Brit and Euro car show triumphs on scorching Sunday

As the last vehicles wheeled out of yesterday’s stunning Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show, what could be seen across Lloyd Elsmore Park were tens of committed volunteers packing up.

They weren’t mucking around; they were getting on with the job of vacating the Pakuranga public park to get home for a rest and well-deserved cold one or two when reflecting on what they’d just created and delivered again successfully.

The Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show, as Howick Local Board chair Damian Light said when welcoming the participants and visitors to Sunday’s annual east Auckland display, “is a community event put on by the community”.

What makes it special is the backbone manpower of this yearly event is a small army of volunteers led by the show’s organising committee.

And as the sun dipped on the auto extravaganza late Sunday afternoon, they along with other volunteers from groups such as the Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay, scouts, and Pakuranga United Rugby Club members were seen dismantling and picking up equipment, taking down marquee tents and collecting rubbish.

Yesterday’s ninth running of the Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show can only be deemed as a major triumph – and of course, there were plenty of Triumphs exhibiting too, as it’s the 50th anniversary of the TR Register club in New Zealand.

Another with a large turnout of cars and their owners was the Alfa Romeo Owners Club of New Zealand, also celebrating its half-century jubilee.

Like all car shows, every motor vehicle has its history and the respective owners usually know a lot of associated stories.

One that stood out was Clarrie Ranby’s. The retired former panelbeater of Papakura had his special car displaying in the Brit and Euro Revival zone of open-top Red Roadsters.

He had a well-presented scrapbook of the vehicle’s history and told the Times he constructed it with his mates from scratch between 1957 and 1960.

The New Zealand-built sports car was originally created from Ford design plans, and then after a few years Ranby sold it because of family and work commitments.

Some decades later, his family knowing the history of Clarrie’s association with the F10 Special, identified it for sale from a private seller in Pakuranga.

Without saying anything to Clarrie, they purchased it back for him as a surprise, though it was in a very rundown state, so he and family and friends set about restoring it back to its original, glorious condition.

So, there he was on Sunday, exhibiting a classic red open-top sports car, an original Kiwi-made product, and he was very proud to do so and tell anyone interested of his and its journey.

During the event, and at the end on Sunday, the Times talked with Steve Broadbent, an east Auckland local and the show’s organising committee co-chair along with Hasita Wimalachandra.

Broadbent, who with the other tireless leaders of the Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show, secretary Darryl Bretherton, and registrations’ Richard Leech, were very happy with the collective effort and how the show went.

An estimated 10,000 visitors came to the one-day auto spectacular, and it was agreed that it was one of the very best of the nine shows held, with the hot and sunny weather a contributing factor in the high attendance, an improvement on the past two years’ wet conditions.

“It was an absolute pleasure. I love the conversations, history and friendships at this event,” said Broadbent, summing up the feeling of everyone associated.

• The Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Show organisers acknowledge and thank the sponsors: Howick Local Board, Times Media, Classic Driver magazine, Star Insure, and East Auckland Tourism.
• They also thank: Howick Community MenzShed, Howick Pakuranga Community Patrol, LifeGrowth Community Trust (East Wesleyan Church), East FM, east Auckland Rotary and Lions Clubs, Ormiston and Te Puru Venturers, Trinity Pakuranga Scout Group, Howick Pakuranga Community Sports Centre, and Pakuranga Park Village.