Beach Hop’s 24 Hour Hot Rod Build

Posted by pikesan on Aug 3, 2008 in Vintage Rides | 2 comments

I got in touch with Noddy Watts the man behind “Beach Hop” New Zealand’s #1 Nostalgia festival. I’m saving my pennies (ok, quarters!) to attend this show. He’re what Noddy had to say about it:

“New Zealand is a small country with just 4 million people at the bottom of the South Pacific. Is Hot Rodding known in this island paradise? Hell yeah! One of New Zealand’s biggest Festivals just happens to be the “Beach Hop” – celebration of the 50s & 60s. Over 100,000 people attend the free 5 day event – that is 2.5% of the entire population! A highlight is the 1300+ entered Hot Rods and Classic Cars that take over the town for the week with non stop cruising and car shows – amongst stunning South Pacific coastal scenery – blue seas and white sands. Take a look at www.beachhop.co.nz

Held in the popular seaside holiday resort of Whangamata, the fun never stops with music, kulture, fashion, more music, hot rods, motorbikes, dancing, dragsters, scooters of this golden era. With 100,000 people attending, this is one of the largest events of its kind in the world! Then just to top it off, all proceeds raised are donated to emergency services in the area.

Hundreds of visitors make the 3 hours flight from Australia each year to enjoy the Kiwi hospitality. The organizers want to now encourage visitors from North America to come to one of the most beautiful countries on the planet while being amazed at the thriving car culture down under. Some visitors from the USA told us this year “You can forget every other car show on earth – there is nothing like the Beach Hop!” So the crew have come up with marketing plan for the USA…

Hot August Nights is a “sister” festival so a crew from the Beach Hop will be flying to undertake an exciting challenge. They’ll be arriving at the swapmeet with just their bare hands. 24 hours later they will have built a Hot Rod that they can drive away using parts and tools purchased at Swapmeet. It won’t be a show car and will be traditionally styled. Who knows what they will come up with….. The entire build up will be filmed for a 30 minute documentary on Fox Sports.

Following Hot August Nights the crew will work with a local Hot Rod Shop to get the car ready for a run on the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week. They’re not after a record, just want to experience what it is like to drive a car at the holy grail of land speed racing. Next up, they’re heading for the HAMB Drags at MOKAN for some tire frying action. The Krazy Kiwis will then take the car on a road trip back to California visiting every Car Show they can. The car will then be shipped to New Zealand where it will be auctioned live on the internet at Beach Hop 09 (26-29 March).

So keep an I out for these Kiwis and make sure you say hello – they are a real friendly bunch!

Speed Week for sure. Car number “6942” – the “Kiwi 24 Hour Hot Rod Challenge”

Look for a follow up to this story as soon as I can get one. Thanks for the lead Noddy and good luck building a car in 24 hours!

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