Words: Simon Dudding Photos: Leo Batger
The Chrome Horsepower Festival gets a lot of hype, and deservedly so. For over 10 years, the Premier Events crew has been perfecting the horsepower festival to cater to a broad variety of automotive interests, leaving entrants just as pleased as the spectators by the end of the three days. The festival makes good use of the close vicinity of Waikato’s motorsport venues. Chrome divides up the driving events between Hampton Downs Motorsport Park and NAPA Autoparts Dragway, so entrants and spectators can easily traverse between the two. The layout provides a non-stop, action-packed weekend, and the short drive between venues gives the legs just enough of a break from all the walking. It’s not that it’s spread out too far; it’s just that there’s so much to see.
The first weekend of August can be fairly fickle weather-wise, but the hordes of spectators for the 2024 running of the festival were blessed. This was a weekend where most of the clouds were created from tyres meeting asphalt as opposed to the more natural hydrologic cycle. The start of automotive entertainment kicked off on Friday afternoon with mostly entrants getting in and setting up for the weekend. Saturday is arguably the big day where cruising starts early, and the event carries on late into the night. The morning is a good time to stroll around the pits, as there was plenty to see. The vendor displays had some equally impressive vehicles on display, ranging from Euro endurance race cars to a late model twin-turbo Mercedes-Benz coupe. There was also more of the regular New Zealand automotive scene in the pits, too, with engine-swapped vehicles everywhere. Surprisingly, there seemed to be more Nissan RB engine swaps than Chevrolet LS swaps, but I guess that’s something unique to New Zealand car culture.
The mix of show and track events is spot on, with cruising laps of Hampton Downs Raceway’s National Circuit being very popular, along with drifting, which was simultaneously held on the smaller Club Circuit. Gymkhana and the Hard Park took place on the Hampton Downs infield, which made for some interesting sights later in the day in terms of repairs. Ric Bell had to give his recently completed Nissan SR20-powered Lada some love, with the exhaust manifold ‘cracking’ during roll racing practice. According to Rick’s partner, the custom manifold design matches the overall patina look of the body. But a quick buzz up with the stick welder got the 200+kW Russian long roof back on track.
Another long roof wagon from the Northern Hemisphere that was completed just prior to the event was Jack Maddox’s 1975 Toyota Corolla. After a three-year build, this is just the second event the car has made it to, with street sprints and drifting on the cards during the next summer. The three-quarter chassis houses a stock Chevrolet LS1 and T56 combination, along with Nissan suspension and differential. Events like the Horsepower Festival allow new builds to enter and have a shakedown that is low stress, even with many onlookers.
Clint Fields had his sleeper green 1968 Plymouth Valiant out running laps during the cruising sessions. It’s not necessarily a new build, but the car has been slowly modified over many years to make it a standout. The two-door Mopar has had modifications in all the right places, done very tastefully. The colour-coded steel wheels and factory-appearing body mask the single-turbocharged 318 small block Mopar in the detailed engine bay. All went well until a transmission issue changed the Torqueflite into a two-speed with an extra neutral. It was still driving after breaking and managed to make it home up the Auckland motorway at the end of the event. It also uses a blow-through carburetor, and surprisingly, it wasn’t the only car at the event using this setup to whistle down the straights.
The early cruise was well utilised, and many entrants took the opportunity to take friends for laps. The Cab Stop service had a queue that was longer than the sole coffee stand and proved very popular. Unlike the usual Prius-filled taxi stands, this Cab Stop lets spectators get a ride in any willing entrant’s car, and it was generously taken up by many. Funnily enough, there was a sole Tesla entered, but the driver was too busy fending off every other entrant lining up for impromptu roll racing. Props to the Tesla driver, as they did not disappoint in taking most people up on the opportunity of a dig down the straights.
There were very few times over the weekend when the track was empty, apart from some quick changeovers for roll racing and the occasional on-track breakdown. The first of the weekend’s breakdowns? A Toyota, of all things — it turns out they aren’t bulletproof! Roll racing practice on Saturday was a hit. Spectators flocked to the infield hairpin at Hampton Downs as cars raced down the short straight away before slowing into the big sweeper leading into the main straight. Although the event had a heavy entrant list of Japanese-origin cars, the strong showing from Holden Commodores put the turbocharged cars on notice. The supercharged Chevrolet LS-powered sedans really showed what instant torque at the stab of the pedal can do, dominating the start line. There were a few exceptions, though, with high-powered VW Golf Rs showing their hand and a couple of ridiculous 1000hp+ Nissan Skyline GTRs. The lag seems worth it when that power finally comes on sometimes.
In the mid-afternoon, the track opened at NAPA Autoparts Dragway for DYO drag racing practice. There was a steady train of competitors from Hampton Downs, and many took the chance to give the quarter mile a crack. Our very own editor, Rick Sammons, took ‘W4RDOG’ down for a few laps after travelling up from Wellington just for the event. The big wheels and little tyre-wall combination limited traction, but he still had a ball. It was going to be hard to beat the four-wheel-drives in either the turbo racing category or the soggy car park. Quite rightly, Vai ended up taking out the turbo class in the aforementioned VW Golf R, running a ridiculous 10.7-second quarter-mile ET in practice. After a brief chat with officials, he was allowed to continue for the night, but he managed to tone it down, as the Golf, being a pure street car, has no cage to allow it to safely run in the tens. Anthony McKillop came through to restore some order, winning the naturally aspirated class. The 2007 VE Holden Commodore was just too hard to beat, even with marginal traction as the evening drew on. The crowd built during the drag racing, while the burnout crew threw on new tyres for the Saturday night ender event. The burnout comp was a wild way to end the day, with a whopping fireworks display to top it off.
All in all, the event was awesome. There was no lack of entertainment for either entrants or spectators. I’m sure that many of the spectators will be inspired to either enter the event next year or head back to the garage and finish off those projects for next year.
Just a small section of the roll racing spectators who were not disappointed. With the popularity it would be easy to see roll racing get their own regular stand alone events.
Ric Bell in the popular ‘POOTIN’ Lada lining up for roll racing practice along with the heavy hitting Holden Commodores. Torque out of the hole was definitely an advantage before the turbo cars got dialled in.
The Boss quad cam powered XW Ford Falcon wagon spent most of the weekend smoking the tyres and the rest of it bouncing off the limiter. It shows how great the engine is and a good fit in the engine bay of the classic long roof Ford.
The Pro-touring Camaro is a good example of where the rubber meets the road. All the twin turbo V8 power broke the rear tyres loose at will and had little choice in leaving pinstripes everywhere it went.
An event that caters for all including this wild fat tyred Factory Five roadster. If there weren’t a dozen cars at the festival that you didn’t like, it’s probably a good time to look for a new hobby.
