More cars to drool over

The aficionados are always there, and once again there was a brisk trade in the bits and pieces that set the car enthusiasts' pulse racing, but most of those who converged on Taipa for Saturday's Autospectacular would have struggled to tell the difference between a spark plug and a chassis.

They were there simply to admire the fleet of vintage and classic cars on display, and to marvel at the efforts some had made to restore the venerable vehicles to their glory days.

The annual event, staged by the Far North branch of the New Zealand Vintage Car Club, has always been popular, although inclement weather put a dampener on things last year. There was no repeat of that on Saturday, another big crowd pouring through the gates on a cloudless summer's day.

The real drawcards included a 1925 McLaughlin Buick, owned (and reconstructed and painted) by Kaikohe couple Bruce and Mollie Auger.

Admirers included Tangiteroria man Mat Singleton, who confided that he had a MkIII Zephyr at home that wasn't quite up to a trip to Taipa yet, but perhaps would be before too much longer.

The oldest contraption was an 1896 Quadricycle, whose three horsepower, 91-octane and two-stroke oil-powered motor can reportedly propel it along at a top speed in the region of 25mph (40km/h), which all agreed would be plenty while aboard a rudimentary seat set upon four spindly wheels, although the machine had been fitted with brakes some time post-manufacture, "for safety purposes".

The collection also included two of the three Citroens that completed last year's 'Shadow of the Andes" tour, organised by Kaimaumau couple Rosco and Raewyn Pennell. The little cars, obviously much more robust than appearances would suggest, covered 14,500km through Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, much of it on roads barely worthy of the name. Raewyn said another tour would be organised if and when sufficient fellow travellers made themselves known.

Meanwhile, the crowd was catered for with non-stop entertainment and plenty of food, all sorts of stalls, the opportunity to master a Segway and a Fire Service demonstration of what happens when water is applied to a pot of burning oil.