Boyd Nelson’s expertise in hot rods was clear when he and his 17-year-old son Brock named the 1935 Havana brown Ford Coupe the best among 139 other cars at Cambridge Raceway.
Boyd and Brock Nelson back home in Cambridge with their pick of the hot rods, a 1935 Ford Coupe. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
“That’s a winner,” the former Cambridge resident who moved to Katikati two years ago and now runs his own hot rod business.
And he was right. Graeme and Debbie Dodd of Masterton won the popular vote at the Harbour City Rod Club’s Pre-49s Hot Rod Show and Shine at Cambridge Raceway with the car that, 12 years ago, was sitting upside down in a Californian rubbish dump.
He bought the car for an undisclosed sum, imported it to the Wairarapa, and spent the next 10 years rebuilding it.
The two-door coupe – now resplendent with its THRTY5 number plate and one of about 240,000 produced in the US in 1935 – was five years in the panel beating shop, he said.
“This is the first time we’ve won overall, so we’re stoked.”
The top 10 hot rods at the event line up on Cambridge Raceway’s home straight. Third from left is Graeme and Debbie Dodd with the winning 1935 Ford 3 Window Coupe. Others include 1932 Ford Roadster (Bert and Helen Dove), 1936 3 Window Coupe (Kevin and Judy Smith), 1934 Ford Tudor (Anne and Lloyd Wilson), 1932 Ford Tudor (Paul and Helen Falvey, 1934 Ford Phaeton (Wayne Gibbons and Kathy Russell), 1934 Ford 3 Window Coupe (Keith and Sonja Hunter), 1934 Chev Master 5 Window Coupe (Terry and Delia Boulden), 1932 Ford Pickup (John and Janet Reid), 1932 Ford Roadster (Sharon Allen). Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
The couple drove up from Masterton on Thursday and stayed with the other 250 participants at Clearways in Rukuhia, heading out each day on road trips around the Waikato, and finishing at Cambridge Raceway on Sunday.
“This has been a really well organised event, and we really enjoyed our time in the Waikato,” he said.
Graeme and Debbie Dodd of Masterton. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Harbour City Rod Club president Ian McNeill, whose Glen Eden Auckland club organised the three-day event, said there were 250 people and 140 cars. Thirteen came from the South Island, one from California, and the rest from the North Island.
The club secured a $1000 grant from the Cambridge Community Board’s Discretionary Fund and in return offered to give a local organisation the opportunity to collect gate takings.
Leamington Primary School, which is fundraising for swings for its playground – something the school has never had – was chosen.
“We spent more than $80,000 in the (Waipā) community,” said McNeill. “We got a really strong vibe from everyone.”
Terry and Delia Moulden’s purple 1934 Chev Master 5 Window Coupe heads down the Cambridge Raceway home straight. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Each hot rod, all pre-1949, was conservatively worth $100,000 – making the collective value of the cars on show at about $14 million.
But some – like the 1935 Ford Coupe – was worth way more. Boyd estimated it would sell for more than $250,000.
Brock, a Cambridge High School old boy who now sports an impressive mullet, is about to start an engineering course in Tauranga but is hoping to get into something a bit faster than hot rods – aeronautical engineering.
The top 10 were: 1932 Ford Roadster (Bert and Helen Dove), 1936 3 Window Coupe (Kevin and Judy Smith), 1934 Ford Tudor (Anne and Lloyd Wilson), 1932 Ford Tudor (Paul and Helen Falvey, 1934 Ford Phaeton (Wayne Gibbons and Kathy Russell), 1934 Ford 3 Window Coupe (Keith and Sonja Hunter), 1934 Chev Master 5 Window Coupe (Terry and Delia Boulden), 1932 Ford Pickup (John and Janet Reid), 1932 Ford Roadster (Sharon Allen), 1935 Ford 3 Window Coupe (Graeme and Debbie Dodd).
Boyd and Brock Nelson back home in Cambridge . Photo: Mary Anne Gill
