One lap Dick Johnson
The Nissan Mobil 500 may be a distant memory, but it still has made its mark on the city - check out the way that Jervois Quay feels more like a chute designed for cars to hurtle along at high speed than a pleasant harbourside city street.
But those wishing the relive the glory days can do so over at YouTube, where petrolheads have uploaded a selection of choice clips. My favourite is "One lap Dick Johnson" from 1990. While this would be a perfectly good name for a porno, it's actually a dashboard cam of driver Dick doing a lap of the circuit.
It ends up being a really good snapshot of Wellington's waterfront environment before the big regeneration of the '90s - no Te Papa, the Museum Hotel is still down by the water, Waitangi Park is full of warehouses, no Meridian building, no Kumutoto stream revival, no City to Sea bridge, and no lovely pleasant harbourside walk.
Vrrm vrrrrrm:
This is so awesome, and makes me love the waterfront even more, being reminded of how terrible it used to be. If we can do it, surely Super Auckland can get their shit together and make a nice place to hang out too, right? Right?
No Majestic Centre, HP tower, or Vodafone tower either! Funny how many big towers seemed to spring up in the last recession. The waterfront is much improved since then, I remember Waitangi park as a derelict wasteland / bus depot.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I remember being perched in an office building on the first floor above pit lane, watching Porsches spin their wheels. Pretty exciting stuff for a small boy.
You could do a series with these videos, the Aussie car chase one was brilliant. Now how about the one from the movie with a certain yellow Mini...?
And the TransAm being chased by black Holdens, too.
That's a fantastic link, thanks DeepRed! I'd never heard of that film before.
Here's my favourite Wellington car chase
You know, the begining of that video was filmed around Brigham Street, Freeman's Bay, Auckland aka The Tank Farm. The downtown Auckland skyline is visible for a bit, particularly the ANZ building on Albert Street.
Though realistically, the video is really set in neither Auckland nor Wellington, but in a strange futuristic city.
It is the Phoenix Foundation, therefore it is a Wellington car chase. suck it.
And technically that country road isn't in Wellington either.
It is a video about the Bypass though, right?
Shaker Run was in the Wellingtonista Film Season. Guess you weren't paying attention :p
Post new comment