NZV8 No 204 May 2022

I don’t need to bang on about how life has been for anyone over the past two years. We’ve all lived through it, we’ve all missed out on this, that, or the other, but the end is now here (kind of). My heart goes out to anyone who had to struggle because of it, and just so everyone is clear, I keep these columns about cars, not all the real-life stuff we all go through on the daily. Hence why I’ll talk about world problems as if cars are the be and end all of life. Anyways, I know a lot of you are jumping for joy right now given we can finally — after an entire season of almost nothing — get together at the track and sniff some petrol…

If you’ve been wondering what your Sunday arvos have been missing recently, the answer is your fix of Repco Muscle Garage. But never fear, on 29 May the show is making a return to its home on Three’s CRC Motorsport for its 10th season. As always the show will also stream via YouTube, and will showcase the best cars, sheds, and events our great country has to offer, alongside some of the characters that are driving forces behind the scenes. Season 10 will air for 10 episodes, and is made possible with the support of Repco New Zealand, Meguiar’s, and Mount Shop Ltd. The season kicks off with a Repco Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival special and a look at New Zealand’s newest nitro-burning nostalgia machine, so tune…

Imagine how good it would be to have not only a drag strip but a race circuit, speedway, and drift park in Taranaki! Well, you may not have to imagine for too much longer, as Taranaki motorsport associations are signing a founding document along with the Stratford A&P Society. This document formalises the structure under which the planned facility will operate. Stratford Park, as the group is known, is currently raising funds to purchase a neighbouring property to the A&P ground and to fund the required resource consent application. An independently prepared economic impact report is under way, with delivery expected in June. Meanwhile, the park is currently working on the first stage of the development, which involves a relocation of the equestrian facilities to a new site, away from the…

At the age of 90 you might think ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits would be ready to slow down and check into a retirement village, but that could not be further from the truth. The veteran drag racer has announced a series of match races against fellow EV dragster racer Steve Huff. Garlits has been campaigning an EV rail car, dubbed Swamp Rat 37, for 10 years. He missed out to Huff to be the first EV dragster to run 200mph in quarter, who clocked 201.07mph with his batterypowered machine. This saw Garlits go back to the drawing board and build an all-new car, Swamp Rat 38, in which he now intends to go head to head with Huff in match races around the US. “I just turned 90 years old [on…

Not since ’76 has a Nascar contested what is one of the most gruelling races on the planet, but that looks set to change in 2023 with Hendrick Motorsports securing the 24 Hours of Le Mans Garage 56 spot, a garage typically reserved for manufacture prototypes and emerging technologies. Garage 56 requires the entrant to meet the safety and performance requirements to which main competitors are subject. While not able to race for honours, their placings are classified as official results. Hendrick will field a specially prepared next-gen ZL1 Camaro Cup car, and is taking its one-off race very seriously, working alongside Nascar and Goodyear. Rick Hendrick stated, “This is a full-bore, full-blown effort to run 24 hours and to run competitive times. Our guys are working aero, weight, horsepower. We’re…

By the time you read this, reigning Repco V8 Supercars champion, Shane van Gisbergen, will have made his Australian national rally debut. Piloting a Red Bull–backed Škoda Fabia R5, with veteran co-driver Glen Weston alongside, the Kiwi attended a pre-season test to begin getting a handle on the R5. “The car’s much better than the driver, and there are some big jumps out there, but I’m just learning what it can take and how it feels,” stated SVG in an interview. While it is SVG’s first national-level event, he has competed on gravel here — successfully, we might add — both in an Escort at the 2020 City of Sails rally, where he won his class, and in an AP4 at Jacks Ridge, also in 2020, taking out overall honours. He’s also…