The Irishman Rally – A Fun Old Car Event in New Zealand

[t-head]

The Irishman Rally is essentially a 200 mile wintertime rally over backcountry roads for vintage cars about half of which are Model "A" Fords. Included is beautiful scenery and numerous exciting water crossings of Irishman Creek. Stop and see a GREAT VIDEO of it you will enjoy, more photos and all the details at The Old Motor.

[Wallace]

Unique tour with mud, snow, rain, high water...looks like fun but you best know your A.

[HOTRODPRIMER]

Man,these guys are definitely hard core but looks like a lot of fun,their driving events include a lot of forging rivers! HRP

[FL&WVMIKE]

GREAT video !!! Thanks for posting.
Loved the music, too !
MIKE (mikeburch)

[1930artdeco]

You can tell the guy in the bomber jacket is driving an open car!

[wensum]

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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.

[Halswell]

Great to see the Irishman Rally make it on to the Ford Barn. Well done T head. Just look how many Model A's take part now days. Its like a Model A testing ground. Havent made it to this rally myself yet but its on my bucket list,

[t-head]

Good to hear that you all enjoyed it, after watching the video and viewing the photos it looks would be fun to come over and take it in some time.

The Model "A" is the perfect car for it.

[JimK1930A]

Thank you for sharing. Your group looks like fun and wish I was there to participate.

[mshmodela]

Amazing the Model A's being so light had little issue with the river crossings....

[ctlikon0712]

I really enjoyed that. Just wish that I could have heard that music of the engines and not the techno.....

[wensum]

I found some photos of the 1977 event, one shows the car at the shearers quarters where we attempted to sleep, the second one shows us on the way home in snow, and the third shows me racing the car around "Shands Patch"
The event still tries to be as challenging as the earlier events but of course alcohol doesn't mix with driving these days and with women present, the mad evening events (stone age rugby in the shearing shed) are no longer suitable