Of the more than 1200 vehicles set to be displayed at this year’s Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show there may only be one with a story as eye-opening as that of Rob Kidd’s Vauxhall.
The show at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga, on March 5 will see the members of more than 55 car clubs and associations showcasing their automotive pride and joy.
Among them will be Kidd’s unassuming white 2000 Vauxhall Corsa.
It may not look particularly special, but it’s been on several staggering adventures.
In 2015 Kidd was living in the UK and decided to take part with several mates in the infamous Mongol Rally.
The event sees teams buy cars with engines smaller than 1000cc and drive them from the UK to Mongolia, a distance of more than 16,000km.
Kidd searched a British car auction website and found the Corsa, with its 973cc engine and a manual transmission, advertised for sale.
“I called the guy and said, ‘will it make it to Mongolia?’ He said, ‘oh yeah, I think so’.
“I’m sure he didn’t know where it was.”
Kidd and his mates prepped the car for the hazardous journey and hit the road.
“We drove through all of Europe, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and had to pay off cops and harbourmasters,” he told the Times.
“The journey to Outer Mongolia took six weeks.
“My two mates flew home from Siberia and one of them said, ‘I reckon it would take you two weeks to get home [by driving],’ and I said, ‘You’re on’.”
Kidd then drove the Vauxhall by himself back to the UK on a different route, covering 9000km in just eight days.
“I didn’t get out of the driver’s seat,” he says. “You’re forever chasing the sun, heading west.
“It was a bit nuts. Fuel is so cheap. It cost me US$120 to do 6000km. I was filling the car for like US$12 a tank.”
Kidd and his mates saw some amazing sights during their journey, including a field full of cannabis plants growing openly in Kazakhstan.
They travelled along Afghanistan’s border and visited the famous Darvaza gas crater known as the ‘Gates of Hell’ in Turkmenistan.
Kidd says his trusty Corsa has been driven in 36 counties.
He enjoyed doing the Mongol Rally so much that he did it in the Corsa again, but this time with his partner, the following year.
“Eight months out from the next one, I said we should do the Mongol and she said, ‘hell yeah!’. She had a great time.”
The aircraft mechanic says he kept the Corsa running smoothly throughout its epic journeys by being gentle with it.
“You have to have mechanical empathy and keep it cool. It’s still on the same clutch and the only thing that’s broken down in the whole time I’ve had it is a fan switch, which caused a bit of trouble, and an alternator.”
The Auckland Brit and Euro Classic Car Show is sponsored by Times Newspapers, the Howick Local Board, Protecta Insurance, and NZ Classic Driver.
It’s staged Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga, on Sunday, March 5, and entry is free.
