The 63rd instalment takes place next Saturday. It is the oldest event of its type in the southern hemisphere and is loosely styled on the British London-to-Brighton run, which started in 1896 and continues as the oldest annual motoring event in the world.
Dunedin-based Mr Winter will be attending the Otago version with his Wolseley in a fortnight, but in a different capacity to his usual driving role. He has taken on the job of rally organiser, so he will pass on the historic car’s driving duties to his son Gary, who will be accompanied by his wife, Sara Winter. As their son Braxton will also head along for the ride, it will mean four generations of Winters will have enjoyed the Wolseley.
The two-seater Wolseley has been in the Winter family for 71 years after being bought by Mr Winter’s father, Mervyn, in running order but without mudguards, in 1946. He wanted an older car to drive in Otago’s 1948 centennial celebrations. After the centenary, the car was destined for obscurity again and might have languished in the garage, until the Otago branch of the Vintage Car Club started the Brighton to Dunedin Veteran Car Rally in 1955, giving the car a new purpose.
Mervyn and his friend Frank Bertenshaw, who Mr Winter recalled they always called "uncle" despite him being no relation, were keen drivers of the Wolseley.
"They were always the two who were in the car," Mr Winter said.
He has carried on the family tradition of taking the Wolseley for regular outings. It undertook a five-day journey from Dunedin to Mount Cook in 2006 to celebrate the centenary of the first car to reach the alpine village. In doing so, it became the oldest car to drive into Mount Cook.
"It is a used car. It doesn’t sit and gather dust," he said.
It is the first four-wheel Wolseley with a steering wheel produced by the British company — the previous models used a tiller steering system — and is the oldest of its kind in private ownership in the world.
"The Wolseley is known as Grandma, as the older Wolseley in England is Granddad, as it was built in 1899."
Powered by a horizontal, single-cylinder, mostly brass engine that puts out about 4.5hp, it will travel at a leisurely pace from Dunedin’s Octagon to Brighton’s Domain.
"I think with the four and a-half horses, about three and a-half of them are dead," Mr Winter joked.
Using a three-speed gearbox and with the engine revving to 980rpm "flat stick," the Wolseley musters a top speed of about 45kmh, meaning the trip from Dunedin’s centre, up Maclaggan St, out through Hawthorne Ave, down through Stone St into Kaikorai Valley and on to Brighton would take about an hour.
Mr Winter asked Dunedin residents to have patience with the procession of veteran cars as they ambled along their route. So far about 27 cars, motorbikes and trucks had already registered for the rally, which is open to any vehicle made before December 1919.
The vehicles will begin to arrive at the Octagon about 10am and start leaving for Brighton at 11am, where they will be on show in the Brighton Domain until about 2pm.
● To register your vehicle for the Brighton Veteran Rally, contact Colin Winter at wolseley2@xtra.co.nz or phone (03)456-4382.
