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Story: Motor sport

First New Zealand Motor Cup race, 1921

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First New Zealand Motor Cup race, 1921

Howard Nattrass, an Auckland motoring enthusiast and inventor, won the inaugural New Zealand Motor Cup with a storming run in this stripped V8 Cadillac. The race was a straightforward 25-mile (40-kilometre) dash along Muriwai Beach west of Auckland. This was the first race in New Zealand to be electrically timed, using equipment specially imported from the United Kingdom.

Using this item

Auckland Council Libraries − Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero o Tāmaki Makaurau, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Reference: 7-A7604

by Bill Tinson

Permission of Auckland City Libraries Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Jim Webber, Motor sport – Grand Prix, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/39905/first-new-zealand-motor-cup-race-1921 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jim Webber, published 29 November 2012, updated 1 April 2016.