COASTLINE
AUTOMOTIVE
Tauranga, New Zealand
ABOUT OWNER
Born in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1959, Dale
is the oldest of four children and grew up in a family
with an engineering and farming background. His father
had his own engineering business building farm implements
and milking sheds for the agricultural sector. Dale had
no choice but to learn general engineering from an early
age and built minibikes and gokarts in his fathers
workshop.
His parents
were also involved in dirt track speedway racing from the
mid '60's. Most of Dale's summer weekends were spent with
the family at the now defunct Forest Lake Stadium in
Hamilton and the old Baypark Raceway at Mount Maunganui.
Baypark incorporated a 1/4 mile speedway dirt track, a drag strip and a 3.5 mile road/race circuit and at the tender age of 11, Dale can
remember watching factory Trans-Am Boss and Shelby
Mustangs being road raced. These cars were loud and
spectacular. These experiences instilled a love of
motorsport from an early age and he began racing dirt
track stock cars (New Zealand style) from the age of 19.
With three years of college
education he left school at the age of 16, to start an
automotive mechanic apprenticeship. During this period of
training he built performance motor vehicle engines for
himself and his friends. These were mainly British Anglia
and Cortina engines. 
He was also involved in building and racing many VW powered off roaders, racing these at local beach events, Meremere short track and long distance races at Murawai Beach, north of Auckland.
While serving his automotive apprenticeship, Dale owned many British Fords ranging from 105E Anglias through to Mark 3 Zephyr Zodiacs. Most of these he modified for performance use. He then purchased his first V8, a '63 Fairlaine 500, then a '65 Fairlaine sports coupe and in 1977 he purchased his first Mustang, a J-Code '68 fastback.
With this car
he started drag racing at local hot rod club events at
Baypark Raceway, Mount Maunganui. In 1981 he purchased a
'73 351 Cobra-jet Mach 1 fitted with a four-speed
toploader and campaigned this car at both Baypark and
Meremere dragstrips, the modified Cleveland engine ran
low 13's on street tyres.
Later in 1981 he traveled with a friend, for the first time to the USA, to spectate at Mickey Thomson's world off road championship at Riverside Raceway, California. Upon returning to New Zealand he continued his off-road racing and purchased a '69 Corvette Stingray to continue drag racing. In early 1984 all these vehicles were sold and he returned to the USA to take up employment as an automotive mechanic in Mountain View, California.
He then started purchasing vehicles to
export back to New Zealand, the first one being a '73
Corvette Stingray along with automotive parts. While in
the USA, Dale followed all aspects of motorsport
frequenting tracks such as Baylands Raceway, Ascot Park, Pomona, Laguna Sega
and Sears Point in northern California. Throughout the
mid '80's he continued to export back to New Zealand
mainly Mustangs for himself and customers.
Dale returned to New Zealand permanently in 1988 and worked in the building construction industry for the next couple of years. In 1990 along with his brother, he started Coastline Cars, a used motor vehicle dealership located in Tauranga. Using Dale's knowledge of American vehicles and due to customers wanting something different, they started selling Mustangs, Camaros, Trans-Ams, Pontiac Firebirds and other American cars. Dale continued to travel to the USA at least once a year to acquire vehicles to import into New Zealand.
In
1995 the dealership was sold and Coastline Automotive was
formed. Dale had received several requests from customers
to import and build vintage Mustang racecars for classic
racing and to restore other Mustangs. This led to
importing more US sourced vehicles and automotive parts.
To this day Coastline Automotive has
continued to grow, while serving a large client base
throughout New Zealand in vehicle restoration, racecar
fabrication and parts importing.
In 1995 Dale's son Ryan Shelby Mathers was born and he seems to have race fuel running through his veins.
Phone +64 7 578 8852
Fax +64 7 578 4999
Mobile +64 27 4949 342