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: