NZV8 No 194 July 2021

It’s that time of year; you know, the time when the race car is blown into a 1000 pieces with grand plans, the summer cruiser is hooked up to the trickle charger, and your weekend plans suddenly become a lot more fluid — and by that I mean if it ain’t raining or snowing you’re outside doing anything that can fight off cabin fever. Although we really can’t complain about that here in New Zealand. We are rather fortunate that our winter months, especially in the coastal areas, are mild — mild enough that we can still get out and mash the load pedal if we so please. In fact, a quick flick over a few pages to the Events Guide will show you there is still plenty on the…

Coming in 2022, the next generation of the Ford F-150 Lightning is set to turn the category on its head, with its first all-electric offering. Before you scoff about it being EV, these stats should impress: 0–100km in the mid four-second range, a payload of 2000 pounds (907kg) and up to 10,000 pounds (4536kg) of available towing capacity. It’s powerful, too, with a massive 775 lb·ft. of torque and 563hp. This is delivered by dual inboard motors and with 4x4 as standard, with Normal, Sport, Off-Road, and Tow/Haul drive modes. Being eclectic, the Lightning F-150 also offers something you’d expect to see in a rear or mid-engined machine: a front trunk, or, as Ford calls it, a Frunk. This water-resistant storage locker has a 400-litre capacity, so it’s roomy enough for…

By now you’ll all be well aware that Repco Muscle Garage has returned to Three’s CRC Motorsport on Sundays, but what you might not know is that we upload all the episodes to YouTube so you can stream them any time, any where. In fact, you’ll also find all previous seven seasons up there! Each episode is uploaded the Monday following its television airing. Just search the show’s name, or subscribe to The Motorhood’s YouTube channel, to have it appear in your feed. Thanks once again to our partners Repco, Mount Shop, and Smits Group, who make the filming of the show possible.…

Two of the biggest names in street car racing in the USA have shown that even the best have to fall sometimes. First it was 2019 Hot Rod Drag Week winner Tom Bailey, who was caught in a nasty fire while making passes at the 2021 NHRA Gatornationals. Severe tyre shake during his first pass caused damage to many components and is believed also to have damaged the injector O-ring, which leaked methanol. This caused a lean condition and the resulting backfire ignited the raw spilt methanol. Tom escaped unharmed and the Sick Seconds 2.0 Camaro is well on the road to being rebuilt. Although it did suffer significant damage to the front end and underneath, it could have been much, much worse. Something similar happened to fellow racer Jeff Lutz,…

Scott McLaughlin has joined the greats of New Zealand motorsport, being inducted into the MotorSport Wall of Fame during the annual MotorSport New Zealand Awards evening, held in Christchurch. The wall was started in 1994 and features such illustrious names as Bruce McLaren, Ron Roycroft, Denny Hulme, the Millen brothers, George Begg, and McLaughlin’s fellow Indy car driver Scott Dixon, to name a few. McLaughlin was one of two inductees for 2021, the three-time Supercars champion joining Tasman Motorsports’ Steve Horne on the inductee roll. Scott is currently in the USA taking on his latest challenge — being a full-time driver in an Indy car — so was unable to attend the awards ceremony. The president of MotorSport New Zealand had this to say: “New Zealand is truly blessed with some incredible…

The Clean Car Standard 2025 is currently under development from the government, and there is plenty of chatter about what this means for us as enthusiasts. We published an outline on the situation last issue, and the key takeaway from that is that it’s not an outright ban on older cars that is being sought; SH it’s just about applying a fee to those vehicles that are heavy emitters. Since then, four key enthusiast groups, representing 150,000 members — being the NZ Federation of Motoring Clubs, the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand, the New Zealand Hot Rod Association, and the LVVTA, which organised the meeting — have met and created a joint submission that was presented to the Ministry of Transport on 26 March. The submission outlines some clear framework…