It’s a long time ago now, but I can still remember the very first 4&Rotary Nationals drag day. It happened in October 1998, and straight away you could tell from the turnout that the organizer was on to something big. It only took couple of years to find traction, and by the early ’00s it wasn’t [...]
With so many ’70s and ’80s cars on show at last weekend’s ‘V’ 4&Rotary Nationals in New Zealand, it seemed only right that I dedicate a whole post to the old school. And as I mentioned in my first post from the event, I’m going to kick things off with one of my favorites. Although by no [...]
The last weekend in January is always a big one for New Zealand’s modified Japanese car community. It’s the date of the annual ‘V’ 4 & Rotary Nationals – a two-day display of show and speed held in and around the country’s largest city, Auckland. On top of a behind-the-scenes guest blog that’ll be coming your [...]
If there’s a fine line between genius and insanity, when it comes to building cars, New Zealander Carl Thompson walks that line. Need proof? Then look at his latest creation, because this built-to-drift Lexus GS300, is both brilliant and at the same time borderline crazy. If you’re social media savvy then there’s a pretty good [...]
To kick off my Spotlight-O-Rama from the 2013 New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing held last weekend (and this coming one), I thought I’d take a look at one of the coolest cars occupying space in the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park pits. Yes, you’re looking at genuine Zakspeed Ford Escort Mk2. Like every car I [...]
Since 2010, over two weekends in January the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park has played host to the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing. A celebration of circuit racing both past and present, in its inaugural year the event recognized the achievements of New Zealand’s own Bruce McLaren. In 2011 it was Kiwi-born Ferrari works driver [...]
Your votes have been counted and the final nominations for the inaugural 2012 Speedhunters Photo of the Year award have been decided. These nominations were chosen by you, and ultimately you will decide the best photograph taken by a Speedhunter in 2012. When deciding how to cast your vote, ask yourself why each photograph deserves your vote. Try to consider the concept of each image along with how it was executed. Let the voting commence…
Here we are with round two of the inaugural Photo of the Year award. Each Speedhunter has submitted five of his favourite images of 2012. It’s up to you to choose your favourite image by each photographer, so you will be voting more than once. Remember that you’re voting on the photography, rather than the subject. The [...]
Picking my defining moment of 2012 is easy. As a long time Speedhunters reader, getting the call up to join the team as New Zealand Editor is something I’m not ever likely to forget. Although I’ve only been contributing for nine months, in that short amount of time so many doors have been opened for [...]
It all boiled down to this. After years of thought and months of planning, a dozen pro-spec drift machines rolled out of their makeshift pit bays and onto a closed-off section of downtown city road in Auckland, New Zealand. In front of a huge crowd gathered at the free-to-watch event, the Red Bull Drift Shifters [...]
If you ever needed proof that four-wheel-drive and boost isn’t necessarily required to turn record-setting lap times in the heat of time attack competition, then this 1990 Honda CR-X built in Brisbane, Australia, is it. Anyone that attended this year’s World Time Attack Challenge might have seen the car throwing down some lightning fast laps [...]
The New Zealand drift community is getting pretty excited right now, and for good reason. This coming weekend an entire city block in downtown Auckland will be shut down and transformed into a tarmac playground for a bunch of Kiwi drifters and three Formula Drift internationals. The cause: Red Bull Drift Shifters. The event is [...]
There’s little wonder that so many people look back on the mid ’80s as the golden era of rallying. Group B not only reinvented the sport from a technical standpoint, but it re-popularized it too. For a while, the World Rally Championship was bigger than Formula 1. During those crazy years from 1983 to 1986, [...]
The term ‘street driven’ is one that’s often bandied around drag racing circles. While I have the utmost respect for any production-based machine that can cut a quick quarter (and we’re talking a sub 10-second ET here), there’s extra something special about a car that can do it straight off the road. In my mind [...]
Ask anyone who knows anything about drifting and there’s little chance they won’t recognize the name MadMike, or one of his world-renowned Mazda drift machines. But what about the guy behind the name? Last weekend I spent a day out at Mike’s workshop shooting a feature on his reloaded BADBUL RX-8, so thought I’d use the opportunity to take a look inside his compound and give you a glimpse into the day-to-day life of MadMike Whiddett.
