Newsletter Issue 19 – June 2025

October 1, 2025

From the Editor:

Hi Club members,

This newsletter provides updates on committee matters, recent club activities, and general information.

First you will have heard that all cars over the age of 40 years can now get a WOF for 12 months rather than 6 months. Many thanks to the hard work from the guys at FoMC, who have partitioned and pushed this through the appropriate government departments. This change was well overdue, and we are very grateful that our bureaucracy has seen the light. This change took a reasonable amount of work from the Federation of Motoring clubs “FoMC”. (Z Club NZ is a member of this Federation) and it took quite some time to put everything together to show that this change would be a smart thing to do. Thanks, FoMC.

NZ is still in bit of a downturn on the economic front, if you are finding that out personally, we feel for you. This year we have offered support and not charged any club fees. As we currently have adequate funds, so are able to do this. What happens next year we will have to see.

Personally, I have been very busy, I have posted a Spotlight up previously on my sons Nissan EXA bumper build, well I have done a lot more than make a bumper, I made new bumper for the back and front and have done a lot of body work, including some panel changes and repainted the Car. It’s been painted BRE racing colours with a more modern Grey rather than the white base. The last few months I have been assembling and fixing trim and upholstery on it. He will be fitting the screen and screen moulds at his place as he is closer to town. Then he is going to install a K24 from a Honda into the engine bay. He managed to pick up a damaged damage car with a manual box. So more to follow but may still be some time away as he has other projects like house renovations and an RX7 to complete first.

From the committee:

As a committee we meet monthly, I have mentioned before we were well in need for some new committee members, We now have 4 new committee members.

The committee members are as follows.

President: Bernie Kant
Secretary: Shona Williams – new member
Treasurer: Jeanette Kant
Members: Stuart Horn
Murray Chapman
Dale
Antony Baker
Allan Keane – new member
Paul Da Silva – new member
Jeff Macgroucutt – new member

This will contribute not only to our numbers but also to the equitable distribution of responsibilities and workload. I would like to thank the new members for joining us, and extend special gratitude to Shona, who, after attending just her second meeting, graciously accepted the position of Secretary from Murray. Murray has performed this role with distinction for approximately 20 years, and I wish to express my sincere appreciation for his outstanding service.

The committee has previously held monthly meetings and is now testing a bimonthly schedule. The group plans to organise at least one event each quarter.

There are plans to offer apparel for club members, specifically hats and T-shirts featuring the club logo. More information will be provided as details are confirmed, with an aim to have these items available by summer.

Due to changes in laws governing non-for-profit associations, our constitution must be rewritten. Stuart has agreed to take on this task—thank you, Stuart. The deadline is April to complete and submit the new version. Otherwise, it’s business as usual with a committee meeting scheduled this week.

Past Event: August Northern Run

Wow what a day, we couldn’t have asked for better weather, especially in the middle of winter. Although the air was still cold, it was still warm in the sun. We all met up in Albany, where we had a good half hour to introduce ourselves and chat. It was great to see some old faces and even better to see a whole bunch of new faces. From there we headed north toward The Kaipara Harbour, where our first stop of the day was at the lookout over the Kaipara Harbour. It’s easy to forget how beautiful our country is. In saying that it was my first opportunity to get some good pictures of the cars in attendance. Unfortunately, I was so busy with car pics I forgot all about the scenery, oh well we were here for the cars.

From there we continued in file on Highway 16 past Kaukapakapa turning off on to West Coast Road which would take us to our next destination which was Matakana. We drove through a real mix of roads and had some great winding sections. What I really enjoyed was that we were all able to follow each other which really makes a nice cruise. Not only for us but especially for any onlookers, to this point we did get some waves. It’s not often you see a convoy of this sort.

The West Coast Rd took us through Warkworth and on to Matakana to our destination, the Morris and James Pottery and Café. This is where we had lunch. This café is well presented and laid out. We were able to sit out in the sun and enjoy lunch together. The food was great but the service not so good, some of the meals took ages to come out, with us having to chase them up. One meal didn’t come at all. Fortunately, they offered money back and a bite for the road. It was great to be able to chat and catch up and I took the opportunity to look at a couple of cars that peaked my interest. Although I have singled out a couple of cars, I have to say that it was good to see that we had a high standard of cars which attended. We had samples of most models, the only one we missed is the early 300’s.

So, it was a nice mix of quality cars, with a couple of the New Zeds, two 370’s, a bunch of 350’s and some well-presented 300’s a really good 280, and a good number of 240-260’s. The cars that peaked my interest are a couple I hadn’t seen before.

Mohit had his 260Z with him, and I have to say this was an amazing car. Looked great in its blue livery and was immaculate. Well done Mohit for looking so well after this car. Also, his friend (sorry I failed to get a name). Had joined us in Matakana with his recently painted Fairlady 2+2 (260Z) He had painted it silver, and it was also immaculate, obviously a very well cared for car. His car was the same configuration as my car, one of last S30’s as a 2+2. The Japanese version with the 2litre L series engine. A well-preserved car very nice. I don’t want to undermine any of the other cars there as the other S30’s were also absolutely mint.

Another little surprise was to meet Dee at Matakana. Dee and Graham started the club back in 1981. Dee now lives with her son in Whangarei, and finds it harder to attend club events, she still has Grahams 240Z and it is currently down south getting some rust work done. Dee was really excited to see the Zeds come into the carpark. She commented that she expected a couple of zeds, but they just kept rolling in. Dee still takes an active interest in the club and the marque. Dee it was an honour to have you in attendance. Dee is in the second picture first person on the left.

From there we headed back down on old East Coast Rd back to Albany for a Coffee at the Palmers Garden centre. By that time, we had lost a good part of the group.

I would like to say a big shout out to Shona who as a new member on our committee had organised her first run with a little help from Stuart. Guys thank you very much we really enjoyed the day, and the icing on the cake was undoubtably the weather. Thank you, weather gods.
I am unable to put my pictures in this newsletter, so I will post them into Gallery. Check it out here https://zclub.nz/latest-gallery/