Veteran road tour will take in much-improved highways of 'Winterless North'

The largest rally of veteran cars the country has seen will next year recreate a 1917 "tour of the Winterless North" by MPs.

More than 50 veteran cars, all made before 1919, will head north from Auckland on the same route the MPs took in 1917 as they highlighted the appalling state of Northland roads.

In heavy rain the clay hills of Northland turned to mud and in January 1917 the 44 politicians and 60 farmers spent most of the trip pushing or pulling the 23 cars out of the mud.

The "tour of the Winterless North" struck appalling weather, which made the bad roads even worse, said a history of New Zealand's House of Representatives.

"The MPs spent their days fording swollen rivers, heaving vehicles out of mud and dealing with punctures," it said.

Next year's tour will stick mostly to sealed roads with only a smattering of metal roads, said David Oliver, from the Horseless Carriage Club, which is organising the rally.

The 1917 re-enactment had attracted more than 50 veteran cars, including the oldest, a rare 1901 Locomobile steam car, and a 1905 Riley. Two overseas entries had also been received, a 1915 Cadillac from Canada and a 50 horsepower 1911 Stoddard Dayton from the United States.

Mr Oliver said they would leave Auckland on January 26 and make an average speed of about 50km/h to Whangarei through Mangawhai, Kaiwaka and Waipu.

"It will be a long day for them."

Mr Oliver said that in 1917 the roads were treacherous and in places nearly impossible to navigate.

"It [the original tour] was specifically designed to draw the Government's attention to the state of roads."

They were so bad that every time they tipped gravel on to the roads it disappeared in the mud and made little difference to traction, he said.

"It just sank down into the mud. They were horse tracks.

"In wet weather it must have been pretty treacherous," Mr Oliver said.

A lot of the cars abandoned the trip, although the Government did not like to advertise that at the time, he said.

Mr Oliver said there had never before been a tour of the country's roads by more than 50 cars built before 1919. The cars would return to Auckland for a car show at the North Shore Events Centre.

- NZPA