It’s only covered its second year, but Renegade Rod & Custom Club’s Parked Up Out West show is looking more and more like a permanent fixture on the local car scene calendar. The event was conceived not long after the opening of the NorthWest shopping plaza at Westgate, Auckland, making use of the enormous rooftop car park to host a free car show on the Monday of Queen’s Birthday weekend.
It’s unlikely that even the organizers expected the turnout last year, with several hundred vehicles in attendance, and they were well prepared this year. Despite the inclement looking weather forecast, people were prepared to travel up and down the country to make a day of it.
It makes sense, after all. Open to classic cars, hot rods, and motorbikes, the general air of the display was old-school cool. And, being so open in criteria, the variety of vehicles on offer was simply phenomenal. Original veteran vehicles provided a perfect juxtaposition to chopped and channeled hot rods, while supercharged pro streeters sat within arm’s reach of bomb-style low-riders … Parked Up Out West achieves a lot through its simplicity.
Created as a family-friendly event, the proximity to food outlets and kids’ zones make it a very easy car show to haul the kids off to, which was certainly evident in the demographic of attendees — plenty of little ones getting their fix of cars far removed from the scope of ordinary life.
And as far as that all goes, it’s an opportune time to mention the chopped wheelstander van that had to be the most popular vehicle of the day. The chopped ’60s Chev van was built as a wheelstander by Slim’s Fab Farm, as featured in Roadkill episode 52, and is powered by a rear-mounted Winnebago-sourced 440ci Wedge with a V-drive transferring drive back to the rear. Seriously cool!
This huge Chev C60 also got its fair share of attention, and it’s not hard to see why. Even with the rising popularity of American vehicles in New Zealand, it’s still pretty unusual to see a full-on American commercial vehicle like this.
It was pretty difficult to get a clear photo of Rodney and Zeta Holland’s recently completed ’66 Dodge Charger — immaculate presentation plus an uncommon body shape had onlookers crowding for a better look for much of the day.
The same went for the low-rider display, with most of them sharing a strip of car parks for easy viewing. Bradley West’s engine bay had most people in the vicinity acting like magpies and swooping in for a closer look, as did the paintwork of Justin Ferris’s awesome ’67 Impala, and the understated coolness of Jason Walsh’s ’61 Impala, or the ’30s bombs nearby.
Grant Dean’s ’41 Ford pickup also contributed some sweet retro cool, with its Flathead power and neat stance on original B/C Equipment wheels that he’s owned for over 30 years. The frequently-used workshop hack has its share of dings and bruises, but doesn’t look out of place at a car show.
The same could be said for this ’55 GMC, looking the part with original patina and a rad stance.
And how about this pro touring ’68 Camaro, which, if the number plate is any indication, appears to be packing a 565ci Nelson Racing Engines big block under the bonnet. That’s tough!
In a completely different type of tough, the ‘BLOFLY’ Torana still looks as good as it did when it was built over 15 years ago. Parked next to the Adam Browne’s in-your-face VH Commodore, the tubbed and blown Holdens were never free of curious onlookers.
Being a car show, though, we know that photos tend to say a lot more than words, so we’ll leave our online report here and let you enjoy the photo gallery below. Keep an eye out for an event report in an upcoming issue of NZV8.
