300 AND COUNTING

ost of us can probably remember the first car we ever saw that started our passion for everything automotive. It’s also fair to say that some of us from the more ‘mature’ generation, should we say, may take some time to recollect what it was that got the heart racing, but we won’t forget. Geoff Hale, a Canterbury mechanic, takes some time to think about what it was that started him on the long road to classic car ownership when we put the question to him. “I can’t exactly remember where it all started,” he tells us. “I’ve always been a Corvette nut,” Geoff confesses. Riding his pushbike past PDL Motors on Ferry Road back when he was 15 years old, Geoff spotted an orange ’69 Corvette taking up residence in their yard. “I couldn’t believe it,” says Geoff. “It was the shit.” Twenty-five years later, Geoff almost took ownership of that same Corvette but just missed out on purchasing it, and, as it turns out, the