A Trip to Jukebox Diner & the Classics Museum - 27/03/23

Following on from the Brit & Euro Car Show, one of the staff decided to put a flier: showing the Jukebox Diner and Classics Museum in Hamilton, on my friend Harry's E30. So we decided to go check it out! Of course, we didn’t go alone, my good friend Josh over at Donut.nz decided to join us in his Toyota MR-S!

Hamilton is not too far from Auckland for you international readers, so just over an hour and we were there! From the outside, Jukebox Diner and the Classics Museum seriously looked cool, with its front fascia looking like, well… a Jukebox, duh!

After lunch, consisting of hot dogs and chips, we headed into the Classics Museum…!

First thing we saw was the car, or should I say, truck that hooked me on that flier: the 1938 Diamond T614D “Doodlebug” Texaco Tanker. This red tanker is extremely rare, with only 6 ever made, and registries say that they’re not sure how many are left. This specific truck was restored from a rusty body and chassis within 5 years and even features the original Hercules QX-Series 8.7 liter 6-cylinder engine and also the original gravity-fed 3,800 fuel delivery system.

Behind the truck, the Museum was divided up into 4 parts: the main floor, the rear portion, the side portion and the second level. The main floor is where we’ll start (I’ll try to keep these descriptions as short as possible since the Museum holds so many goodies!) 

From the front going clockwise: 

1958 Pontiac Bonneville Series 25 

1938 Lagonda LG6 SWB Drophead Coupe

1957 Chevrolet Corvette C1

1935 Auburn Speedster 653 Phaeton 

1952 Plymouth Cranbrook Convertible Series P-23

1967 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S Fastback

1959 Messerschmitt KR200

1973 Triumph Stag 

1961 Sunbeam Rapier Series III 

1957 Fiat Auto Bianchi

1942 Buick Century Series 60 Convertible

1940 Chevrolet Deluxe Special Convertible Coupe

1954 Buick Roadmaster Skylark Series 100

1937 Cord 812 Phaeton Supercharged Convertible

1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster 851

In the rear portion, it was mostly diecast toys, but there were some other “small” cars:

1967 NSU Spider

1960 Berkeley T60

1957 Goggomobil TS300 2+2 Coupe 

1956 Fiat 600 Multipla

1955 Fiat 600 

1972 Fiat 500L

1952 Fiat Topolino 500C

Now on the side portion was the rest of the American cars and some of the historical trucks:

1949 Ford Custom Fordor Sedan 

1987 Toyota Hilux 4X4 (LN65)

1975 Toyota Land Cruiser (J40)

1970 Haflinger AP700

Lastly, the second level held European and British cars:

1963 Maserati 3500 GT (Tipo 101)

1972 Fiat 124 Sport Spider

1969 Porsche 912

1964 Lancia Flavia 1800 Coupe 

1957 Borgward Isabella TS Coupe

1960 Auto Union 1000S

1972 Datsun Sunny 1200 GX (B110)

1939 Citroen Traction Avant

1950 Bristol 401

1950 Austin A40 Devon GS2

1957 Ford Prefect 100E

1970 Ford Capri GT

1954 Ford Zephyr Mark 1

1958 Nash Metropolitan

1973 Triumph Dolomite 1850HL

1965 Vauxhall Viva HA 90

1962 Triumph Herald

1953 Morris Minor Series II Convertible

1975 Morris 8 CWT Van

1957 Morris Minor 1000 Wilco Pickup

1950 Morris Minor Series I

1937 Morris 8

I’ve heard that the Classics Museum is actually restoring a 1937 Bugatti Atlantic, and I can’t wait to see that when it's done! This whole museum tour only took us about an hour at most, and it's $15 to enter. Not bad. I’d definitely go again, especially when the Bugatti is finally finished!

As always, all the pictures and more will be found on my site here. If you want to save them, you can right click, and if you want to support me, you can buy the prints! I'll greatly appreciate it! Until next time!

Brit & Euro Classic Car Show 2023 Highlights - 19/03/23

So about 2 weeks ago, I attended the annual Brit & Euro Classic Car Show, which included, yep you guessed it! British and European cars! This annual show was the first one since 2021, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, so I expected people to bring the best! I was not disappointed in the majority of marques, but some, like Lamborghini, failed to deliver…

I tend to arrive at these events relatively early to get shots of the cars without crowds getting in the way, and some of the cars I was able to capture before the spectators arrived were properly cool! This was situated in the middle area of the paddock and the cars included were the MG Metro 6R4 (a Group B rally car), the Buckler 90 (a British space frame constructed/New Zealand designed open top car) and the Lancia Stratos HF (an iconic Italian WRC car).

Speaking of rally cars though, Lancia had an amazing showing, with old cars like the Aprilia, Fulvia Rallye and the B20, but what most impressive was the 037 Stradale (207 of these were made to homologate for Group B), the Delta S4 (200 were planned for its homologation to Group B, but only 28 were made) and the elusive Delta Hyena HF (only 24 of these were made up of the 75 planned units. They were built by Zagato on a Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione chassis.)

Continuing with the Italians, Alfa showed off the new Tonale in its TI trim level and there was a massive showing of Rosso Alfa-Alfa Romeo’s, Fiat had a nifty little 1986 Uno Turbo.i.e., and Ferrari had a F430 Scuderia in Nero Daytona with gold wheels!

The Germans were, dare I say, a better showing than the Italians, with Audi showing off an ultra obscure 1960 Auto Union 1000S (only 4 of these are registered in New Zealand, 1 being the standard 1000, 1 being the 1000SP, the sport variant, and the remaining 2 being the 1000S.) BMW had plenty of E30/36/46 as per usual, but the one that stood out to me was a 1968 BMW “New Class” 2000 TI (only 3 of these are in NZ.) Mercedes-Benz had plenty of solid choices, but the 2 that stood out were the 1958 MB 220S W180 II Convertible and the 1953 MB 170 DS W191. VW didn’t have anything particularly spectacular, so I didn’t take any.

But Porsche… wow, Porsche had outdone themselves. I took so many pictures here, I couldn’t possibly cover every car I saw, but there were a few standouts in year order:

1964 356C in Guards Red, 1973 911 Carrera RS in Grand Prix White with Lime Green, 1982 930 Turbo in Light Blue, 1985 924 Martini Championship Edition, 1988 928 S4 in Nougat, 1989 951 Turbo;

1992 968 in Black Pearl, 1992 964 Carrera 2 Cabriolet in Oak Green, 1993 964 BUG in Slate Grey with Bronze, 1997 993 Carrera S in Violet Blue, 2012 997 Turbo S in Carrara White, 2021 982 GT4 in Miami Blue.

The next best section had to go to the 3 French marques, with Citroen holding the best lineup with cars as old as the 1951 Traction Avant to the avantgarde C6, and everything in between like 2CV Dolly’s, Dyane’s, CX’s, GS’s, SM’s, XM’s and even an HY.

Renault and Peugeot, though not as much still had some rare cars that stood out. Renault showed off the old and new A110’s, but also 2 Caravelle’s, a Megane I Convertible and a 21 Turbo Quadra.

Peugeot had a few surprising cars too, like the 306 GTi and Convertible!

Lastly, the British cars filled up the other half. Most of the marques contained the same cars from previous years, like Lotus, Aston Martin, Ford UK and Morgan; but some like TVR and Bentley/Rolls-Royce had some outstanding cars.

TVR had a myriad of Chimaera’s, Tuscan’s and Cerbera’s, while Bentley/RR had a number of pre-war cars.

But most impressive was the Jaguar/Daimler marque! It had to be said that they took up at least one-third of the show.

There were every form of criminal cars here, it looked like an impound lot.

Jokes aside, it was seriously impressive to see almost every Jaguar here: from Mark 2’s, Mark 4’s and Mark 10’s, to XJ’s, XJR’s and XJS’s, to E-Type's, X-Type’s and F-Type’s!

I took almost 300 pictures this time and it took me roughly 2 weeks to finish them, explaining the timing of this article, but as always, enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for more! Also, link to the full album is here. If you want to just save them, just right click, but if you want to support me, buying the picture will be greatly appreciated!