(welcome our newest Contributor Scott McPherson aka NZ Skyliner) As the Northern Hemisphere draws closer to winter, summer is seductively beckoning in the Other Hemisphere. Down here in the land of New Zea, spring and summer means an increase in car swapmeets and shows. Since 17 year old NZ Skyliner, known as Scott McPherson to family, got my first car (1971 Ford Escort) in 1991, I frequented three of NZ’s best annual swapmeets for years. Unfortunately life got in the way over the last four years, as my daily 280km (!) round trip commute to and from work left me tired and stressed, and not remotely interested in driving to swapmeets in weekends. But let’s fast forward to today…
I was made redundant in August this year, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I now have a new job 1.2km from my house, so I walk to and from work every day, and have real weekends again! And what better to do this past Sunday than to trot along to the Cambridge Swapmeet in Cambridge, New Zealand, 25km from my house.
Most Kiwi car swapmeets have the usual mix of cars, car parts, other motoring-related items and household tat. There’s a core of hardened enthusiasts who hate household tat being present, and I tend to agree with them. Then again, I saw many families where Dad was drooling over an elderly car or parts thereof, and Mum looked reasonably content clutching a large potted plant and woollen slippers (“Buy two, get a third free!”).
As with most swapmeets and shows, the best cars are often parked curbside, so let’s have a look at what came out to play for this year’s Cambridge Swapmeet!
Upon parking the ol’ Nissan (not the Silvia in the photo!), I was immediately rewarded with a 1971 Ford Torino opposite. As well as the bonnet shaker, it had a bonnet-mounted tacho – the first one I’ve seen in the metal (plastic?).
But can you see it in the rain?
A few metres up the road was a very low lime green station wagon I couldn’t identify from behind:
WTH??
The front looked familiar, and a rego check revealed it started life as a Studebaker.
The aliens are coming…
Now heavily customised by a Studebaker collector, further internettory research revealed it apparently sits on a 1947 Champion chassis, and includes modified panels from 1950-9 Studebakers – a certain Jonny Cash song springs to mind…! Motivating it is a big block 427 Chev V8. Sure would give it the ‘go’ to match its ‘show’!
Right outside the Swapmeet entrance, I was wondering why someone had parked an old Austin 1100 on the verge? They’re not rare or, it could be argued, even desirable! However as I got closer it turned out to be the very rare MG version. Ok, I forgive it for parking on the verge then. Still an 1100 though, so no powerhouse… NZ-new on 23 September 1964, and still very tidy inside and out, it’s great it survived, if only to remind us that MG wasn’t just about desirable sporting cars…
Moving inside the gate revealed a rather splendid 1977 Lincoln Mark V “Givenchy” edition, replete with 460 delicious cubic inches of V8 and enormous factory glass sunroof. I like sunroofs, especially when applied to such a gloriously excessive car!
Lincoln gets photo-bombed by elderly Vauxhall looking for love.
Moving along I admired several rarities – including a Standard Vanguard factory ute and a 14,000ml-from-new Ford Anglia. Then, hang on, what on earth is this?
The horse has bolted!
CCers better versed in American car history than I will recognise it as an 1899 Stanley Steamer – what a find! I can’t even begin to fathom how the engine (?) works but it sure is shiny!
Pimpin’ my ride with bling, 1899 styles yo.
That it’s in perfect working order and fully road legal was even more surprising – as was the owner saying he drove it regularly too. He then demonstrated by firing (?) it up and driving it to the other side of the venue. Electric cars pfffft, steam’s the past and the future!
Oh look at this! No, not the Honda CR-V, the factory RHD 1928 Packard 526 Tourer! First registered here on 01 January 1928, and still looking superb nearly 86 years later. Hope I look that good at that age!
Next I was really taken with this 1930s art-deco looking pick up, complete with rear wheel spats! The for-sale sign on the windscreen stated it was a 1939 Plymouth “Truck”, one of just 50 factory RHD versions out of a total 6,218 built. It came to NZ in 1999 from South Africa, and looked to be still capable of regular use. I liked it a lot, but for NZ$27,500 it’s a little lottle outside my price range.
As I walk out the gate, here’s a car close to Kiwi Bryce’s heart: a 1961 Hillman Minx. Unusual paint and wheels for a Minx but it looks pretty darn good don’t you think? The orange XB Ford Falcon GT351 behind it was gorgeous too, as was the black S-series Australian-built Valiant across the road.
I can see the car-parking paddocks from here, looks like a lot of great finds cooing my name, so stay tuned for Curbside in Cambridge Part II – The Carpark!
I do like that Minx. With wire wheels and a two tone paint (with gold even) it should look silly but somehow it works.
I too thought it would look silly, but yes, it did strangely work. I took several more photos of it, and the interior was similarly coloured but also worked. I’ll either post the rest of the pics on the Cohort or write a CC on it in the next few weeks.
The Minx makes it 3 for 6 today – I have personal experience with vehicles in 3 of the 6 posts so far today. My Scottish grandfather had a Minx in (IIRC) a two-tone gray. Somewhere I have a picture of it in my parent’s driveway near Philly in 1966 or so, with the snow rather higher than it’s roof – something that hasn’t happened recently.
(The other two were the Pinto – two of my high school friends had them – and the Scout II – my Boy Scout Scoutmaster had a dark green one.)
Wow; that Stude wagon is pretty out there. But any Stude of that vintage really needs the wrap-around rear windows of the coupes.
There’s a red MG 1100 like that (with a white roof) right around the block from my house; I really need to write that on up. Very cute cars.
Thanks for the tour!
I agree about the Studebaker, without the wrap around rear window balancing the triple-bullet front, it some how makes it odder in a mundane kind of way
That swoopy 1950 bullet-nose front end certainly does make the station wagon rear look angular by comparison.
The paint job on that very shiny Hillman Minx combined with the shape of the rear door windows was strongly reminiscent of mid-1950’s Studebaker sedans.
And I also was quite impressed with the Packard!
I took several pics of the Pack’, will post them to Cohort or write up a CC in the next few weeks.
You’re welcome Paul – thanks for the encouragement and advice! The Stude’s tailgate is modified factory panels – the upper half is from a ’56, the lower from a ’59. Rear bumper started life as a ’47 too. More deets here: http://www.v8.co.nz/articles/other-brands/1950-studebaker-delivery-the-stude-dude-51
Nice variety of cars to look over. Is it just me, or can everyone use a bonnet shaker at least once in a lifetime?
Preferably a real shaker as opposed to those ghastly stick-on plastic fakes!
As a steam nerd, I shall give a little info about the Stanley’s engine compartment.
The two cylinder engine is in the middle, the brass covers the insulation. It is double acting, in that the cylinder is first pushed down and then pushed back up. The glass chamber to the left of the engine is a displacement lubricator, it automatically meters oil into the steam before it reaches the engine to lubricate the valves and rings (it works by allowing a small amount of steam into the glass chamber where it condenses into the water seen at the bottom making the oil overflow though a standpipe). The lower end of the engine is lubricated with a few squirts from the oil can nestled in front resting on a frame member.
The steel rod going up in front of the cylinders is how the operator controls the engine. It moves the Stephenson link (a type of valve control arrangement) to vary the timing and length of steam admission to the cylinders. The throttle would be left open and the speed controlled by varying the valve timing. The engine may be reversed the same way, by changing the timing such that the engine will run backwards. It may be possible to brake in this way as well. The steel rod ultimately links to the black handled control lever seen in the first picture on the right side of the seat.
The smaller vertical black cylinder to the right of the engine is a steam pump for supplying feed water to the boiler to replace the water that boils off as steam. The pretty brass arrangement in front with the wooden handle is a manual feed pump for starting up or emergency use.
The boiler is not shown but must be in the rear further under the seat. The seat would stay warm I’d think.
Finally, the owner would have been planning his little drive for some time: it takes a good half hour from cold to build up steam in the boiler.
Thanks for the comprehensive explanation! People deride steam as low-tech, but 20th century steam engines definitely weren’t.
That’s very true, they are deceptively simple. Simple in concept, but full of small details produced by more then three centuries of continuous refinement.
The Doble steam cars of the ’30’s were in many ways superior to the internal combustion cars of the time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doble_steam_car
Yes, as John H said, thank you for explaining! The boiler was possibly behind the seat, where there was a boot/trunk-like area. This area had a large copper pipe below it pointing at the ground, and a T-shaped pipe above it with steam coming out of the horizontal ends. Yes, it was steaming for some time before it was driven.
I took quite a few photos of it as it’s the second oldest car I’ve ever seen in the metal (an 1886 Benz being the oldest), and one of the most unusual. I’ll either post them to the Cohort or write a CC on it in the next while.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this, SH. Fascinating.
Love the Torino,Packard & Hillman Minx, would like to see more of that brutal looking Falcon,I’ve wanted one since seeing Mad Max
I only took a couple pics of the Falcon – they’re still common here so I didn’t think of it! That one was a genuine GT351 though, so that makes it more rare – although most survivors have been long since been turned into GT lookalikes. That shape, the XB series, is one of my favourite Aussie-Ford shapes – everything forward of the A-Pillar is awesome-looking!
NZ has such an interesting mix of cars! And that Falcon really fooled me; from the front the family resemblance is so strong, I thought it was a 1971 or so Mustang Mach 1.
We do indeed have a fascinating variety! American/Australian,/European/Japanese/Korean, sedans/coupes/wagons/convertibles/utes/vans, LHD/RHD, petrol/diesel/CNG/LPG, NZ-new/used imports, they’re all here somewhere!
Because we’re a small and comparatively remote market, we had no design rules (other than RHD for new cars) for many years, so were offered a bit of everything. Now that I’ve got the hang of this CC Contributor thing, I hope to offer a lot more of our local delights to the CC world!
I had the same reaction to the Falcon as Mike — I’ve seen photos of XB Falcons before, but viewing the picture, my brain processed it as a 1971-73 Mustang, and it wasn’t until reading the caption that I realized what it actually was. There is definitely a family resemblance between some late ’60s/early ’70s Australian and North American Fords.
Great work Scott, excellent to see your first contribution. And congrats on the new job. I’m changing jobs next month, to a dealership 650m from home. Can’t beat that convenience!
Thank you! After 18 years of either commuting or being on the road repping, I love working so close to home – hopefully your change works out similarly well too!
I really enjoyed your variety of pics Scott, thank you!
Nice to see that such an assortment made it to your country.
I especially enjoy the Packard and the Plymouth.
It would be great if New Zealand would someday produce their own car…
I believe it would likely take some wealthy entrepreneur with a leading edge concept.
If you have any such visionaries in the automotive area.
BTW Canada does thank you for ‘Split Enz’… the Finn brothers are especially talented,
and maintain a lot of popularity, being especially successful here!
You’re welcome Daniel! There were moves to produce our own car (basically the same thing as the Turkish Anadol I think) in the 1960s, but without the requisite scale of primary industry they never got off the ground.
The closest we came is the Trekka ute/van, of which 2,500 were made from 1966-73. They were only NZ-made insofar as featuring NZ-made steel panels on Skoda Octavia underpinings. One of my high school teachers drove one which I rode in once or twice. Overall the Trekka was pretty crude but okay for the light commercial market.
Regarding Splitz Enz and the Finn brothers, they grew up here in my town of Te Awamutu, and their parents retired to the nearby town of Cambridge where these swapmeet photos were taken!
Thank you very much Scott for this brief history of the most recent efforts to start up production in your home country. Given your close proximity to Australia and the Japanese market, I could see it being a long shot for future auto design/production. We have the same problem in Canada, given we border on the US. Lots of production is done here, but not that many startups in the recent past. Bombardier is our big transportation corporation.
Wow, thank you as well for that fascinating bit of info regarding the Finns.
Glad they stayed close to home. You must recognize people and their cars all the time, where ever you go across the country!
IINM, Plymouth pickups were sold in the U.S. for about five years, circa 1937-41. I have no idea about other markets. I’m not sure if they were ever sold in Canada, since Canadian Chrysler-Plymouth dealers had Fargo branded trucks to sell.
I think they were basically Dodge pickups with Plymouth front sheet metal. They were introduced because Plymouth management argued that they needed pickups to match up with Chevrolet and Ford. Dodge, which had been Chrysler’s truck brand up to that point (due to their history of building trucks going back to before they became part of Chrysler), resisted this and eventually won out.
That particular Minx has a twin webered 1725 Rapier powertrain the same guy has several apparently, probably Sunbeam wheels nice car its finished mine never will be.
Nothing worse than ‘long commutes! Glad you got a job close to home! Walking to work rocks! Good on ya!
Look forward to hearing more on cars from the other hemisphere and on the Minx. Love Packards and know a real Studebaker descendant who lives around the block and drives a 1963 Studebaker Daytona Wagonaire !
Greetings from the Pacific Northwest!
Thank you! I look forward to sharing more 🙂
Scott, welcome and thanks for sharing! Always nice to see a car show with “different” stuff. And congratulations on the shorter commute, been there, done that with the long one…
– Jim Klein
Thank you Jim! The shorter commute (20mins a day walking vs 3.5hrs driving!) means that after reading CC from day one, I can finally give something back and contribute!
Cream 1952 Chevrolet utility. This was in 1966. A looooong time ago now.
A very nice piece, Scott. I, too, am amazed at the variety of cars found in your part of the world.
That Studebaker is a long, long way from South Bend, Indiana, both literally and figuratively. There is someone around here who has grafted a bullet nose Stude front end onto an El Camino, but I like this a lot better. Now, if we could just do something about that Chevy powerplant . . . . .
I know very little about steam cars, but find these fascinating. We need a steamer written up here on CC. We already have an old electric from that era, thanks to Mike Butts.
Thank you jpc! I’ve seen pictures on the net of a Studebaker-fronted El Camino, I wonder if it’s the same one?
I took a lot of photos of the Stanley, so may attempt a write-up. Stay tuned…
Terrific work, Scott. Your part of the world fascinates me in the sheer variety; heck, I’ve wasted more than a little bit of time looking at traderonline sites in Australia and New Zealand to soak in the goodness.
Looking forward to seeing more from you!
Thanks Jason! It’s the great write-ups of CCers like yourself that inspired me. NZ’s trademe site is a daily delight of dreams for me in the variety of cars it provides. I sell a number of old car magazines and brochures on it, in the vain hope my sales may balance out my purchases lol.
Part II of the Cambridge Curbside Classics is coming up soon!
A great start to your writing for CC, Scott. I’m also happy to hear you’ve gotten a new job that agrees with you. As you know I was in the same boat for a while.
Looking forward to more of your writeups. Maybe you’ll find a Holden Brougham; that would be terrific!
Thank you (belatedly) Tom! Yes, the job dance can be challenging at times… My new job is at an accountancy firm, which I’m sure you can relate to! (I’m not an accountant though, so there endeth the connection).
I have several write-ups underway, and hope to finish some this weekend and schedule them over the next while. I did find a Holden Brougham last weekend at a car show, but to me it was just another old Holden so I didn’t take any photos! Very remiss of me, it won’t happen again…possibly…!