Hot Rods NEW ZEALAND HOT RODS of the 50's - 60's (picture thread)

For a tiny country at the bottom of the world NZ has a rich history of hot rodding . NZ had American cars from day one and during the 50's and 60's there were Popular Mechanics and American hot rod magazines on the magazine racks and plenty of early Fords on the car lots and in the junk yards. Speed equipment was very rare in the 50's and early 60's. The NZHRA was formed in 1960 and by 1967 there were 9 clubs. New Zealand Hot Rod magazine started in 1967 shortly followed by hot rod clubs forming all over the country, also organized drag racing and speed equipment becoming more available. Things really took off in the 70's but that is another story. I believe a picture is worth a thousand words so in this picture thread I will let the pictures do the talking. When you see all the action that was going on keep in mind that the population was less than 3 million people. When I look at the following images I see hot rodding in it's purest form, cars built by young guys with simple tools.

To start this thread I have to give credit where it is due, I have copied hundreds of pictures from the following publications and without their permission we couldn't enjoy the pics.

Paul Grace, New Zealand Hot Rod magazine. NZHRM has been in print since 1967 and is a very high quality magazine covering all aspects of the hobby. Lately there have been fantastic historic stories profiling characters from the early days. Subscriptions are available in print or online. Check out the website and online forum here....www.nz-hotrod.com


Jammin Gears magazine is another great magazine from New Zealand that is little pages format and concentrates on the traditional and historic side of NZ hot rodding. Subscriptions are $55NZ or $75 outside NZ. Jammin Gears, 32 Albatross Rd, Red Beach, Auckland, 0932, New Zealand


Many pics were copied from these spectacular books released a few years back. I always hoped Steve Coonan would get his hands on them and do a story in Rodders Journal. Maybe one day.


In no particular order, here come the pics......

 

Awesome bunch O Hotrods Kev great stuff to glean ideas from...This one makes my eyes go funny...
The influence reaches all over doesn't it?
Thank you...


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Love those old pics! Thanks for sharing.

 

Most hot rods were used hard in the early days. Hill climbs and grass track racing were 2 popular early forms of competition, usually held on private farms. Check out these action shots!

 

Cool thread Kev.

 

Great pics Kev.
Al.

 

Cool pictures.

 

Thankyou for posting a great bunch of historic shots, Kev.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Racing on the beach was also popular. NZ has a similar size land mass to California but is 2 islands so there are twice as many beaches. World fastest Indian was a good example but with bikes.

 

Great old hotrods. Love the action shots.

 

good stuff, whenever I was in NZ I bought any issues of NZ Hot Rod I could find.

 

35-39 Coupes got the full hot rod treatment too.

 

Great pic's, thanks Kev. Allways loved Kiwi hot rods, they remind me a lot of Aussie hot rodding in it's infancy but you lucky bums got Yanky coupes & we didn't!

 

Great stuff Kev,,the really cool thing is down here we can still pretty much do what we want,,cheers

 

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Cool pics Kev, I remember some of those. Was the Willys coupe the Curly West car? JW

 

Yep, some really amazing pics.
Thanks for posting.

 

Always liked the shot, so many cool cars. JW

 

My old 32 back in 1980. It was a Hot rod in the early 60s, it was lengthened 14 inches behind the doors and mounted on a 39 frame. I wish I had a pic or two of it back then. JW

 

What a thread, loving the pics and history, thanks Kev


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You cant talk 60's New Zealand Hot Rods without a shot of Dave Chung and Graham Berry (Berry and Chung). JW

 

Great pics! Thank you for sharing.

Hey--Wasn't someone just looking for 33/34 with a deuce grille?

 

Very well-thought-out thread with some great content. Good job Kev! I have always wanted to visit New Zealand. Considering it for our 20th anniversary coming up in 2019.

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Kool stuff for sure. I have a few copies of those magazines, courtesy of @kiwijeff . I like the fact that NZHRM covers anything with wheels that they think is cool. It reminds me of a lot of the early to mid 80s here in the states, when you had a lot of small start-up car mags. In order to fill pages, they would cover everything from hotrods to muscle cars to racing ( on and off the track) to history to (sometimes questionable) tech articles. Takes me back in time. Jammin' Gears magazine is just the coolest. Love the mix of Kiwi culture and cars.

 

Great pictures Kev, thanks for gathering them up and posting. Looked to me like if it didn't have fenders it was channeled. Wasn't a highboy in the bunch, very cool.

 

Man, these pictures are awesome!! Thank you for sharing them.

 

Kev, that is great stuff. The Real Deal.