A new discovery
The Coromandel Car Club went for a run at the weekend, with a great lunch in Whitianga and ending up at a private, predominantly automotive museum about an hour from home which is relatively new. I’d never heard of it until a few days ago and it’s mind-blowingly good. For Kiwis, it’s about 3 km south of Whitianga on SH 25 and the entry fee is $10. The name of the place is Wheels Within Walls.
Here is a small selection of the photos I took, showing the variety of machinery on display. There really is something for everyone at this museum.
There’s a great mix of military and civilian vehicles and weaponry. Down by a half track troop transporter was a long box with what appeared to be a bazooka in it!
Moving to civilian vehicles, it was an eclectic collection, including quite a few I’d never previously seen and I’d never heard of a Triumph Gloria, which was manufactured between 1933 and 1938 in various guises.
The Gloria radiator badge
One corner was devoted to early Land Rovers which were all in great nick. The orange/red utility in the picture below had no i/d but was probably a locally made special body on the chassis of something else.
The offroad corner
At first glance, the car below is a stock Ford Anglia undergoing restoration. A closer inspection reveals a Chevy 305 V8 being shoehorned into it! I love sleepers and a mate in the UK had a standard looking Anglia with a Cosworth-prepared Cortina motor in it. The fact that he was a senior engineer at Cosworth explains a lot!
There’s a sign on the screen of the Anglia which I just loved. It’s enlarged in the photo below.
The Holden Torana enjoyed considerable success on the race tracks of Australia and NZ and have a cult following. Pristine SLR 5000 V8 models sell for astronomic prices but even the smaller engined models in original condition demand a huge price. The black model below is allegedly a 1974 2.8 litre model.
Holden Torana and 1960 Ford Zephyr
Restoration underwayI don’t know if the vehicle below is a commercial or home built item but it’s probably a nightmare to steer with the pivot directly above the front wheel and the driver swinging about all over the place!
There are quite a few interesting displays devoted to things other than vehicles. A wall with polished blowlamps and soldering irons caught my eye as an arty photo. I guess that these early kerosene-powered blowlamps are regarded as a serious hazard these days but I remember my grandfather stripping old paint from woodwork with one. They needed care to operate as it was possible to send out a jet of burning kerosene like a flamethrower if they weren’t hot enough to vaporise the fuel.
Blowlamp and soldering iron display
There was a big area devoted to competition vehicles and here are a few examples. The first photo is the V8 engine in a Bathurst-type Holden Commodore racing saloon car.
The next photo is of a V8 stock car for speedway racing. Easy to see where the Mad Max movie series got its inspiration from.
This is a speedway sprint car for oval dirt racing. Still very popular in North America and the Southern Hemisphere.
The bike below is a normally aspirated drag bike which used to run at the Meremere dragstrip in NZ. The museum owner was talking to me about the possibility of mounting it on a stand and demonstrating short engine runs for museum patrons. Bring your ear plugs!
Finally, a photo of the wonderful rustic bar at the museum – just perfect! I hope you’ve enjoyed the short tour and can assure you that it’s even better in the flesh and hours can be spent there. A real asset for our region.
