Families are encouraged to hop in their cars and join this year’s Vintage Car Club Daffodil Day Rally on Sunday, August 21, which will end with a display of classic vehicles at the carpark beside Matakana School around midday.
The Wellsford Warkworth, Waitemata and North Shore branches will be taking to the road for the annual cancer fundraiser, which starts this year from the North Shore Aero Club in Dairy Flat at 10.30am.
Local club member Rick van Barnevelde will be bringing his 1931 Auburn 8-98A Phaeton and says car rallies are a great way to spend time as a family and see some rare and special vehicles.
“I’ve enjoyed motorcars all my life, but I’ve been able to do it with my family. The notion of doing our best to hold together families – experiencing cancer – really ticks the boxes for me,” Rick says.
He says the universal enjoyment that comes from classic cars is in how they’ve been made and being able to compare what could be done with the engineering capability available at the time.
“Some of the vehicles that will be there are representative of the engineers and others who built motor cars a long time ago and broke barriers. There were some ground-breakers back then who were very special.”
Rick explains the attraction of his 100hp 1931 Auburn 8-98A, apart from its low-slung lines, is that he can work on the 4-litre, 8-cylinder engine himself.
“I can still spanner it. I enjoy the fixing of it,” he says.
He bought the American Depression-era car in March last year and spent some time restoring it during lockdown. One of the biggest challenges was locating the frame number of the vehicle in order to register it for use on the road. In the end, he found it after some serious internet research, a lot of patience and much searching by torchlight.
“It was like a ‘Eureka’ moment,” Rick says.
Although the rally and roads will be packed with vintage, classic and retro vehicles, the drive is open to anyone in any vehicle and the cars do not need to be old or classic.
Info: Call Leon Salt, Wellsford/Warkworth Vintage Car Club on 027 423 8122