This marks the 18th year of Big Boys Toys (BBT) – an impressive achievement. The Auckland-based show now covers 5 halls (from the original one hall) as well as a Construction Zone, and many other outdoor activities.

This kid is living the dream

My visit was on the Saturday of the 3-day event, and it was a bad choice; so many people. It was difficult to get good photos, with so many people around. Still, that shows the success that BBT has now become.

Star of the show this year was the unveiling of the LaFerrari Aperta – all 950hp of it. This was a stunning looking car, Ferrari or not. Flanking the Aperata was a mixture of Ferrari’s old and new, including favourite of mine – an old-school 308GTB. Magnum PI, anyone?

Land Rover had a massive area inside one of the halls, where members of the public could line up (and the line was long…) to get a short ride in a new Discovery, where an expert Land Rover driver would take you over two obstacles, in the Land Rover Trerapod area. This looked extremely popular, and sure showed off some of the Discovery’s off-roading skills.

I lost count of the number of Nissan Skylines on display at BBT, including a good number of GTRs. This may have set a new New Zealand record – I’m not sure, and I’m not complaining about it either.

Each Hall had a different theme going, and the sheer number of exhibitors was mind blowing – you could get anything from a gearbox to a massage.

Events were held during the day at set times, like stunt riding/BMW/FMX/skateboard demonstrations, taking a Tesla for a test-drive on a short track, or watching a car being dropped from a huge crane (very popular that one).

Must have had his weetbix that morning

It wasn’t all show and tell though – lots of exhibits were hands-on, like test riding a three-wheel Yamaha Tricity, flying a drone, or taking a photo op with the MASSIVE bass speaker from the movie, Back to the Future.

If you haven’t been to BBT, put it on your list – it’s a worthy event that you could comfortably spend all day at.

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How on earth to start this? I've been car/bike/truck crazy since I was a teen. Like John, I had the obligatory Countach poster on the wall. I guess I'm more officially into classic and muscle cars than anything else - I currently have a '65 Sunbeam Tiger that left the factory the same day as I left the hospital as a newborn with my mother. How could I not buy that car? In 2016 my wife and I drove across the USA in a brand-new Dodge Challenger, and then shipped it home. You can read more on www.usa2nz.co.nz. We did this again in 2019 in a 1990 Chev Corvette - you can read about that trip on DriveLife. I'm a driving instructor and an Observer for the Institute of Advanced Motorists - trying to do my bit to make our roads safer.

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