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The Zakspeed Escort of Phil McNabb takes the wide line with Graham Dodd in the BTCC Honda Accord leading Kevin Patemen's Telstar on the inside.

Motorsport fans attending the NZV8 event over the weekend at Powerbuilt Tools Raceway had a special treat watching more than 20 historic touring cars in 16 different makes and models of these high performance racing saloons on the grid at one time.

From a genuine BTCC Honda Accord to a deep-throated V8 Walkinshaw Group A Commodore replica driven by Invercargill's Tony Forde, they looked the part, sounded the part and wowed the crowd by providing a splendid spectacle between the old and the new. And the drivers contributed too with a superb wet weather driving display on the Saturday, which featured close racing and the sort of passing manoeuvres we came to expect from the early days of Bathurst and the Wellington Street races in the eighties.

The sight of Dale Chapman's E36 Supertourer all over the back of Guy Stewarts Porsche in one race and then Brett Steven's Castrol Sierra Cosworth RS 500 in the next was memorable enough. Then to see them both pile the pressure on Dunedin's Stephen Grellet in the super fast Blue E30 M3 Super Tourism leading into the sweeper on the final lap of the final race is as good as it gets.

Young Christchurch driver Matt O'Donnell [ BMW Supertourer], Allan Scott [ TWR Rover Vitesse], Gary Johnstone [ TWR Jaguar XJS] along with the Dodd Accord were very busy just off the pace of the top three cars and battled with the likes of Mike Baker [ Porsche RSR] the NZ Touring Car of Timaru's Kevin Patemen and the Zakspeed replica of Phil McNabb from Blenheim. It was a great exhibition from experienced drivers and a great array of vehicles which displayed their varying strengths and weaknesses on the Powerbuilt circuit.

Arguably, the most admired car was Peter Sturgeon's ex Frank Gardner built JPS BMW Group A 635csi, which moved even Craig Baird to consider the offer of a couple of laps too much to refuse. Back in a flash, kitted out in race suit and helmet, he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of track time in such an historic race car, previously driven by some of the greats of saloon car racing including Gardner himself, Jim Richards and Denny Hulme.

And there was plenty more to enthuse over as well though it was unfortunate neither of the R/T Chargers really fired over the weekend and Hadyn Mackenzie's hope of running the ex NZ Touring Corona was extinguished on the first lap of qualifying, after bringing it all the way down from Auckland. The word is it will be repaired and remain in the South Island to compete in upcoming Historic Touring Car meetings.