Table of contents for No 308 May - June 2024 in NZ Performance Car

Welcome back, everyone! I’m still buzzing from the great response to my first issue as Editor! Seriously, watching everything fall into place and hearing all the positive feedback - that’s what makes this gig so rewarding. Huge shoutout to my fellow writers, photographers, designers, advertisers and feature car owners who all played a part in making that issue awesome! Stepping into the Editor role has been a blast. Being the face of the brand and representing it is quite the journey, especially when meeting fellow enthusiasts at events, chatting away about their builds and the stories behind one of NZ’s top automotive titles. And let me tell you, at these events, there are a few questions that keep popping up. Is the mag still going strong? Do people still hit…

Man it was funny how people didn’t have faith in this project at the start” laughs the owner of this Skyline Sameer Kumar. Of course as the owner of Forged Developments, a Wellington based business that spends its days pumping out high performance builds, it was just another day in the office. The difference being that since it was his own car rather than a customers, he could call the shots and build the car exactly as he wanted. The starting point was a damaged and uncompilable R34 GT-R imported from Japan, but that didn’t worry Sameer in the slightest. With the values of GT-Rs going through the roof, in some ways it wouldn’t make sense to modify one these days, so the fact the car couldn’t be complied was…

While many of us can look back at our automotive past, recognising points in time when we had the wrong car, Wellington’s Steve Kerr is one of the lucky few who takes a different view. A younger Steve was actually a bit slower than his mates to get his first car, but that was by design, not by failure. Right from the outset he was determined not to have any old shitbox, rather he started his car ownership journey behind the wheel of a Silvia. Saving the funds as a student took some time, but he knew it was the right choice, and one that ended up shaping his life thereafter. Now, some nine years later, Steve has owned an impressive 22 different Silvias, including a mix of the S13,…

On a cloudy Saturday morning, Toyota fanatics from all over the country made their way to Hampton Downs Motorsport Park for the annual Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival, a celebration that brings enthusiasts to soak in all things Toyota and Lexus. On entering the venue, the atmosphere crackled with the symphony of JZs, 4A-GEs, 3S-GEs, 1UZ-FEs, and the timeless hum of classic carburettors. Toyotas of all shapes and sizes were spread throughout the venue, some hard-parked in the show and shine areas, while others tore up the track, slid across the skidpan, or shredded tyres around the Club Circuit — supplying everyone with their annual dose of all things Toyota. Hampton Downs transformed into a living museum as hundreds of Toyotas parked up for the show and shine, many with hoods…

Got Instagram? Want print fame on top of all those likes that fly your way each time you post a photo? Want to show us your whip without actually talking to us? Want to see what other readers are up to in their sheds? The answer to all these questions and why these two pages exist lies in the use of the hashtag #nzpc. Search it, use it, and thrash it! We keep a very close eye on it and will be choosing a bunch of hashtagged posts each month to print right here. So remember, next time you’re’gram’n’, use #nzpc.…

It feels unreal to be writing this. Having grown up with NZPC magazines and a passion for cars, it has always been a goal of mine to get a feature on these pages. So, when Deven offered me the Hero Contributor for this month’s issue, it felt like a dream come true. From a young age, cars held a special place in my heart, and in high school, photography became my newfound interest. As I started capturing images of my own cars, and those of my closest friends, I found myself diving into the world of car photography. Drawing on my background in graphic design, the transition didn’t take too much adjusting. I found enjoyment in showcasing the work I’d dedicated to my project cars - a list that grew…

Back in the early 2000s, if you owned anything with more than a 13B rotary engine under the hood, chances are you were a poster star in the bedroom of teenagers across New Zealand, featured by this very magazine. Fast forward to today and owning anything beyond a 20B will likely earn you the same poster status in today’s era. Taupo’s Rene Richmond wasn’t after that bedroom wall fame, but he did want an engine package that was going to give him the power and sound he was craving — a 20B PP that had the ability to chop gears like a cut cat with a sequential gearbox. He got that in 2020 and packaged a triple rotor into his well-presented Mazda RX-2, which now makes occasional appearances at special…

Two thousand and fourteen — a year where a plane disappeared into thin air, the Prime Minister of NZ had the same name as a key that unlocks a toilet at a gas station, NZ won 45 medals at the Commonwealth Games and perhaps the biggest thing to come out of 2014 was a couple of mad Kiwis who were keen to put New Zealand’s adrenaline-fuelled rotary car culture on the international map with the birth of Rotary Reunion, an event run at Taupo Motorsport park for anything with a rotary powerplant. Fast forward to 2024 and enthusiasts gathered for a milestone celebration with the event celebrating its 10th year and, man, was it a good one! With a full carpark, pits and stands, throw in abit of Mad Mike…

GYMKHANA AT MOD Mitsubishi Owners Day at Hampton Downs this year will feature the Andrew Simms Arena with NZs largest Mitsi dealer supporting the event and mixing it with their love of rally. The event has gone from strength to strength with each year producing larger numbers in the parade and this exciting new competition element is sure to test those aiming for the coveted King and Queen titles. ROTATIONALS X REPCO: I AM HOPE DRAG FESTIVAL-26TH MAY Rotationals returns with their first event of the year at NAPA Auto Parts Dragway, Meremere, aimed at spreading awareness of New Zealand’s mental health issues and raising funds for the I Am Hope Foundation. It promises to be a fun and wholesome day of Drag Racing, offering the opportunity for enthusiasts who…

Two days of celebrating automotive culture with adistinct central North Island flavour is probably the bestway to sum up the Jamboree-presented by Downtime Entertainment, which was held on March 2nd and 3rd atthe Manfeild circuit and show hall in Feilding. If you haven’t done the trip yet to Jamboree, it does have abit of a different feel to other events with the track being a majorlure that saw over 250 cars entering the Saturday track cruising sessions, lured by the-much-loved track that flows and challenges and the ability to put people in the car and enjoy what for many istheir most prized possession before jumping into someone elsescar and doing the same all over again. With hours of track time, chances are you are well out of gas and brakes…

Some decades ago, way back in the mid sixties, Honda created one of the singular, most successful advertising slogans to flog a few motorcycles in the USA. That tagline? ‘You meet the nicest people on a Honda.’ A pretty straightforward phrase that set the masses in motion — quite literally — with the inference of belonging to a two-wheeled community of bloody ripper people. For certified Christchurch JDM-phile Brent Howey, that same tagline could apply to him and his sublime AE85 Trueno hatch, albeit with a couple of extra wheels thrown into the equation — a bit less Honda, and a lot more Toyota. ‘You meet the nicest people in a slammed boxy 1980s twodoor hatch’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but despite the thorough nature of…

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