STRAIGHT CHILLIN’

KIWI ROTOR’S GREENLANE SHOWDOWN ’19

While the New Zealand winter might not be the harshest you’ll find on the planet, it still has its way of putting a downer on things. It well and truly yanks the handbrake up on getting the car out of the shed on a Sunday for a cruise, leaving many with an itch that needs scratching. So, as soon as the days get longer, the sun turns up the dial, and daylight saving kicks in, the keys are dug out from the bottom of the drawer and the cover gets pulled off the pride and joy.

If your engine features those spinning little Dorito things, then this year it was the Kiwi Rotor Greenlane Showdown cruise that let you shake those winter blues once and for all.

For rotary owners in the big smoke, two locations are synonymous with Sunday cruises: Greenlane McDonalds, and, of course, that stretch of Tamaki Drive that rounds the bend just before Mission Bay — simply known as ‘Rotor Corner’. Like so many cruises that have come before it, the Kiwi Rotor Greenlane Showdown hit both on 6 October. First, the cruise met at Greenlane, causing all sorts of traffic jams as the general public wondered what the hell all these noisy old Mazdas were doing there, interrupting their Sunday Big Mac. With the summer sun out in force, it wasn’t long before the Greenlane car park was packed to capacity — especially after both the west Auckland and south Auckland premeet contingents arrived en masse — before rolling out to Mission like a swarm of African killer bees. There is truly something so good about rolling in big numbers down the highway weaving in and out of the appliances and stomping the loud pedal, right?!

Old faces, new cars, and plenty of chrome: everything from inch-perfect restos to slammed FDs that you’d swear the WOF man must have been blind to warrant showed up. No matter your taste, the one thing everyone had in common was a love of Mazda rotaries, so the vibe was nothing but chill. While these types of events are simply about the bringing together the community more than giving out prizes and over-complicating things, the Kiwi Rotor crew had scored a few fuel vouchers from Gull to hand out, with Stephen Dean, Jason Fergison, Craig Irving, Anthony Pearse, William Green, and Fritz Leaning taking home the goods, which we’re sure were all spent on the tanks just to get home.

With such a successful turnout, and summer only just getting warmed up, we’re sure this won’t be the last time we get burnt while chilling on Rotor Corner, so see you there this summer!

Mason Day had his recently finished Mazda 618 coupe out for the first time. Purchased out of Idaho in the US, the coupe has been RHD converted and has undergone an extensive build, despite what the patina might lead you to believe. A high-compression 13B bridge with ceramic seals and IDA can be found up front, backed by a limited-slip diff (LSD) and five-speed. A new interior completes the restomod look

Craig’s 12A bridge KE70, slammed on 17s — what better way to ferry the boys around on a Sunday?

Mastermind of the event Jamie Walden had his ever-immaculate 323 gleaming in the summer sun. The car’s paintwork never ceases to amaze Stephen Dean’s ‘GASGAS’ 20B Cortina was rocking a new look, with a set of 15s now seriously tucking under the guards. Stephen took home $40’ worth of Gull vouchers on the day

Rocking almost every rare Mazda addition you can dream of, this RX-3 coupe has only recently been completed and brought back from the dead. You’d be hard pressed now to tell that the shell was so bad that more than one panel beater turned the job down

Arguably New Zealand’s most iconic R100, ‘MR100’ is now in the hands of Willy Green, who’s been working on cleaning it up and getting it back up to 100 per cent