Seven years ago Glyn and Robyn Doughty’s 1965 Singer Gazelle was rusting away in a Levin paddock.
The Tauwhare couple were no strangers to Gazelles, having owned previous models, but were determined to restore this one. It was in hundreds of pieces and cost them $15,000 but it was a labour of love.
Glyn and Robyn Doughty of Scotsman’s Valley with their 1965 Singer Gazelle. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
It took Glyn about 16 months sourcing parts from wherever he could around New Zealand.
Buying from overseas was never an option as it was difficult to return them if it was the wrong part, he said as the couple waited to start in the Waikato Veteran and Vintage Car Club’s annual double 50 classic car rally on Saturday.
They were among 67 entrants from around the Waikato, Wellsford, North Shore, Auckland, South Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taupō.
The rally – based in Cambridge this year – catered for vehicles that were at least 30 years old and could be cars, light trucks as well as motorcycles in their original or restored condition.
Entrants travelled about 80km – give or take depending on missed turns – in the morning and another 80 in the afternoon.
Tail end Charlies – Pat and Graham Holmes of Cambridge – started the rally and mopped up the stragglers. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Lunch was in Putāruru at the Timber Museum while rally plotter Bryan Cossey had set a route around the South Waikato and Waipā which tested navigators’ skills but in his words was a “nice, easy rally.”
The starters were Pat and Graham Holmes of Zig Zag Road, Cambridge who then became the “Tail End Charlies” helping out any stragglers en-route.
Bryan Cossey 50/50 Rally Plotter, left, with club chair Graham Boswell.
Glyn was one of many members who scoured the Cambridge club rooms’ parts department where Terry Pidduck was when The News catches up with the veteran car restorer.
Terry and his wife Bev – who died earlier this year – founded Cambridge Travel Lines shortly after they married 67 years ago. “I collect cars,” said Terry who lives in Hilda Ross Village, Hamilton and stores his collection in Matangi but brought one of his Rolls Royces out for the rally.
Our interview is interrupted as a club member comes in. “You got any V8 wheels, wire ones Terry?”
“Have a look through there,” Terry says pointing into a room where there are hundreds of wheels of all shapes and sizes.
Steve and Cazna Payne of Te Awamutu with their “old friend” a 1960 cream Morgan 4/4. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Cazna Payne is adamant husband Steve loves their 1960 cream Morgan 4/4 more than her.
And when asked to refute that, the Te Awamutu man hesitates, confirming his wife’s assertion.
Cazna (Anzac spelt backwards) and Steve first became acquainted with their Morgan 4/4 in the early 1980s when they were in their 20s.
They thought nothing more of it until 2012 when someone told them a Morgan 4/4 was for sale in Nelson. So, they flew down and quickly realised it was the same car they drove in years before.
“It was like being reunited with an old friend,” said Cazna who tells us the car – both refer to it as ‘she’ – can reach speeds of 70 miles per hour.
“No 100 miles per hour,” Steve chips in.
The Morgan 4/4 was built between 1936 and 2018 and holds the record as the longest running production vehicle in the world. It also featured in a number of movies and television shows.
Fame, Columbo, Lovejoy, Dempsey and Makepeace, Dangerfield, Keeping up Appearances and Midsomer Murders all used Morgan 4s in television episodes.
But perhaps the most famous appearance was in the film War of the Roses, where Michael Douglas’ character owned a 1960 Morgan +4 Roadster which his wife Kathleen Turner spitefully ran over and crushed.
Terry Pidduck, formerly of Cambridge and now Hamilton in the Veteran & Vintage Car Club’s spare parts department. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Steve and Cazna Payne of Te Awamutu with their “old friend” a 1960 cream Morgan 4/4. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Steve and Cazna Payne of Te Awamutu with their “old friend” a 1960 cream Morgan 4/4 watched by starter Graham Holmes of Cambridge Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
