Want a spin in a Porsche at Pukekohe racetrack today? Phone 021 214 1883 and ask for Helen. Some seats are still available for the annual Child Cancer Foundation fundraiser. The Porsche Club of New Zealand runs it this way: $520 buys you a run in Owen Evans' Le Mans car; $250 puts you beside Ray Williams in his race Porsche; $140 gets you in a street legal 911; $70 sees you in an older model; and for $40 you get one of the slower Porsches.
Getting into the swing
BMW New Zealand marketing chief Mark Gilbert leaves for the Philippines in October to manage a new BMW dealership in Manila. But with the change in jobs and climate comes a change in sports. Gilbert is an accomplished skier but was spotted working on his golf game at Wairakei the other day. In Manila, as in most Asian cities, golf is more a business than a sport . The golf club Gilbert will be expected to join is one befitting his status as BMW boss. But he can't just become a member - he has to buy a share in the club. Each share costs upwards of $500,000. That's a lot of skis.
Beauty parade
In 1966, after losing to Ford at Le Mans, Ferrari reworked its beaten P-3 race car and created a new winner, the 330 P-4. Tonight, Auto Motor and Sport drives through Germany's Ruhr district in a replica of the P-4, a car every bit as beautiful as the original. Also on the Triangle Television show is Dusseldorf's annual concours d'elegance, a kilometre-long parade of past and present cars.
Donutters delight
A competition designed to encourage controlled fun in a motorcar will be held at the Manukau Velodrome next Sunday, with the approval of the Manukau City Council. The organisers of the event have laid down a 600 sq m concrete pad on which competitors can do donuts and the like. There will also be a drag-racing contest, a custom and race car show and motorcycle stunts. Spokesman Keith Sharp said alcohol will be banned and the event will be closely policed. The lack of a suitable pad at the Velodrome prevented the traditional celebration donut from being performed by the winner of this year's Rally of New Zealand. The concrete pad will solve that problem for next year's rally.
Adelaide goes up a class
Entries from overseas Jaguar and Mercedes clubs have raised the status of the Classic Adelaide Rally to a truly international standard event, say the state's tourism officials. The special-stage section is recognised as a unique event, in the style and tradition of the Monte Carlo Rally and the Mille Miglia in Italy, they reckon. The rally features pre-1970 sports cars, and for the first time the Jaguar XK Club has entered along with four crews from the German Mercedes-Benz Club. British Ferrari collector Paul Vestey will drive a 1959 Ferrari 250 California Spyder Competizione, originally raced by the Venice-based team, Scuderia Serenissima. Don't know if there are any New Zealand entries, but if you want to view some classic cars, and can live with changing basket-case New Zealand dollars for Australian ones, e-mail: jane@satc.co.nz
We are the World
* Jeep is laying off half its workers at its Ohio plant because it is making more Cherokee four-wheel-drives than it can sell.
* A policeman who "became depressed" issuing parking tickets in Hamburg, Germany, has been medically retired at age 33.
Porsche power
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