History of the South Canterbury Zephyr & Zodiac Enthusiasts Club

In the mid-1980s Eric Scott placed an advertisement in the local newspaper asking for any one interested in starting up a Ford Zephyr & Zodiac club in Timaru, to contact him. Eric arranged a meeting to be held in a room at his work place, the New Zealand Electricity Department in Washdyke, Timaru. It was decided that to form a club involved too much paper work, so an approach was made to the Christchurch Zephyr & Zodiac Car Club to become affiliated with them as some local Zephyr enthusiasts were already members of the Christchurch club, travelling there for meetings.

In the late 1980s, when South Canterbury branch member numbers were similar to that of the Christchurch club members, it was decided to form a South Canterbury Zephyr & Zodiac club.

Initially the meetings were fairly informal, being held at the Doncaster Hotel in Washdyke, later at the local Return Services Association and currently at the Richard Pearce Tavern. Early in 1990 it was decided to formalise the club and a committee was formed. The first committee members were; Garey Hanifin as President, Donald Campbell, Vice President, Malcolm Stewart, Club Captain, Neil Brown, Editor, John Hull, Assistant Editor and Barry Goddard, Secretary/Treasurer. Several of the committee are still members of the club today.

The inaugural South Canterbury Zephyr & Zodiac Enthusiasts Club car run was held on the 24th April 1990 to Pioneer Park. The first club magazine was published in June 1990.
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It was Eric Scott’s restored Mk 3 Zodiac which raised the “bench mark” for the standard of all Zephyrs’. “Big Red” as Eric called the Zodiac, was admired where ever it went and the winner of many trophies at International Conventions held in the New Zealand over many years.
The South Canterbury Zephyr & Zodiac Club continues to grow and is one of the strongest clubs in NZ today. The standard of members’ cars is recognised as being extremely high, with many of them consistently winning trophies at International Conventions throughout NZ.

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