The New Zealand Integra (Honda) Club
From down-down-under, I got to know of the New Zealand Honda Club
via Simon Cullen. Two of Simon's club members have in fact contributed
to TOVA recently, Tamati and Lyonel, whose prestine DA6 Integra XSi's were the
focus of our DA-Integra series in Beyond Stock. Simon explained to me how
his club got started
Where to start, well it originally started off as the New Zealand Integra Club (primarly DA and DC models) which grew to about 25 or so members. Eventually owners of other models expressed interest in forming a Generic Honda Club, primarly based around the modification of Hondas. And today, we have a couple of hundred members nationwide (NZ has a population of only 3.4million) and about 300+ members on our web forum (which is our primary means of communication at the moment)
One the main objectives of the New Zealand Honda Club is to show the public that not all car modification enthusiasts are typical 'boy racers' involved in illegal street drags and the like. Instead the club imposes the rule that all racing is only done on the track. Their motto for this is "the bullshit stops when the green flag drops" !
Another important objective for the club is in bringing together the New Zealand Import community, which compared to the US and Japan, is still very young.
One of the club's main policies is to supply their 'services' at absolutely no profit to registered members. Thus members are not asked to pay more than they need for stickers, membership cards, apparel, etc.
The club's activites are very varied. As often as possible they have general
(local) meets, which involve anything from just hanging out and checking out each
others rides, short cruises, beach days, bbq's etc. Rather less frequently they hold
the more ambitious larger, more expansive meetings. Recently, the club held the (New
Zealand) North Island 'Mega Meet' which netted a 33 cars attendance !
At the moment, Simon considers his club very young, but it is expanding very rapidly. They have already procured corporate sponsorship, via discounted parts etc. In addition, the club is also planning on improving member services, such as supplying quality membership cards, and organising as many interesting events as possible.
They rely on members to give them ideas for events, so in effect, it is just like a big team effort (which is how it really should be!)
Membership is totally free, stickers, membership cards are not compulsory, there's nothing stopping any Honda owner from coming to an event.
How to join? For interested readers, at the moment the best way is to register your
name on the club forum, so they will have a record of your email and a little bit of
information about yourself. When the website is ready (its currently in its 3rd version
already, due to the massive expansion of interest) there will be extensive member
details, and possibly a page dedicated to each member.
The club's website is at www.nzhondas.com. The club's forum address is at www.shell.net.nz/nzhondas/phpBB/index.php.
TOVA's contact from the club is Simon Cullen who is NZHondas.com's Website/Forum Admin.