Amon exhibit has everything and more

Chris Amon signs Halcombe motorsport fan Terry Williams' model Ferrari Modified P4 at the Bulls Museum on Saturday. Photo/Bevan Conley

Motor racing legend Chris Amon says you know a lot of effort has been put into a museum display when the memorabilia includes your old teddy bear.

Amon, regarded as the best Formula 1 driver never to win a championship Grand Prix, is the focus of a special exhibition put together at the Bulls Museum and on display until the end of March next year.

He discovered his old teddy bear was among the exhibits when he was special guest at Saturday's opening .

His mother gave the teddy away when he was 9. New owner Alan Giles - then aged 4 - kept it in his family and made it available for inclusion in the display.

"I was amazed to see that old teddy and it was nice to see the bear still intact," Amon said.

"But it just goes to show how much effort has gone into getting the display at the museum together. I was quite blown away really by everything they've managed to gather together.

"They've put in a huge amount of effort and given that it's all voluntary makes it all the more special."

Amon said being honoured with the display meant a great deal to him.

"Bulls and the Scotts Ferry area is hugely important to me because it was the home I knew and where I grew up," he said.

The display has even drawn praise from fellow Formula One driver Jackie Stewart, now Sir John Stewart, who wrote a letter to the museum congratulating them on assembling the various pieces of memorabilia in one place for display.

Amon was born and raised on the family farm near Scotts Ferry and said that if had not been for the devastating floods of 2004 he would probably still be living there.

"We've had a bach at Taupo for some time before that so had a place to go after the floods. We found it was a very central place, grew to like it so we've stayed," he said.

It was on the family farm that he learned to drive, as a six-year-old at the wheel of his father's 1937 V8 ute.

"That's how it was in those days and how many of our generation learned how to drive. Nowadays they're into go karts at that age," Amon said.

Those skills, as well as regularly negotiating the 20km of gravel road from the farm into Bulls, gave him the grounding and skills that he took onto the world motor racing stage.

He was to become part of a hugely successful Kiwi triumvirate that included Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and himself.

Amon said he had been "blessed" with what motor racing had given him.

After a successful career as a driver, he retained links with the sport as well as establishing a connection with Toyota 30 years ago. He was involved in product evaluation with the Japanese car giant for much of that time.

Museum treasurer Tony Simms said there had been tremendous co-operation from collectors around the country and from the Bruce McLaren Trust, which supplied photos and memorabilia to be sold at the museum.

As well as photographs, news clippings and model cars there are also two driving suits used by Amon in the 1960s, as well as his helmets.

The Chris Amon display is on at Bulls Museum, 81 High St, until March 31.