The Capri Car Club of New Zealand publishes a quarterly magazine called Capri Capers. This magazine has been published since the inception of the club and provides information, advice and reports to members.
The revamping and enlarging of this website is designed to keep members informed between magazines and allows potential members and overseas Capri enthusiasts to see what the club has to offer.
So articles apperaing in this section will be taken from the previous magazine issue to give non-members a guide to what membership has to offer.
2008 Taupo AGM Weekend
Lindsay Lyons
Well!! ... What can I say? What a weekend!! Great membership turnout, great looking cars, the weather wasn’t too bad, and there was something of interest for everyone.
Friday evening’s traditional arrival of members into Suncourt was enjoyably spent catching up with friends while socializing in the restaurant/bar. Probably anticipating a full-on weekend, most members wisely watched their liquor intake and went to bed relatively early!
The arrival of the first Capri’s at Saturday morning’s concours was greeted with a rather warm, low-hanging fog, as opposed to previous years where we have nearly frozen in minus zero temperatures! This year we were able to get permission to hold our concours on the grass frontage alongside SH1 in front of the Suncourt, with the intention of showing our cars (and keeping ourselves warm) in the sun?, and to present a higher club profile to the passing public. Well, we might have missed out on the sun, but as far as the passing traffic was concerned, I really thought that we were going to be indirectly responsible for a couple of nose-to-tail accidents as, at times, the traffic almost came to a standstill while passers-by “rubber necked” to have a good look at our cars. And what an awesome display it was; 32 immaculately presented Capri’s lined down the entire grass verge alongside the highway. This display was a huge credit to all our members who obviously made a big effort to proudly present their cars for this AGM weekend.
At 12.30pm, after the Concours, all the cars rendezvoused alongside SH1, heading towards Rotorua, in readiness for the second activity on our itinerary. By this time the fog had lifted, and the sight of 32 Capri’s in the winter sun, all in convoy, was both a sight to behold and to feel enormously proud to be a part of. Judging by the number of toots and hoots we received during the convoy en-route to our lunch stop at Lake Okaro, just off SH5, other motorists appreciated the sight as well.
Our lunch stop provided another opportunity for a photo shoot, a chinwag, and a pre-briefing for the next planned activities, either the Targa/Narva Tour, or a car trial back to Taupo, organized by Brian and Judy Hamilton, for those members who preferred a more sedate activity.
Targa NZ had invited our Capri Club to participate in stage six of the Targa Tour (a part of the main Targa) which was based from Rotorua during Queen’s Birthday Weekend, and had extended their invitation to include us in the Targa “show and shine” alongside the Targa cars in Rotorua’s main street.
Once we were all up and accounted for we headed off to join the other cars of the Targa Tour. The setting was perfect; the late afternoon sun, the mist hanging low around the adjacent hills, and 22 shining Capri’s lined up at the stage start all rearing to go. Fantastic!
Some Targa stages (especially if they are fast and flowing) begin with a 50 km per hour speed restriction zone, known as a H.I.S. zone, for the first 500 metres. This is done to keep the overall average speed for that stage down. This same restriction also applies to the “Tour” cars and, as it happened, stage six started with a H.I.S zone! Well, I really cracked up later when I heard some of the comments made by Capri Club members (via the audio on the onboard cameras that some were using). “Is this it?? .... Is this as fast we are going to go??? ...... Far out!!! .... This is a ‘Nana drive’”!
That was until they hit the end of the speed restriction!!.........then……….it was all on!! What a drive; 18.5kms of closed, fast sweeping, winding, hilly country road with no milk tankers, no cops, no nothing! The day, the weather, the adrenalin, it could not get any better! In what seemed like a flash it was over. Testament to the thrill of it were the feet indentations in the passenger side firewalls of some cars, the wide eyes, and speed that everyone was speaking at afterwards!
This is the only opportunity (except for some hill climbs) that most drivers will get at driving on both sides of the road …. Something that is sometimes hard to get used to (I know of some drivers who slowed and looked both ways for traffic at the T intersection)! NZ is privileged to be one of the very few countries in the world that allows the closure of public roads for such an event as Targa. ….. Let’s hope it continues.
More importantly all of our members showed responsibility. There were no offs, no accidents, and more surprisingly no breakdowns… We are talking Capri’s here!
Once the adrenaline had ebbed, we all rendezvoused outside the stage and headed off in convoy to the main street of Rotorua for the “show and shine”. The Council had closed off the main street especially for this event, only allowing Targa, Targa Tour cars and our Capri’s through their tape.
After lining up something like 27 Capri’s down the main street, Rotorua really turned it on. There were Jazz bands playing in various cafés, tables spilled out onto the footpath as the place resembled something out of the Mediterranean, except ……… it was cold!! ..... Really cold! The local compeer did a marvelous job of highlighting our Capri Club throughout the evening …. And quite frankly, under the shop lighting, our cars did look great! Our club members then really cut loose, cheering the competing Capri’s of Bernie Hiestand, Nelson Marshall and Neil Tollich as their cars crossed the finish time control.
It was then a cold, draughty trip back to the Suncourt at Taupo. It’s damn hard trying to keep warm using a 12volt, windscreen demister hairdryer!!
Dinner and socializing at Suncourt was predictably quieter than normal. It had been a full-on, all-go day and we were still only half way through the weekend!
Sunday morning was track day. I eventually managed to find the track by Braille, as the fog was pretty thick. After scrutineering, we were able to see enough of the track to at least have a familiarization drive. This year, to keep things moving, we adopted the Intermarque system of using two grid lanes; left lane fast, right lane slower. This enabled plenty of ‘quick-fire’ runs for everyone. By mid morning the fog had lifted enough to allow everyone to get out and have a good “skid”. I (as did a number of members), took passengers on all runs. Losing a second or two per lap is a small price to pay to say thanks to all those who assisted on the day by being flaggies and time-keepers etc.
During the afternoon the lifting fog turned to light drizzle which made things on the track really interesting… to say the least, requiring a totally different driving approach to that of the morning. But, with no damage, no accidents, a few spins, a few offs and a lot of fun, we all drove home, which has to be good!!
Sunday evening was dinner followed by the AGM and prize giving. The order of this format we will change!! Next year it will be the AGM first … Then we will open the bar, followed by dinner, and prize giving.
Monday morning saw the traditional “breakie” at the Taupo Lakefront, then the goodbyes as we headed off home in our various directions.
A great weekend!! There are too many people to thank individually, but those I really feel should be mentioned are Peter Martin (the new Targa owner), Mike John (the previous Targa owner) and David Walker (the Tour controller) for their invitation to join the Tour, the Taupo District Council for letting us use the grass reserve for our Concours, Brian and Judy Hamilton for organizing lunch and the car trial, and Pam Callaghan for standing out in the cold drizzle and “sorting out” the grid…….and the guys!! J
Many thanks!
Roll on next year!!!