KING Country Vintage Car Club members and friends held their annual rally on Sunday, with lunch at Āria School.
THE wheels fell off – literally.
But despite losing the left front wheel from an early 1950s Austin A40, the capable members of the Taumarunui-based King Country Vintage Car Club enjoyed their “very successful” annual rally last Sunday.
The 2023 destination was Āria school.
It wasn’t a race, it was “a relaxed event, at your own speed”, club chair Campbell Wright said.
“We were very proud of it; it is a pretty major undertaking.”
He describes the group as “New Zealand’s smallest car club”.
There are only 10 active members – although others travelled from elsewhere to join Sunday’s action.
“Apart from the weather, which was a bit miserable, it went well. We had 36 or 37 entries.”
The participating cars dated from the 1920s to the 1970s.
One – a 1922 Velie – Campbell said was probably the only one of its kind in New Zealand and likely the southern hemisphere.
The Velie was an American car manufacturer operating out of Illinois in the early 20th century.
The drivers travelled 183 kilometres on the day, over 100 of which was gravel.
Their route saw them travelling via Otunui and Ōhura and the Waitewhenua to Āria, returning via the Mokauiti valley and Ongarue.
The lost left wheel belonged to an Austin A40, which had otherwise travelled from Dargaville without incident.
The drama happened at the start of the Kurau hill, a local landmark. The drivers quickly managed to put the wheel back on.
