........... so when we got to Rangiora (which is in the Christcurch area) on Friday night it was flat out raining hard. We were rolling with Paul Grace and his '32 Sedan, and sticking my head out the side to see where we were going as it was well be what the RainX could handle. The Ragiora fairgrounds were a muddy mess, and so was Craig (Craig is my good Kiwi pal who is also a show promotor, hot rod journalist, and all round strange fellow). Being in the swap meet business I know the special sort of stress reserved for rainy days and shows that you've sunk tons of money into. Craig was trying to be upbeat about it all. On Saturday morning we woke up to see a beautifull day and headed over to the show...........
.......... well it worked out in the end as Craigs show was packed and the waether was great. He had over 1000 cars registered. By the afternoon the sun had mellowed out the bigger mud pits and made getting around the fairgrounds managable. I went about checking out some of the cars and seeing a few old friends......
Craig certianly puts on a great show, I prefer ecentric to strange There were some great cars there this year, next year I want to again do a couple of days so I get to have a look around as well as man the stall, Sat and Sunday made up for the rain earlier on, his tudor is sweet too, you must have some more pics from down there ?? and I would imagine a couple more stories southern hospitality and all......
Bloody Hell Marshall--I remember a teenageskater with hair down to his butt--not the fella in the N.Z Hot Rod Mag--I was a regular at Long Beach Swap in the late 80`s--used to go with Golly and meet Squeak and the Bako bunch there....have known Stottle for longer than that..even remember a few very scary rides on the boat at Bass Lake--Tom driving.Time certainly gets away....House.
I took a break from the story, here's more......... ....... So I met Jeff Klein from Rocket Speed Equip, that's his little black T roadster there. Greta details on the car - like the IFS aluminum I-beam front end. Up at Kumue I had been admiring both that roadster as well as this slick little bobber he built. The bike is just about as pure an example of a simple strait forward hot rod bike as I've ever seen - really bitchen. I had noticed Jeff and his boy on the ride down from the N Island, they were blazing along thru the pouring rain - no top - looking perfectly content. I also noticed that he had a CA plate on the car, so I figured he was from the homeland despite the rain driving. He told me that he just made the plate with his NZ reg #'s and had been running it around no problem. Turns out that he owns Rocket, they build complete cars (any style) as well as produce vintage repro speed equipment. And they do it well, have a look www.rocketspeedequipment.com I also came across my old friend Jon Elley from Greymouth. Jon had worked for my old man building cars and babysitting teenagers back in the early 90's. He and his lovely wife lived behind the shop for a few years and we had become good friends, and Jon is an accomplished builder/fabricator. It was good to catch up. I also kept running into John Pugh, another Greymouther, and his neat little black A roadster. I think, and I hope I don't get this wrong, but Rocket also built that car. I never ran out of people to talk to.....
.......... another interesting thing is that Kiwis have a little different take on how to do a car show. They tend to supply much more than just a lot to park in and stuff to buy. For starters they feed you everyday as part of your deal. Craig had a full catered lunch and dinner each day, as well as a stocked bar. He also had bands, and not Beach Boys Tribute stuff, but good bands playing all day. And then there was the pub crawl bus tour. Ron, Steve, and Big Roy signed up for that on Sat afternoon. Craig hired several hippie looking buses to go on an afternoon tour of all of the local bars - all you had to do was power drink at each one and crawl back on to the bus. They were fairly sh!tfaced when they got back. After the pub crawl we joined up with Squeek and the boys for a 20 minute cruise to some little town for the dinner, supposedly hawaiian themed. Well it wasn't very hawaiian but it was a fun drive - and we got an e-ticket ride back with Craig in his sedan. Good fun...........
............ Craig also had this little act called the burnout paddock - where hundreds of spectators stand up close, with little or no barrier, and various cars do donuts smokin the tyres until they explode. When they let go all of the people cheer and throw beer. I promote events for a living and it looked like a liability nightmare to me, but thats the great thing about NZ - you can't sue anybody, especially if you snuggle up close to something as obviously stupid and dangerous as that. Can you imagine anything that cool at your local Goodguys event?.........
........... I don't remember exactly what we did Sunday - but I know the weather was nice. At the end we won an award, my first ever, "the way way wayest away" award for traveling the farthest. But it was fixed cause me and Craig go way back you know. After it was all done we (me, Ron, Steve, and Roy) went into Rangiora and had dinner - actually the best staek I had in NZ - and hit LiquerLand for supplies for back at our hotel. In the morning we started out south for the several hundred mile drive to Dunedin to see our good freind Graham Rollo, and stopped for breakfast along the way. So up rolls Squeek and the boys and we all had breakfast ...........
............. the ride down to Dunedin is along the coast. The weather was so-so, a little rain, and soem serious wind. It's actaully a harder drive in the wind than in the rain - the cross wind and my narrow bias-ply's don't mix well. And of course Steve and Roy were hauling ass out front as usual. We stopped in Timaru at a great little pub for lunch and nooners. Of course Steve knew exactly where it was because he almost bought the monster old building next to it. You see, everywhere we went in NZ - North or South, there was a building that Steve had either owned, almost bought, or was thinking of buying, or was in the process of buying. When we got to Dunedin Graham (Rolls) and his wife had dinner waiting for us at thier house, typical hospitality. The plan was to spend the night and head out in the morning for sightseeing the south end of the south island. Rolls has got some nice stuff in his shed, including that neat little black A coupe - which he said he has owned for 40+ years. And it is nice and clean clean clean. I also enjoyed the Chrysler hemi...........
.................. and I also found a copy of a spread from American Rodder of Ron's old roadster on the wall in Rolls' shed. That dated back to the mid 80's, well before Ron had met Rolls. Just think, there could be pictures of your car on some guys wall in his shed 7000 miles away.............
You would have to be talking about the one and only Craig Stare?...used to run a A40 Austin gasser.......i've known Craig many years...about 25yrs....like you say...a little strange...but fun guy...did you go to the Garden City Club Rooms?....cool place...say hello for me John Schutte...now in AZ
Craig is one of lifes real good guys. Puts massive amounts of time into the rod scene plus builds some kick ass cars and always has time to help and encourage others. Admittedly his dress scence could do with a tune up (always looks like he got caught up in a Hunter Thompson story) but thats Craig, one of the best.
Oh yes, Craig. We met Craig when I was just a piss pint and my old man had a Nostalgia Top Fuel car. Craig came out and asked if he could do a story on us and the car, as myself and the neighborhood kids did all of the work on the car. My old man invited Craig to go to a race with us - Fremont I think. The old man liked Craig and the other Kiwis cause they were always ready to pound a few, and he was a drinker. Well anyway everything was going fine and Craig was enjoying himself, until he decided to show all of us kids a trick in the motorhome with hairspray and a lighter. Well needless to say the old man was pissed that Craig tried to burn down the motorhome and promote pirotechnics among the kids. It took a lot to get him to come down on any form of irresponsible behavior, he generally promoted such things. But Craig did it. Of course after we put the fire out (it was his hair mostly) a few beers went around and all was forgiven. Craig sort of never left from that point on, staying at my old mans place for months and years on end. He brought around all sorts of other Kiwis and Aussies. Craig usually always stays at my house or at the shop when he's out on holiday. Basically craig is family around here. But I'll stick to my assessment that Craig is beyond eccentric, he really is a strange fellow. Enjoy the picture of his kitchen when we arrived at his place in Jan....
Good work Marshall. Reading this brings all the memories back of how cool the road trip was. Oh and ill never forget the night Ron shared our room and kept Sean awake all night. Sean only got to sleep at 6 in the morning, as we were getting ready for another day of cruising and fun. From Big Roy
Hi Bardahl1...if im right...i think Craig told us a story while he was in CA...that he crashed that A40 Gasser while driving it on the USA road..no tags' nothing!...he had us rolling on the floor in fits of laughter...is that your black highboy in the lastest NZ hot rodder mag....my good buddy backhome sent me a copy last week...one of my old cars was in the issue...p52..the orange plymouth..was 440 powered when i/we owned it...that car has some history!!....was a drug runners car....cops on his ass....back roads of Rangiora...at over100mph...car and a travel trailer (caravan for us NZ guys)pulls out in front of it...that plymouth went right thru the trailer(caravan) and kept going!!...John in AZ
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