About Us

There’s more to Sam Murray than being a Gilligans tour leader. 

He’s a former top national rally driver, his achievements including winning the New Zealand Championship in 2007. 

He also introduced an American you might have heard of to rallying in this country. 

Ken Block returned the favour by using one of Sam’s Subaru WRX’s in his first-ever Hoonigan movie, filmed in the Southern Alps, as part of the DC Shoe Co - Mountain Lab series.

The car that leaped over a skier, is now in the Southward Car Museum.

Sam Murray left motorsport and soon had to focus on a new business and later raise a family. 

One day an old mate, motoring journalist Richard Bosselman (www.motoringnz.com) dropped in to Sam’s country pub, the Studholme Hotel near Waimate. 

They talked late into the night. Richard mentioned he’d begun racing in the a new club racing class, involving MX-5s …

Sam subsequently came to Manawatu to drive Richard’s car at the series’ home ground, Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon. And now he’s also hooked.

Sam swears his competition days are over; but he has nonetheless conceded he might race a car now and again. Just for fun. Meantime, he’s developed a stable of cars and drawn up the 'MX-5 Heritage Cup' concept.

"In my opinion, the MX-5 class is probably the best opportunity for people to race against others, on an even playing field, without eye-watering costs, and without a mountain of mechanical knowledge."

What makes the MX-5 class appealing? 

Easy, says Sam: “One-make classes fundamentally work well because of parity - it's close racing." 

Generally, though, those programmes are developed by new vehicle distributors and are based on a product they want to promote (examples: Suzuki Swift, Toyota 86). 

" Inevitably, those kinds of programmes are expensive. They're also tend to run for a couple of seasons then get phased out once the brand moves on to another model".

That obviously doesn’t happen with the MX-5. Quite the contrary. The car never raced in a series here when new; in fact, the category it runs in now was started almost two decades after the model was superseded in the market.

"I can see huge potential for people starting out in racing, or those who want to compete but are not setting out to be the next F1 champion."

Why the MX-5?  If you’ve driven one, you’ll know.

“It’s a sports car; it’s low and lightweight, has an ultra-tough and characterful twin-cam engine, is rear-wheel drive with a limited slip diff.  “Beyond that, it’s also supremely reliable. Most of the cars racing have come to the track after putting up several hundred thousand kilometres as road cars. You’d think they’d be tired but they just aren’t.”

Moreover, they’re as much fun as they ever were.

“This is one-make class of racing that won’t be phased out. They're a car than handles well from standard and that allows drivers focus on racing without fighting an ill-handling jalopy around a racetrack.

"I can see this is a class that that will offer previously 'non-motorsport' people a chance to 'have a go' for a weekend - and I can absolutely guarantee they'll thoroughly enjoy the whole experience.”