A Celica like none other...

Over the weekend of 3rd-4th November a large and varied group of oldschool.co.nz club members made a pilgrimage to Hahei, on the idyllic Coromandel Peninsula, for a meet-and-greet with none other than Rod Millen, famous championship winning driver in various motorsport disciplines and proprietor of the Leadfoot Ranch.

Convoy enroute to the Coromandel, via State Highway 2.

Leaving bright and early from the convening point at Bombay just outside of Auckland, roughly 20 cars made their leisurely way to the Coromandel, stopping in the towns of Kopu and Tairua along the way for rest, refreshment, and to meet up with members from other parts of the country – some travelling from as far as Taupo – eventually arriving at Rod Millen’s sprawling ranch just outside of Hahei around 11am.

Assembling at the Ranch.

Our group was immediately shown into the large barn adjacent to the parkup spot to be greeted by Rod and Shelly, who gave a short but detailed and colourful history of the vehicles contained within. Included in the collection were Rod’s meticulously rebuilt RX-3, a pair of mighty Tundra stadium trucks, his 2007 Transsyberia Rally-winning Porsche Cayenne, a couple of quirky prototype vehicles, and of course the famous Pro Rally RX-7 and Pikes Peak Celica… both championship winners over multiple years in the ’80s and ’90s respectively.

The Barn.

After the meet-and-greet we had the opportunity to mill around browsing the collection of vehicles and take photos to our hearts’ content, while Rod chatted with various groups and individuals in turn. It was somewhat humbling to see him taking the time to answer various questions and shoot the breeze with so many of us!

Of particular interest to me was Rod’s SCCA Pro Rally Championship winning Series 3 RX-7, a vehicle which inspired my own love of RX-7s growing up. This particular example runs a fascinatingly unique 4WD drivetrain prepared by Weismann in California for the Pro Rally series in the early 1980s. As Rod put it, “we did it in order to beat Audi’s quattro!”

Pro Rally 4WD RX-7. Click photo for walkaround video!

And of course, parked square in the middle of the barn towards the rear of the room, sat Rod’s “Unlimited” Pikes Peak winning 1000hp Celica in all of its outrageously sculpted aerodynamic glory. Of certain note is the fact that the 10:04 minute start-to-finish record set by this car in 1994 cannot technically be broken!

There’s already discussion of entering an oldschool.co.nz club stand at the 2013 Festival, so hopefully this is only just the beginning.

Peeking under the bonnet of the RX-3.

Additional photos courtesy of Automotive Culture – check out their album of shots from the Leadfoot Cruise here. Thanks to Ryan Fels for the driveway video footage!

Details for Leadfoot Festival 2013 can be found here.

I can’t find much information about the deck, except that it was apparently a factory upgrade option for the BF Familias and Lasers in Japan for a short time in 1985 before the CDX-P1 compact disc player was introduced, but the tuner is a standard Pioneer off-the-shelf item. This particular one, typically, is locked to Japanese AM/FM frequencies only.

There is a plan in motion for this setup; all shall be revealed in due course.

And it’s all over you, electric blue!

Back in good ol’ 1985, owning a Mazda RX-7 meant Serious Business. So serious, in fact, that the official RX-7 Club of America produced its own line of contemporary clothing, including a very swish John Player Executive jacket for the guys, and a whole range of fashion accessories and publications.

Best worn with Ludicrous Shades, Your Best Pornstache, and Judas Rockin’ Priest blasting out the stereo!

RX-7 Fashion '85! Pastel and big hair galore.

...and rocking jackets with nothing underneath.

with thanks to Foxed.ca – home of the largest collection of out-of-print Mazda manuals.

http://www.theroaringseason.com/showthread.php?223-New-Zealand-ShellSport-Saloon-Series-1978-1985

Photograph by “PhotoSmith” on The Roaring Season

The setup will eventually be going into the RX-7 anyway, so it was a useful test if nothing else.

Presenting the CC72A Suzuki Alto Works RS-R.

550cc of fury.

Publications all over the globe have spent years waxing lyrical about the kei car phenomenon, and the Japanese penchant for shoehorning the latest technology of the time into the most compact and mundane of things really shines through here. Where else in the world could you find Grandmama’s Little Shopping Cart with a twin cam, turbocharged, injected, intercooled 3-cylinder engine with full-time 4WD? Even better when you consider this was all the way back in 1987.

If you haven’t already read Autospeed’s 2004 writeup on the Alto Works, I suggest you go read it post haste. And then go watch some of the nutty Japanese videos on youtube. Those 3 cylinder engines sound AWESOME!

And if forums all over the web are to be believed, you can get 100kW out of the damn things with a bit of effort.

Though I’d have one without the hot pink interior, thanks.

If you don’t recall the days of the BTCC in your memory banks then you missed out, it was an epic time.  Here’s a little video that includes this car in action;

Kane drives this car around the streets also, hence the plate on it.  Not sure how he got a WoF with two different style headlamps in it though…

Wide Alfa facing off against a modern Porsche.

Another shot of the lethal TVR Tuscan

Someone stood on that Fiat 850!

Another 510 entrant that's more rally focused.

I love the simplicity of race interiors.

Lotus Elan x1

Lotus Elan x2

Hayabusa-powered Doom!

Motorcycles, making cars go fast.

Another Ford Crapi (Capri) coming out of Scrutineering.

That’ll do it.  Stay tuned for Saturday which should have more action shots (I think, sure I could check but where’s the fun in that?)

-Michael

Russell Cunningham's S30Z

Gorgeous set of Triplets.

They were attached to this fine motorvehicle

I shall finish up Friday in the next part (I think), there’s only a few more to go…  …honest.

-Michael

As you can imagine at a Classic meeting, the fields are often littered with replicas of famous cars, the surprising part is that there is a genuinely large amount of the genuine article also.  This 510 is exactly that, from the GT2 class in the states an ex-Valley Datsun racer, beautifully presented by the Brown family of Timaru, a well known and respected family of Datsun enthusiasts.

I am a huge fan of the B&H BMW, not only due to my recollections of ATCC’s past but it’s association with the late and great Denny Hulme.  I will forever remember watching the car coast to the side of the track with Mr. Hulme passed away behind the wheel.  For those unaware, as usual, someone has uploaded the recorded incident onto YouTube.

Despite what the Video says, Denny Hulme passed away on-track of a heart attack.  You can read a little more about Denny, here:

http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/135/

-Michael

Plenty more to come.

-Michael