Thunderpark! Geez, that brings back memories....we trekked up from Welly all the time, then I moved to Hastings in '81. I had a good time there, great people.
When Hogan ran his 5's I was on the startline for one night and later that week I was at the top end when he ran the mph record. Got a rush I can tell you; I haven't been the same since and it's not something you can explain to people. A nitro-fuelled car has to be experienced.
Was a great place. I raced at the very last meeting before it shut which was a lame version of NZ fastest muscle car, back, prob about 96?
We used to go to the finish line and watch Hogan and the wild bunch fly past.
We used to have a wee puff of some stuff that kinda made it more interesting at that speed going by!![]()
I get over to OZ occasionally to the Winternats and watch up to 8 fuellers racing....awesome!
Down here in redneck country we use to have Car Club type 1/4 mile sprint, no OSH etc back in the late 60's/early70's.
The drags were on a side street that was only sealed in the middle 1/3, the 1/3 each side was still gravel.
The 'safety-line' was the edge of the seal, for safety reasons you had to stand on the gravel, if you stood on the edge of the seal the race was stopped until everybody was off the seal.
All sorts turned up, Customlines, Zephyrs, Jags, Triumphs, T-buckets etc - 'run what ya brung' was the order of the day.
Sorry about the hi-jack, overtaken by a wave of nostalgia.....
Winding up drongos, foil hat wearers and over sensitive KBers for over 14,000 posts...........![]()
" Life is not a rehearsal, it's as happy or miserable as you want to make it"
All good. They're aspects of the Mainland that we love, so much of that attitude still exists. It's as if OSH hasn't figured out how to get across Cook Strait and if they did they'd still be ignored. Long may that remain the case. Common sense prevails, you don't need regulations for that.
(In the mid seventies I had a MkIII Z-car with Webers, man was I cool......)
We're going to the Winternats at Willowbank next year.
We usually book seats in the VIP stand right on the start line, so the seats and VIP treatment are all reserved for the 3 days.
Literally metres from fuellers burning out!
Ear splitting action and I refuse to wear ear plugs!
Yeah me too.
On our HB weekly rides I ride past where Thunderpark used to be to get to our meeting place.
Just grapes now, but you can still see the return rd.
Put in over 1000 passes down there in a variety of yanks and rods.........ahhh nostalgia eh.
Only ever took one bike down there, my old VMax.
No wuckers, it's always interesting to hear about where others have been, what they've got up to etc. We're obviously on similar wavelengths.
So they DID put it into grapes, huh? Was TP on SH50 or something? There was a hill opposite, can't recall the name but at the base of it was the Deerstalkers Club. Man, got trashed there a few times, and at the Angus, and the Mayfair (good bands there, saw Midge live, rockin' etc).
Did you ever go to a night club called 'Bananas' in Napier? What a sound system!!!! AC/DC's Back in Black had just been released and it was a total blast up there! I won't say what we did at places like the Frimley Lodge, The Apple Motor Inn and others, bloody funny at the time tho, watching the manager netting the pooh in the pool. Most unsavoury.
How many years have they been running? Donkeys?
Just got back from helping a mate set up his silver Cobra at the Telstra Events Centre in Manakau. national Hot Rod Show, don't you know.........
Bloody high standard out there, top rods, street machines and muscle cars. Unreal quality.
Yep, is a vineyard called Balthazaar, on the road from Fernhill to HW50 just across from the deerstalkers hall.
I believe the track sold for about 400k for all the land over 20 acres. And only not long over 10 yrs ago, amazing when you consider that most houses are over that, and also due to theb track being the best surface and flatest in the land........no drag racing person brought it.
I lived not far from the Mayfair, with its swamp like carpet, squeelchy from all the fluids spilt each night over the years.
As a side note, in the current Hotrod mag, the feature on the red 32 coupe, my mate was the builder of that originally.......well he owned it, I built a lot of it for him, including the engine and finished it all off for cert etc.
Winding up drongos, foil hat wearers and over sensitive KBers for over 14,000 posts...........![]()
" Life is not a rehearsal, it's as happy or miserable as you want to make it"
i have Edelbrock heads an EV27 cam , Wiseco forged flat top pistons , Jims lifters a Mikuni HSR42 carb with a hypercharger aircleaner , a crane single fire ignition and a V&H Pro pipe on my 1988 fxrs lowrider , she goes like a cut cat haven't put her on the dyno yet but would imagine and easy 80 hp
only thing is you are either gonna have to block off the head breathers or modify your rocker boxes to use them , i did the modification but she tends to blow a little bit of oil out the aircleaner but i thought that less crankcase pressure is better so why not , have had the moter together now for 11000km and no problems other than the afor mentioned breather problem , on our SI trip in feb i was getting around the 50mpg so i am very happy , one thing i was told by Doug Hayes properly warm your engine before riding or you will crack your heads![]()
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks