MORE than $2 million of worth of lovingly restored vehicles lined up for inspection in Port Macquarie yesterday.
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In one of a series of events drawing this year’s National Trust-coordinated Heritage Festival to a close, more than 100 cars parked in the grounds of the indoor sports stadium for the rally.
Port Macquarie Heritage Car Club organised the gathering, inviting the Hastings Auto Restorers Society, Port Macquarie Antique Classic Car Club and other enthusiasts from the likes of Taree, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour and Nambucca.
Billed as the Heritage Motorfest, the rally hosted a range of cars, trucks and even a couple of caravans from more than a century, to just over a decade old.
They ranged from the stately glamour of 1960s Jaguars, to the sturdy reliability of an 86 year-old Ford Truck, and from the German precision of Mercedes, to the American flamboyance of a Thunderbird.
Event coordinator Max Rankin explained the appeal of classic cars.
“They just bring back so many memories for people,” he said. “The technology decades ago was just as good as today, if not better in some cases.
“So many cars today just look too similar, but these classic cars just have so much more personality.”
Among the exhibitors was Ron Turnbull, known to most as ‘Rocket’.
“This is my sport, my hobby,” he said, standing next to his immaculately restored 1928 Austin 7 roadster.
“I’ve got eight old cars in a shed bigger than most people’s houses.”
While Brian McMurtrie described the work on his 1926 Nash as “an ongoing headache of love”.
Rodger Harrison bought one of only 4000 Phaetons handbuilt by Milwaukee company Excalibur, from the friend he sold it to four years ago.
“I’ve always reckoned it looks like heaven and goes like hell,” he said of his 7.5l beauty, which had been converted to a right-hand drive by the owner who brought it into the country.
