imagination used by makers of cars of earlier years. The great motor companies of today would shudder at naming one of their chromium-plated monsters a Bean, New Pick, Rickenbacker, or Orient Buckboard.