Vintage Cars Arriving

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30643, 8 January 1965, Page 11

Vintage Cars Arriving

JN March the largest and longest vintage car rally yet held will take place in the South 'lsland, and more than 70 vintage and veteran cars will come from overseas as part of the entry of 320 vehicles taking part in the international event, which is being organised by the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand. The photograph shows the first vintage car scheduled to arrive in New Zealand from South Africa being loaded at Durban recently. It is a 1912 Silver Ghost Rolls-Royce belonging to Mr G. Huddlestone, and is being loaded on the Van Der Hagen for shipment to Lyttelton. Vehicles are also expected from Australia, India, Britain, the United States, Holland, Malaysia, and several other countries. The first car from overseas to take part in the rally, and one of the most interesting, arrived at Lyttelton this week. It is a 1914 Dodge Four belonging to Mr R. Schaffer, of the United States, and the owner will arrive in New Zealand by air next month.

The Dodge is one of the first batch of 300 manufactured by Dodge Brothers. Several overseas cars are expected to arrive at Lyttelton in the next few weeks. They will be stored by several city retail motor firms until transferred to Canterbury Court for the start of the rally. New Zealand is expected to gain considerable overseas publicity from the extensive television and press coverage of the rally, which will include 1100 miles of touring through some of the Dominion’s most beautiful areas, including Mount Cook, the Southern Lakes, Milford, Southland, Dunedin, Oamaru, and Christchurch, where the event starts.

Members of the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand have now been busy for more than a year organising the

event, which has been publicised in most of the large

overseas newspapers, as well as in 250 vintage car club publications throughout the world. So far 38 entries have had to be refused be- : cause of the unavoidable re--1 striction on the size of the : event. As it is, more than 400 cars, including competitors, ■ marshals, servicing vehicles, and food and camping trans- ' port, will form the imposing 1 convoy which will leave the 1 starting point at Canterbury Court on March 6 for the 141 day tour. A tanker shuttle service ' will transport 30,000 gallons 1 of petrol, supplied by the ' Shell company, to outlying areas during the rally. All ' available accommodation at ' points on the route has been booked for overseas visitors, but there will also be many participants camping, and for > these about 29 tons of pro-

visions will be carried By the convoy. New Zealand itself is noted for the very high standard of vintage vehicles in the country, and the examples coming from all over the Dominion together with the choice of specimens from overseas will probably make the rally the greatest display of its type ever seen. With the backdrop of the Southern Alps to set off the array of glittering and magnificently restored vehicles, the rally should provide pictorial material for news and television coverage which will attract favourable notice to New Zealand among millions of readers and viewers all over the world.

Correspondents and photographers representing many overseas publications and television and film agencies are interested in covering the event, which will also coin-

cide with the latter part of the Christchurch Pan-Pacific Arts Festival from February 22 to March 6. Festival crowds will have a good opportunity of seeing the array of vehicles in Canterbury Court before the rally starts, and a static display will be held in Canterbury Court after the convoy returns from the southern part of the island. Static displays will also be held at Fairlie, Invercargill, and Dunedin. About 80 makes will take part in the rally, with the number of American and British cars being about equal. To qualify for the vintage category vehicles must have been made between 1919 and 1931. The veteran division applies to cars made before 1919. No extensions of these age divisions are allowable.