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.

Must. Complete. Squid.

Maximum Low.

I’ve been following zeki‘s Minkara blog for some time and his DR30 sedan is picture-perfect in terms of aesthetics.

This is 'stance' I could definitely live with.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I’m fervently hoping I can pull off a look with squid that’s even half as clean. I don’t have the wide Wats but I do have some Ewings that might do the trick!

Cherry blossoms! So iconic.

Perhaps 2012 will finally be Year of the Squid?

photos courtesy of zeki @ minkara

Have a trophy!

Thanks to everyone who helped with the stand; compared to Nats it was a far more laid back approach with the added advantage of spectators being able to walk around all the cars and view them up close. The feedback we got overall as a group was amazing – the velo bike gained a lot of attention, I personally fielded a lot of comments about Taistorm’s Mirage Turbo, and a lot of people seemed intrigued about the audio setup in squid. Clearly there is still a heap of interest in the nostalgic/oddball stuff!

This'll look good in the pool room...

Definitely turning heads.

Especially with this setup “lurking” under (and over) the bonnet!

1UZ-FE with Super Charger.

Hard to miss the V-can green paintjob – itself a bit of an inside joke

Dem flares and dat wing!

And as a bonus, here’s a tidy facelift KHR30 Paul Newman Version for old man Michael. One day, he says to himself…

PNV Envy.

Nostalgic Car Show Nagoya (part 2) photo album on Minkara »

it was indeed a very grand (albeit exhaustingly long) day. Chur to all who came along and supported/helped out with setup and on the day, yous knows who yous all are, and big ups to Richy, Chris, Leon, Duddley and all the others who made the stand such a success, winning Best New Club on the Block is hardly something to scoff at.

A special mention also goes to sheepers, whose 1UZ-powered Celica took out the Judges’ Choice Best V8 award.

Here is a short walkaround video of the club stand, which was modeled after a 1980s car yard. Some seriously sweet vehicles in our lineup, one can only hope next year’s effort will be just as awesome if not better!

And as a person who’s never paid much attention to underbonnet presentation on my cars (I’m more of a function over form type of guy) I have been somewhat converted to the idea of making the engine bay of squid tidy enough to be displayed if ever the need arises.

And it’s an ’83 facelift model, even. Reserve is around $4000-$4500.

Solid.

To anyone lamenting the lack of decent older Japanese sports coupes on Trademe recently, perhaps give this a second look?

Nissan Skyline R30 Coupe 1983 for sale on Trademe »

You may recall these earlier snaps from December of 2009.  I drove past it this weekend (almost two years later) on my way to the Waiau River mouth and had the Olympus in the car so decided to take some updated shots.

As you can see, I didn’t quite get the series of pictures correct as it had been a while and I wasn’t sure what shots I had taken the first time, also the difference in time of year is definitely apparent by the lack of Californian thistles in this set.

-Michael

Those tail lights... drool.

Yours for a cool $22,000 and comes with all the fruit, such as the Watanabe rims, front chin spoiler, sweet L16 engine with twin Mikuni crabs, and aftermarket suspension.

Authentic RS-8s of dish.

One day I shall own a ’70s Datto coupe, but between the Bluebird, Skyline, Laurel and Fairlady there’s so many different ones to choose from.

Not quite a C10, but the '70s Nissan DNA is definitely there.

Now where did I put my secret stash of asian millionaire gambling moneys?

1970 Datsun 1600 coupe for sale on Trademe »

Looks like a lot of time and effort went into reproducing the Silhouette kit, and the price tag reflects that. The rims aren’t exactly right and it may not be running a LZ20B under the bonnet, but there’s more than enough cool bits attached to the FJ20 to make it sound like it could be pretty fun!

Yours for a cool 2.5 million yen.

I don't even think I could get it into my driveway.

Tomica DR30 Skyline Silhouette replica for sale on Yahoo Auctions Japan »

Red Two, standing by.

Photo courtesy of minkara