NZ Performance Car

Let’s be real — we’re living in some pretty crazy times as car enthusiasts. The world of performance cars and tuning is shifting in ways we never really saw coming. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably feeling a mix of excitement and maybe a little bit of unease. With tech advancing faster than ever and the big move towards electric vehicles, the car scene we know and love is starting to look a lot different — and it’s got us all chatting. We’ve all seen the buzz. Every manufacturer out there is pushing hard to electrify their line-ups. Sure, it’s great for the environment, and yeah, it’s probably where we need to be heading, but let’s be honest — it’s also making a lot of us feel a little…

HERO CONTRIBUTOR NIKKI ARMADA When I was a teenager, my dad, who loved cars and always kept up with the latest models, used to take me to car events like drag racing and car shows held in Manila, Philippines. A big Mitsubishi fan, he owned a Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and a Mitsubishi GTO back then. He also loved collecting toy cars and magazines, which he enjoyed as a pastime. I came to New Zealand for work in 2014, arriving alone. My child was young, and I left behind my wife, who was pregnant. This situation pushed me to work hard for my family and myself, saving every cent to support our needs. Back then, I used to borrow NZ Performance Car magazines from the Auckland City Library because I couldn’t…

4&ROTARY SOUTH ISLAND CHAMPS Timaru International Motor Raceway. The event will feature all your regular favourites, This year’s biggest southern import culture event returns to Timaru on Friday, 15 November and kicks off with the Japfest track day aimed at rotary and pre-2000 vehicles. The event spans three days, with the Show & Shine taking place at the Southern Trust Events Centre on Saturday before a broader Ultimate Track Day on the Sunday back at including unveils, roll racing, drift demos, power skids, and the DB Drags. The Champs often sells out Timaru accommodation, so book early to avoid disappointment. As always, more information can be found on the social pages. SOUTHERN STYLE Drift South has announced its upcoming season dates: Round 1 — Saturday, 14 September Euromarque Motorsport Park,…

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, there’s absolutely no doubt about it. The notion of a ‘golden era’ is something that persists, not only among aficionados of music, cinema, or any other cultural phenomenon, but also increasingly conspicuously among a specific demographic of the modified car sphere. The two are inextricably linked. The mere idea of a time that outshone any other is, when you break it down, simply a byproduct of feeling nostalgic. It seems inevitable as we all get on a bit — life starts happening at an ever-increasing pace and responsibilities magnify exponentially. All of a sudden all that stuff (in our case, automotive) that got our wheels spinning, provided a social hub, and of course, ensured a bottomless bucket in which to funnel untold amounts…

Premier Events has cracked it when it comes to putting on automotive events; spectators haven’t been this spoilt for choice since the 1990s Big Day Out festivals. There was never a dull moment at the Prowear Chrome Horsepower Festival this year, either on or off the track. With over 10 years of experience in putting on the festival, Chrome Horsepower shows how far the car culture scene has come in terms of an entertainment event. The layout was superb, and it was an easy stroll around the seemingly endless number of modified cars either on show or cruising the track. Azhar, the main man behind Premier Events, is an old shoe — for want of a better term — at this type of event, having been involved in shows from…

Sometimes in life, a combination just works to create something so special that the result is far more than just a simple sum of its parts. Think bourbon and Coke, mince and cheese in a pie, peanut butter and jam on toast. An E30 BMW on BBS RS wheels fits in with those: by themselves, they’re both good, but add them together, and they’re suddenly so much more. This specific E30, belonging to Wellingtonian Dennis Kumar, is precisely that: seemingly simple on paper, but the right mix of well-thought-out parts means that it doesn’t need to be over the top to be perfect. Dennis says that he wasn’t always a BMW guy. He has a history of owning various turbocharged Nissans and never really understood what people saw in the…