It is no secret that Kiwis are absolute petrolheads, and we have
always punched well above our weight when it comes to motorsport.
Besides being dab hands behind the wheel, we have an amazing
stash of iconic race cars from yesteryear, as well as some original
machinery that could only ever come out of Aotearoa. Thanks to our
little country producing brilliant minds and passionate individuals,
Goodwood this year had a bunch of Kiwis showcasing some of the
amazing cars that call New Zealand home.
The array of top-shelf Kiwi tin was even more special in that
no two were from the same motorsport genre. Mad Mike debuted
the V10-powered Lamborghini ‘NIMBUL’; Ross Clarke tore
through the gravel special stage in his TA64 Group B rally Celica;
Warwick Mortimer was lined up behind the bricks in his March 84G
Group C car, with Auckland-based Classic Revival’s Leyton House
March V8 Formula 1 (F1) car right behind, celebrating the March
marque; and, finally, to finish off the Kiwi quintet, our favourite Scot,Tony Quinn, was on hand to rocket his R35-powered Ford Focus
Pikes Peak car between the bales.
Of course, when you watch the live stream of the event, it
appears that most are enjoying a fun, spirited thrash up the Duke of
Richmond’s nice smooth driveway on a beautiful English summer’s
day. Those behind the wheel will quickly tell you otherwise.
Warwick Mortimer reminisces: “The challenge of driving a wide
car up the hill was that the surface is a little bumpy and the car would
bounce from the change in surface. With such a wide car that was
at full chat, you were always fighting the crest of the road as well.”
It requires fighter-pilot levels of concentration to drive a car
designed to run at 200kph along a narrow driveway, keeping it off the
hay bales and away from the flint wall. Andy Higgins was in a similar
situation, citing Goodwood as a polarizing opposite to conditions
that the cars are used to: “As well as the bumpy driveway and
changing grip levels, large cold tyres and cold carbon brakes mean(YHQWKHUDLQFRXOGQ·W
stop NIMBUL from
smoking the crowd outRoss Clarke
navigating the
slippery chalk-surface
rally stage in his TA64Andre and Ben of High Performance Academy (HPA) somehow
managed to give security the slip and were caught lurking in the pitsthe
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