The MTA100 Auto Show

 

Recently, the MTA reached the milestone of 100 years old and to celebrate this occasion, they decided to hold a big auto show in Wellington, the capital city of NZ.

 

After a wee bit of travelling, we made it to the first hall of cars called "Great Kiwis, Great Cars". The first car that stood out was this classic Mclaren Formula 1 car, which is powered by the formidable Cosworth DFV Quad Cam V8 which was a highly successful motor of that period.

 

This particular car was raced all over the place and has also raced at the Leadfoot Festival, an invite only festival of speed.

 

This Maserati 250F looked pretty scary to drive, with it's big straight six motor and thin tyres.

 

Next up was this accurate replica of Burt Munro's "World's Fastest Indian" land speed record motorcycle. It gave me an insight as to how freaky it would have been to ride at high speed as most of the bike looked like it shared more components with a bicycle rather than a motorbike! Nevertheless, it got the job done and Burt was able to set multiple records on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This was truly in the spirit of "Home Built".

 

Some of our international readers may not know what this car is. It's called the Hulme F1 and was built to compete with supercars such as Ferrari's and Lamborghini's.

 

New Zealand's Land Rover, the Trekka.

 

This is currently the world's fastest Mini. It recently set records at Bonneville and achieved 156 MPH.

 

The Mini is running a highly modified A Series with a Twin Cam BMW motorbike head and Turbo induction.

 

Here is one of the legendary Britten motorbikes that were built to compete at a world class level. It is a very stunning motorcycle and the engineering work that has gone into the bike is astounding.

 

 Now we head into "The Future Today" hall. This new Mclaren sported a very crisp and very deep metallic orange paint job. The shape of these cars are out of this world and are very aerodynamically efficient.

 

Carbon!

 

The Rinspeed Budii, strangest vehicle I have ever seen. I couldn't get any shots of the interior but I can assure you, it is very strange. The steering wheel and column dance around and there are screens everywhere.

 

Now we head down to the underground car park section dubbed "For the love of cars". The Matt Gaskin Motorsport Nissan Skyline R32 V8 was there and looking very flash in it's gold and orange colour scheme.

 

This pair of Datsun 240Z's was a pleasant surprise as there are barely any of them around anymore. Both looked excellent and sported period correct modifications.

 

Very low and very evil!

 

Another surprise was this Mazda RX3 rally car which looked like it was a very straight car and would probably fly along the numerous rally stages in NZ.

 

Anyone remember the classic movie Goodbye Pork Pie? This Mini is a replica of the heavily lightweighted version in the movie and has been made road legal through the use of plexiglass doors and headlight supports.

 

A very tidy Porsche 356 coupe.

 

Here's a legendary piece of Japanese automotive history. A prince Skyline 2000GT-B. This car is technically the first Skyline GT-R before the GT-R name existed.

 

The 2.0L Straight 6, called the G-7, is fed through triple Weber Carburretors and produces 127 BHP from the factory.

 

A period correct Ford Falcon XA Coupe running classic 5 spoke wheels and a very swish purple and black colour combination.

 

A needle in a haystack: This 1973 Mazda RX3 is completely original and is a numbers matching vehicle. It still runs it's factory 10A motor and has had a meticulous restoration a few years ago.

 

When's the last time you have seen a Honda NSX? This example of Honda's breakthrough supercar was very tidy and looked superb in it's factory red colour.

 

Last but not least is this stunning Datsun Bluebird SSS. There are virtually zero of these around anymore and this example was immaculately presented. From a distance, it reminded me of the original Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R, but a more scaled down version.

That concludes our feature on the superb MTA100 Auto Show. The event was well run and there were plenty of nice cars to look around and admire.

 

 Stay tuned for further awesome automotive posts!