Now in its sixth year, the retro event introduced three new activities on Saturday.

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They were a display in the Coffs City Centre, a visit to the National Holden Motor Museum (NHMM) and a display and live music in Grafton.

“It’s a real challenge when you do three new events in one day, but we’re extremely happy with how each went,” John Logan of John Logan Entertainment told News Of The Area.

“In Grafton, we had 20-odd cars on display in the street and the best crowd, about 300 people, at the South Grafton Ex-Services Club for the drive-in and live music afterwards.

The main display in Coffs Harbour on Sunday drew a record of more than 100 cars, including from hosts, the Advance Car Club Coffs Coast, and groups in Taree, Port Macquarie, Grafton and Yamba.

President of the Mid North Coast Hot Rod Club Darren “Brom” Bromell was instrumental in the success of the event, posting news in his magazine Chrome Bumper.

Rare antique and classic car authority Gary Cox, brought along the 1981 Delorean that starred in the movie “Back to the Future”.

Built in Northern Ireland for the US Market, the stainless-steel body on a fibreglass tub mounted on a Lotus chassis, is powered by a 2.85L V6 Peugeot-Renault-Volvo engine.

“Delorean built some 9000 cars from 1981 to 1982 before going into liquidation,” Gary Cox said.

An estimated 6000 Delorean cars exist today.

The National Holden Motor Museum had four volunteers bring their Holdens to the event to display and stayed to speak with interested lookers.

NHMM spokesperson Steve Little said, “We were all very happy and took the opportunity to let people know that Holden Motor Body Builders Limited not only built Holdens but, in the mid-1900s, built vehicles for other major brands – Ford, Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Vauxhall, Austin, Morris and Overlander plus many other famous brands.”

The NHMM display included Robert Nicholl’s Vauxhall Wyvern 1937 which was built by Holden and a 1936 cream Buick owned by Tim O’Grady’s, also built by Holden.

Both cars featured a Holden badge on the bodywork.

The Beach Hop means visitors are staying in Coffs Harbour.

“The Taree guys have just told me they’ve booked for next year, and we’ve had a contact from a Victorian car club, and they want to bring a huge display next year, which is great news for Coffs Coast tourism.”

The special ingredient that makes this event so well-attended, is hard work.

“Mike parks all the cars, Stewart deals with all the car clubs and individual members, and Ros in the office… is such a hard worker.”

By Andrea FERRARI