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Established in 1996, we are a group of passionate car enthusiasts who live and breathe American classic cars, and are based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Our mission in life is to provide an environment for other like minded car aficionados to savour and enjoy their American classics, without the rules and restrictions that seem to dog other areas of everyday lives. If you are an American classic car owner who feels the same as we do, we invite you to take a small journey through our site to see if this sounds like you. If you like what you see, and want to be involved, then send in a membership application. The only hard and fast condition of membership is that prospective members must own an American classic car that is pre-2000 model year which must be of historical interest. |
UPCOMING ACCCA EVENTS
Saturday 21st September - Hot Rod & Horsepower Show, Indian Hall, Ward St, Pukekohe. Meet at Best Start Childcare, 71 Hingaia Rd, Karaka at 9am to depart at 9.30am. Lunch venue will be the Calendura Cottage Garden Cafe, 12 Collie Road Glenbrook ( www.calenduracafe.co.nz ) from 1.30pm till mid-afternoon. RSVP's to Rob required by this coming Thursday 19th September. Saturday 5th October - Te Aroha Cruise In Meet at 7am at BP Motorway Papakura, to depart by 7.30am Note you must pre-register to the website https://www.cruisein.co.nz for us all to be able to park together. RSVP required by 27 September if you are coming please. Entry fee is $15 per car payable at the gate. American Classic Car Club members are unable to provide classic vehicles for events such as weddings, birthdays, family outings etc, as they are not licensed to undertake these activities.
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►►►►► 04/09/2024
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Caffeine & Gasoline Hampton Downs - 25 August 2024
A surprisingly mild and sunny day greeted the members at the Best Start Karaka meeting point - ten or so cars initially – for our short run down the Southern Motorway to the Hampton Downs race complex, for the monthly Caffeine and Gasoline gathering. Once again, the club put up two ‘run prize’ draws for $ 50 gift vouchers, warmly appreciated by the their respective benefactors.
Once at Hamptons, we assembled our fleet on one of the rows and would have put the banner and swooper flags up to announce our presence – but alas none of us committee members remembered to bring them - DOH!!! Several more members were either already there or turned up later, and by the time I did the last head count, I think we got to sixteen club cars all up – a fine effort indeed for all involved. After the obligatory photo taking and vehicle perusing – some suggested around 200 cars at its peak, including a wonderful array of Mini’s as it was there 65th anniversary – most of us made it over to the Café for morning coffees, before departing around 12.15pm for the Rangiriri Hotel for a pub lunch. This proved to be a nicer experience for some members, than for others, with the pub being extremely busy (yes, they knew we were coming) and one table in particular just seemed to get overlooked – their meals taking an absolute age from ordering and sadly not very appetizing when they did eventuate – which for those members did rather take the shine off what was otherwise a great day out for the club. That aside, for the most part everyone enjoyed the outing and great to see several new members – and even potential members as guests – out and about with the Club. With Spring officially here as I write this, we have a very busy six months or so ahead of us, with Club events scheduled and planning under way for at least five of those months, and that is just our own events, let alone the plethora of other events to keep us occupied! Bring it on I say! Until our September run, take care and I’ll see you then! Rob. Paul Higgins Garage Visit - 14 July 2024
We met at The Warehouse Car Park, Cnr Pah Rd and Mt Albert Roads at 9.30am for a 10am departure for a great visit to a well known Aucklander’s collection and family car history.
I have known Paul Higgins since the early 80’s and I talked about Paul’s “car life” before we got to the garage. Paul and Anne have two daughters and two sons. He is a retired Architect and designed and built our beach house. We both raced Porsches in PCNZ Bridgestone series. So to the cars; Paul had a Porsche 930 Turbo in those early days and still has it! Later he went on to collect a 1973 Porsche 911RS, and then got interested in the early Porsche 356 models of which he has a few different versions. He then went on to race a Brabham BT6 in Classic Racing. These cars were a scaled down version of a Formula One car like Sir Jack Brabham won his Formula 1 title but with a smaller 4 cylinder Ford motor. Moving on Paul’s Sons, David and Andrew raced in the New Zealand Formula Ford races. Andrew became very good at maintaining and rebuilding race cars which led Paul and Andrew to an interest in Formula 5000. For those of you that don’t know- these race cars are great noisy five litre stock block V8’s with open exhausts that are very spectacular and in the early days were able to keep up with Formula One. Andrew won the Australasian Champs one year. Later they acquired a Porsche 962 (photos on the walls of the Garage). A magnificent vivid blue and yellow aerodynamic Le Mans sports car as raced in the 1980’s. They took it to the Le Mans Classic races (not to be confused with the 24 hour) where Paul and Andrew both drove it. A massive achievement for a Kiwi team with such things as special fuels, new race tyres, etc not to mention licences, entry fees, transports and the logistics required for a privateer. So what else would you do? Well you would have to have a Formula One car wouldn’t you. Fastest cars on the planet around a given track. Here comes a LEYTON HOUSE F1. Leyton House (a Japanese real estate company) was a F1 team in 1989 and 1990. Driven by drivers such as Gugelmin, Capelli and Wendlinger in over 30 Grand Prix’s. This racer was designed by designer and aerodynamicist ADRIAN NEWEY who is well known in F1, Indy Car circles and lately for the Red Bull leading F1 team. Higgins’ have now taken this car to the ADELAIDE Historic races several times and to be driven by original driver Ivan Capelli and to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Valtteri Bottas, a current F1 driver recently drove it and his signature is pride of place on this famous car. They’ve also acquired a second Leyton House incomplete car which is a WIP. Although the F1 car was elsewhere there were plenty of photos displayed. Of interest to several of our members was the “twin” BMW M3 saloons. A black special edition homologation road car and the road Racing white and blue-red striped car. This original car is as raced by yet more famous drivers such as Roberto Ravaglia, Emmanuelle Pirro and Johnny Cecotto. While we were there, we had a look at the marvelous models collection and photos around the walls of more famous cars and events. Thank You to Paul, Anne and Family for a great visit and a fabulous array of cars and history. By Rodger Anderson. Checkout the photos from the day HERE..... Mid Winter Xmas Lunch & Quiz - 22 June 2024
It was a welcome return to the Kumeu Valley Estate winery’s Event Centre again, who looked after us so well last year that the Committee agreed it was definitely worth an unprecedented return visit for a second year in a row. This year, we had to abandon the normal run-meet at Soljans due to their carpark being unavailable at the last minute, and we all met directly at the venue instead. However, this had the advantage of aiding in parking, with a more or less staggered arrival and no queuing this time!
After a brief catchup with friends outside for a quick chat, everyone made their way inside where 10 tables of 8 awaited, with President Rob officially welcoming the group and setting the agenda for the afternoon. Special welcome was mentioned for our newest members attending their first run; Helene Higbee & Greg Woolford, Alan and Sarah and Ryan Greig, & Derek Smith and Miriam Langeslag-Smith, who all three managed to snag a spot prize as well – what better way to start their membership! Rob also took a moment to remember 3 members who have tragically left us this year with a photo montage during a moment of reflection – R.I.P. Bill Tweed, John Borrows and Murray Pervan, they will all be missed. Thereafter the wonderful Christmas themed buffet lunch was served, which all agreed was at least as good as last year. Consensus appears that the one free drink is a better option than two bottles of wine on the table as everyone gets what they actually want. After the main course and the draw for spot prize draws for a bottle of wine and gift card vouchers, the eagerly anticipated (and hotly contested) serious business of the traditional Quiz was undertaken, this year with a much larger screen for the quiz question sheets. As previous years attendees will confirm, many of Rob’s questions continue to be very challenging, with a few anti-questions thrown into the mix this time for a variation causing much consternation and amusement. After the just as good desserts, Rob ran us through the marking and answers, which raised a number of “red-flag” clarifications due to the anti-questions! Marty Sarten won the prize kindly supplied by Advance Publishing (Petrolhead & NZ Rodder), and two Marshall Batteries vouchers won by Neil Roper and new members, the Greigs. And finally the major Petrolhead prize pack went to the McIsaacs, who also took home the farthest traveled all the way from Tokoroa. Then the all important results - with congratulations to the team “The Bosses!”, just gazumping the “Straight 8’s” by 2 points, with the “Wagon Masters” in close 3rd, with the winning team each taking home a $30 gift card. All in all, another great way to spend a most enjoyable afternoon, and already looking forward to next year. |
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ACTUAL COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY "THOMAS COOK VACATIONS" FROM DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS:
1. "They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax." 2. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food." 3. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish." 4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price." 5. "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room." 6. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow." 7. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned." 8. "No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared." 9. "Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no eggslicer in the drawers." 10. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts." 11. "The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun." 12. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair." 13. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends' three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller." 14. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the resort.' We're trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service." 15. "When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners." 16. "We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning." 17. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel." 18. "I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes." 19. "My fiancée and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked." |