CONCOURS CHOICE
It seems ages since I last attended the Ellerslie Intermarque Concours, so it was nice to catch up with a few friends, clap eyes on some simply breath-taking classic cars, and pick up a few contacts for future features in the magazine. And, as always, a single circuit around the showgrounds took just under two hours to complete as I chatted to dozens of friends and readers as well as one or two NZ Classic Driver contributors, and one or two from my previous life with another classic car magazine.
On the car front there was plenty to see and, as a Lotus owner, I couldn’t help admiring the new Emira – alas, a bit beyond my budget but it looked simply sensational. Maybe next year Club Lotus will have an Eletre SUV on display? A 1948 MG TC racing car looked simply gorgeous while a line-up of classic rally cars, headed up by Myles Hicks’ Unipart Metro 6R4, gathered plenty of admirers, as did a collection of veteran and vintage cars grouped together at the entrance to the showgrounds. Marking 100 years of Jaguar, there was a special display in the old judging arena, with Richard Waugh, author of Classic Jaguars in New Zealand, also in attendance.
In the ‘Italian’ tent it was hard not to ogle the Dino 246GT, surely one of the prettiest sports cars ever produced, and I was intrigued by the double-triple pea-shooter exhaust set-up on a 1974 Ferrari 365BB.
An unsteady walk amongst the rocks (a by-product of work being undertaken on the horse racing track – apparently a new track surface is being laid) was worth it to check out a swoopy Maserati Tipo 151 tribute car, a line-up of Ford Thunderbirds and a posse of Corvettes.
Many thanks to committee member Barbara Lokes for her assistance and to her partner Greg for providing the great photographs in our main feature on the show elsewhere in this edition – the less great snaps on this page are all my own.
Overall, an excellent show and I’m sure all will be looking forward to 2024 – let’s keep our fingers crossed for a decent summer next time around.
Editor