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In 1977 I competed in the Irishman Rally in the '29 Phaeton that I had restored in '66-'67.
At that time it was the only Model A competing and as it was a mass produced car it was generally considered to be less than desirable.
The New Zealand Vintage Car Club had a cut-off date of 1930 for cars to be eligible as "vintage cars" and this coincided with the end of the era of hand built cars.
The engine had been worked over with B4 internals, flywheel etc and it went particularly well.
The Saturday night activities in the shearing shed had to be seen to be believed with considerable amounts of alcohol partaken before the event, during and after in the evening.
This was a male only event in those days with considerable amounts of testosterone mixed with large amounts of alcohol.
On the Sunday there was a speed event around Shand's Patch, a circuit on farm roads where the cars were timed one at a time.
Despite highly vaunted Vauxhalls and Bentleys competing, I got fastest time and this was unacceptable for a mass produced car and consequently I was made first equal with a more appropriate car.
Living in Auckland involved driving almost non-stop 600 miles to Christchurch, broken only by the ferry crossing of the Cook Strait, arriving late Friday night, starting very early the next morning to drive all day in the rally. (mid winter) the crazy evening entertainment Saturday night, competing in the speed event Sunday morning, and then driving more-or-less non-stop back to Auckland.
Oh to be young and so bullet-proof again!
More recently we attended I think the 50th Anniversary event and not only were 50% of the entries Model A Fords, but there also a large number of women involved, political correctness had ruined a uniquely male activity.
By the way, on the deeper river crossings the diffs get full of water and need to be drained, flushed out and refilled as soon as possible.