I have heard about this event from my colleague Hunter, who drives a beautiful Nissan Silvia. He told me, that ImportX are coming to Christchurch and going to host a car enthusiasts meeting and cruise around the city. I contacted ImporteX by E-mail and Toots kindly granted me his permission to put the event on EventsHub. That is how it started…
As a car enthusiast I realized, that I cannot miss an event like this. After a quick chat with EventsHub team we set up our crew for the day: The car – our Jaguar XJ X350, Oleg, and me, my wife Sofia. Oleg has a Sony ZV-E 10II camera for events like this, so, most of the pictures were taken by him on the camera.
On 18th of October at 4:30 we departed from the city center towards the Lyttelton tunnel, during our way there we saw some cars (mostly Japanese), who were grouping on parkings with intention to futher drive together to the first spot at Marina Access in Lyttelton. Our way through the tunnel was very loud because many of the cars were revving up their engines as it usually happened on events like this.
Closer to 6pm the spot was so crowded with people and cars, so, it was very difficult to squeeze through at times. What we were doing there? Correct – taking pictures, and there were enough things to film. Oleg, as Japanese cars fan was enjoying Crowns and other big Toyotas, there were a lot of Crowns different specs, colors and model years, however, he was a bit disappointed not to find any Crown in 131’s body shape. We saw a lot of Supras (just like in Fast and Furious 1 movie back in 2001), many other sports-like Toyotas, some of Nissan Silvias, many Mazdas and others…
Most of them had some rework done on their engines, some of the engines were turned into masterpieces of technical beauty and performance. I saw an engine with a clear timing belt cover, which must be stunning to see it running. Majority of the cars had holes in bonnets, fenders or front bumpers, where some parts of engines or induction systems like superchargers where placed. The most interesting engine for me, personally, was rotary engine in an old green Mazda, it was finished in chrome and look nice and shiny.
One of the cars there recalled a story from my childhood, where one of the friends of mine said: “When I grew up, I would purchase a Ford Mustang”… Not sure if he did it, however, there was a fancy Ford Mustang colored in Martini Racing. There were much more American classic and vintage cars, who were rumbling by their Big Blocks on idle. Low riders were ‘playing with their suspension’, which looked interesting, and a bit funny. One of their owners kindly allowed Sofia to take a picture sitting on the trunk. She likes vintage American cars, so, she was just happy to interact with one of them.
Time was flying so fast, and we didn’t notice, that the clock turned to 6pm while we were looking around. On our way back to our car we meet Dre from ImporteX team, then jumped back into the Jag and headed towards the next spot, located at Kelford Cams.
To be honest, I didn’t realize, that we are going to visit the most famous custom camshaft manufacture in New Zealand. On our way there, police was checking everyone for alcohol, so, the traffic was a bit slow. At the spot, ImporteX and the Kelford Cams team organized excursions into the workshop for everyone, who wishes to see the process from inside. With 15 years of automotive engineering experience behind my shoulders, this walk through was just awesome. I saw how the long metal pieces turning into the shapes of raw camshafts, how the cam lobes profiles machined and how they make them strong and durable with polished finishing. There was a quality check procedure in place, so, they ensure that every shaft is at the perfect conditions before it leaves the factory. The engineer who walked us through was so engaged in the process, it was clear that these guys are fans of the work they do and they definitely know how to do the job properly. Whenever I need a custom camshaft, I’ll talk to them first, this is for sure!
The next spot was at Mag and Turbo, but we were late to the spot, so, we just had a quick chat with Dre and gone home for a dinner. Thanks for my loved wife Sofia, who cooked it in the morning, so, we had everything ready to go, and after the dinner, we joined the others at Tower Junction. It was about 9 pm, the sun has long gone. Many cars had color lights underneath, which recalled me movie Fast and Furious again. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to take many pictures there, as it was raining, and a little rain was slowly turning into a shower.
After Tower Junction, we moved to Link Engine Management site, which is adjacent to the airport. Unfortunately, we didn’t move in packs, so, it was more like a driving on our own, than cruising through the city in a group. Anyway, cars lined up in a grass parking next to the Link Engine Management office, the rain intensity decreased and we had a chance to get out of our car. Walking around we spotted several interesting cars, which we didn’t notice before, one of them was 1980 Ford, which was fitted with modern 2L EcoBoost engine. The owner told us, that the original car had transvers powertrain and he had to change it to inline position to fit the engine. There were many changes in the car design and it looked just stunning. I managed to take some pictures under bonnet and picture of the car itself on the final spot of the cruise. In front of the Linked Engine Management we noticed a true race car, the company is manufacturing and installing advanced engine management system for race cars and doing chip-tuning (as I understood). Never tried to drive a car with modified SW in the engine control module, may be one day I should try.
The last spot was on NPD petrol station, only the most dedicated car enthusiasts have made it to there. We meet Hunter and his Silvia there, a cameraman was filming his car in the lights of the petrol station. We parked the Jaguar under light as well to allow people to read our poster, which we usually place under windscreen wiper. I opened up my old cannon camera and tried to take some pictures of the cars parked around. The shutter was set to circa half of a second, hence, I had to use support to make sure the pictures won’t be blurred… and they were, most of them. However, you can see some of the good ones below.
We took approximately 20GB of pictures and videos, if you find a picture of your car and need it in full size, or just want to have some of the pictures from the event in original quality – reach me out at hello@eventshub.co.nz.
These are Special Selected pictures by Oleg
To be honest with you, I never know that there are so many beautiful cars and car enthusiast in Christchurch. Apparently, we were the only ones on a Jaguar for some reason. It was very nice to participate in this car meet up, see so many interesting cars, just masterpieces of the engineering and machinery and learn many interesting things about car related companies in Christchurch.
From the petrol station, we headed back home and reached it at half past midnight. As the bottom line, EventsHub says big thanks to ImproteX for organizing such an amazing event for everyone, who loves cars and attended the meeting. It was amazing day surrounded by cars and enthusiasts.
Link to the event – Import X Car Meet & Cruise Christuchurch.
Many thanks for reading,
Best regards, Alex – EventsHub team.