Group N

Evening everyone, it's BB and Budgie's Thursday night recce as we prepare for the last events in our 2026 Bryan Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship.

Just a week or so out now from Battery Town Rally Bay, plenty BB will be heading down there but we thought we'd have a look at the best places to spectate.

And plenty of championships still up for grabs, so it's going to be some spectacular viewing.

But yeah, some iconic memories.

I think if you talk to anyone involved in rallying, that Manawahei helicopter corner is certainly something that invokes a lot of those memories and a really good spot to watch.

Yeah, absolutely, and it's fantastic that we can bring the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, and it's the first time in a long time that it's been run, I guess, what you'd call the correct way.

So, great.

It's a cool spot to watch going the other direction, and you can go there as part of special stage number three, Matahi Road, but There's nothing quite like watching those cars appear around the right-hand corner at the top of the hill, then down the hill, throw it into that left-hand junction and then power off down the straight.

The old system was condensed into three primary categories.

There was Group N, Group A, and Group B.

Group N stayed pretty close to the standard production cars, while Group A allowed more modifications while keeping a strong connection to high-volume road cars.

Group B was something else

entirely.

So Group N was basically for cars that still looked like they might be able to take you to work on Monday.

And Group A looked like the road car, but a little beefier.

And Group B? And Group B just tossed the rulebook out the window and told you to make sure that your life insurance was up to date.

He did quite a lot.

He was a guy who was very prevalent in, well, I guess in Group N, but he also did some World Rally Car stuff as well.

He did, yeah, about 10 years ago.

Plenty of stuff in a Fiesta.

I did some single venue rallying and then jumped into the woods.

And then in those days, you actually had Russ Thompson, Pat Naylor, Scott Faulkner, Richard Hill, all in B13 or Group N Evos and Impressors.

It was awesome.

Yeah,

I'm just interested to know...

And anyone listening who's been in a rally car knows there's such a big gulf between doing okay in your own head and then actually being able to lead a fight like the B13.

And you were in top 10 leaderboards on the BCRDA goal site in a Group N car with someone like Russ Thompson who drives the doors off the thing.

You managed to keep it in one piece most of the time, haven't you? What was happening around that time? Were you in debt talking about, you know, this could be something, we could make a bit of a name for ourselves here? Was your dad saying, go for it, Matt, we'll put some investment behind this? What was happening?

Look, I love driving this car.

I also have a Group N car as well, which is a bit of a different car to sort of run, but you can hop in this car and you can drive it all day long.

You can rev it all day long.

So actually, it's a thrill to drive and a joy to drive, to be honest with you.