Last weekend’s Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show was a massive success story – thanks to remarkable weather, a great turnout and enthusiastic participants.
Around 7000 to 8000 people attended the free event held at Lloyd Elsmore Park on Sunday and organiser Rev Dr Richard Waugh said he was thrilled with the crowds.
“It’s the second year of developing one of east Auckland’s biggest events, and we had overwhelmingly positive feedback.”
This year’s non-competitive public event featured around 650 registered cars and motorcycles.
Dannemora resident and president of the Alvis Car Club of New Zealand, Clive Butler, had two cars on display at the show – a 1963 Alvis TD21 coupe and a 1923 Alvis 12/40.
“Most people have never sat in a car of this age, so I’m always willing to let people have a seat to see what it was like to drive a car 94 years ago… at the other end of the scale, I had a gentleman who was two years older than the car, so he was most interested but unable to climb up into the car!
“A large number of families were enjoying the walk about the park and seeing cars they haven’t seen before. Because there is no competition between the cars, it becomes a very relaxing day.”
DeLorean car owner Mathew Bedogni was displaying a movie version of the car he built himself, reminiscent of the car featured in the 1985 Back to the Future time travelling film.
Mr Bedogni built the car for his own satisfaction and didn’t have any plans to share it, but after constant feedback from people wanting rides, he started Hero Car Hire, a business that supplies unique vehicles mainly to PR, marketing and events industries.
At the show, he was next to Gary Maitland, the owner of a standard DeLorean, and said it’s the first time in New Zealand the two cars have been side-by-side for people to see the difference.
“It was quite entertaining sometimes. There were interesting comments made as people tried to work out what was what with the two cars.”
It still amazes Mr Bedogni that 30 years on, people remember the car from the movie so well.
“Most kids stood in amazement that they were actually seeing the time machine.”
The Howick resident said he received comments from people who didn’t know the DeLorean was a real production car, and thought it was simply made up for the movie, as well as the commonly-asked question of whether he can actually drive it.
“People are amazed that I drive it on the road like a normal car. It certainly gets a lot of attention on the road too.”
