The Waikato threw on an outstanding day for the third annual Frankton Thunder Toys for Charity automotive event over the weekend.
The event kicked off with a well-attended cruise-in from the Cambridge Race Course, it attracted hundreds of bikes, cars, special-interest vehicles and several thousand spectators along the way. The vehicles pulled up into Frankton village at 10am as the spectators got a chance to look up close at some of the unique vehicles.
This year's event was in support of the work of St Vincent de Paul - Vinnies, the community support organisation which has one of its Hamilton shops in Frankton.
Features included a display of military vehicles by the Waikato branch of the New Zealand Military Collectors Club which included a gargantuan American army transport truck hauling a 5.5 inch howitzer. Cambridge jet-bike builder Chris Minnie circulated the precinct in ear-splitting fashion while Leamington engineer Nigel Weber crept up on people in his noiseless Stanley Steamer.
In a sea of old-school petrol-head muscle, chromium and cubic inches, a display of the latest in Electric Vehicle technology, organised by #LeadingTheCharge, an initiative of the Better New Zealand Trust, gained heaps of attention while the Miss Frankton Thunder rock-a-billy fashion competition drew a concentrated crowd and 10 startling contestants.
