13KB4 October 1998
I was expecting a low turn out at this month’s run. The Bathurst 2 litre race was on TV all day; it was the first day of daylight saving; a driver training was being held at the Pukekohe race track and the weather wasn’t too inspiring. Actually the weather worked in our favour as some members weren’t keen to tackle Pukekohe in the wet and came to Mt Eden instead.
The cool foggy weather brought out the forced induction cars. Four Turbos driven by Carl, Ade & Steve, Craig and Richard (GT-Four) plus two superchargers from Brad and Rob. Those with honest horsepower were Grant (SW-20), myself (AW-11) and Matt in his MX-5.
While waiting at Mt Eden the cloud level fell and the surrounding city disappeared from view. It was time to head for lower ground and the North Western Motorway. We paused at Massey for refuelling and eyed up an AW-11, or was it an AW-10, to confirm it would risk being arrested so no free lunch for this owner.
13KB
Once out of town and away from the Sky Tower (water molecule magnet) the weather came right and the Turbos lost their advantage. Grant and myself led the way along a fun stretch of road past the Woodhill Forest and Kaipara Harbour. Considering the course was chosen from a glance at a map it wasn’t too bad... another driving road to add to the list.
At Wellsford we stopped for a break to let the Turbos catch up. Rob had brought along a friend whose name I didn’t catch, but he turned out to be a mechanic from one of the local Toyota dealerships. Many of those present took the opportunity to get advice for free and by the end of the day Matt had him working on his Corolla race car.
It was time to find some food and a rumour went around of a nice bakery in Warkworth so we hopped back in our ‘2s (and Four and 5) and headed south down SH1. The bakery rumour wasn’t entirely accurate as there turned out to be more than one. While checking out Warkworth, Richard had a fleeting reunion with one of his old cars when a Celica-Supra drove by. This apparently was the exact Celica that Richard had sold a couple of years earlier and was responsible for his strong Toyota bias.
An early ’70s Corolla was also stalking the collection of MR2s. The occupants were obviously the lads of the town and while departing one of the passengers proclaimed “Get an MR2!”. We all looked at each other trying to make sense of the statement. Steve broke the silence and summed up the situation with “We already have”.
It was time to move on before any of the local customs rubbed off on us. Richard took a small detour down the road his old Celica had gone but it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The final stop was at Matts place where the Toyota mechanic kindly demonstrated his skills on Matts Corolla... does this mean it now has a factory service history?
Malcolm Cambridge
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