Are Dirt Drags NZ's Loosest Form Of Motorsport?!

New Zealand’s modified car scene has always been a source of great wonderment to Aussie enthusiasts - their lax vehicle import laws make the island a fertile crop of low volume and exotic foreign vehicles that we don’t see roaming Aussie streets, and I remember vividly reading Street Machine as a kid with my mouth agape, while the owner of a new (at the time) VU ute that had been tubbed, converted to live axle and ran a blown small block Chev’ insisted that it was totally legal to drive on NZ roads. 

Wild.

We stumbled upon a video on YouTube of the MD Dirt Drags, held in the town of Parawera on the North Island, and the sheer mayhem of it all intrigued us - engine swapped vehicles of all makes, models and vintages slinging mud alongside two-stroke dirt squirters, while a concrete burnout pad on another part of the property willed entrants to transform their rear tyres in to smoky offerings to the burnout Gods. 

Anyone is welcome to interject and explain to me how New Zealand became the unofficial home of the Dorito motor, such is the Kiwi’s love for a good rotary engine conversion. The video below is a lengthy compilation of buzzing Wankels contributing to the chaos at the MD Dirt Drags 2023.