Classic Car rally for kids brings out the clowns

February 13, 2014

Quirky Cars of the Variety Trillian Bash
Classic Car rally for kids brings out the clowns

The Variety Trillian Bash is famous in New Zealand’s rural heartland as much for the quirky cars that take part, as for the grants and equipment it delivers to Kiwi kids in need.

For the classic cars that enter have been decorated to entertain, and many of the crews dress up to raise a smile – and attract your small change into their fund-raising buckets.

Variety – The Children’s Charity exists to help underprivileged and disabled kids who need a helping hand to keep up with their more fortunate peers, and it’s that focus which fires the men and women of the Bash.

Folk like Auckland’s Pat and John Courtney, who’ve been ‘Bashing’ for 20 years and will be along this time around in their 1965 Mustang – a self-funded team whose large donation to the charity comes from their own pockets. “We’d welcome a sponsor whose logo we can carry on flags rippling behind the car,” says John, “but meantime it’s just the two of us!” And their costumes? “We change every day, we’ve got about 400 costumes at home, but the wife’s insisting we make new ones this time around; I think she’s decided we’re smurfs!”

Most recognisable car has to be the cupcake Mini, a bright green 1973 model with a pink-iced cupcake atop its roof run by Australian Robin Mullans and her friend Hannah, both stuffing their limited luggage allowance with their brightly-coloured costumes.

The Ford True Blue 1963 MkIII Zephyr is a guaranteed contender – the company has been a major sponsor for 24 years – its blue-wigged team joined by a Ford Fairlane V8 Ghia entered by Wellington dealer Stevens Motors, and filled with assorted dealers and customers all recognisable via their blue overalls.

Of course Ewen Gilmour's stretched eight-seater Ford Falcon GT Radial Tyres limo will be on the Bash along with the freshly-painted Turtle ll Delica van packed to the gunwales with comedians.

The Tiki Girls 1961 EK Holden Special will be laden down under school trunks and owl cages and packed with Hogwarts witches, and the Where’s Wally 1959 Pontiac Laurentian will overflow with the Wallies, in their red-and-white striped shirts, their round glasses, and with their habit of photobombing school assemblies and cheque presentations.

And then there’s the What a Load of Bull team, sponsored by the famous Bulls-based deli meats and sauces company, their Land Rover Discovery coated in 150kg of leather and topped by two multi-coloured metal bulls – one of which ‘farts’ soap bubbles, to the delight of the folk it drives past.

Also negotiating country roads and visiting rural schools from Auckland to Waitomo, Rotorua to Waikaremoana, and Gisborne round the East Cape to Tauranga for the 2014 Variety Trillian Bash will be the Elders team in their 1963 Ford Fairlane V8 fitted with spoiler-mounted water pistols and packed with guys from the country’s Elders officies; The Naki Girls in their Ford Fairline from, you guessed it, New Plymouth; and Team Taniformers, formerly team Taniwha – their tooth-and-spine-equipped Range Rover has done a runner and they’re yet to unveil this year’s scheme.

Watch this space!

Variety - The Children's Charity levels the playing field for disadvantaged Kiwi kids; and with around 265,000 Kiwi kids growing up in poverty our work is essential.

Every year we help over 10,000 local children - we meet their unmet health and education needs providing them with brighter futures.

We fund a broad range of requirements, from providing the basics of life, to much-needed medical equipment, to life-changing mobility needs, to innovative educational initiatives.

We work alongside schools, agencies and the government, tackling child poverty so the Kiwi kids who urgently need our life-changing assistance are set up to reach their full potential in life.

www.variety.org.nz
www.facebook.com/VarietyNZBash

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