Before 2019 becomes a distant memory, Andrew takes time to reflect on the year that was; the cars that moved through his Motor House doors and the people that made it all worthwhile. As you would have read in my ‘Young Gun’ articles, people are drawn to a particular car for a certain reason. The [...]
Originally held under the banner of the BP Alfa Classic, PDL Industries took over the naming rights of this popular classic race event in 1995 before SKOPE became involved in 2003. The enthusiasm from competitors and the public has never waned, and the meeting remains the biggest in both entry and crowd numbers on the [...]
Over the four seasons that Grahame campaigned the Elfin, he had many memorable races. Winning the 1968–1969 NZ Sports Car Championship by a single point in the final round of his first season with the Elfin was certainly a highlight. In a gripping, season-long three-way battle for honours, it all came down to the last [...]
In the fifties, sixties and seventies, when cars were scarce and regarded as valuable ‘investments’, New Zealand struggled to get its own motor industry going – the Trekka, maligned and loved in equal parts, being the only successful attempt. Racing cars were considered frivolous, so bureaucrats made them even more difficult to obtain. That explains [...]
What do you get if you cross a former Austrian motorcycle racer turned Italian garagista with a 1960 Fiat 600? Simple: you get a ‘Fiat-Abarth 1000 Bialbero Record Monza, Licensa Zagato’ – a title that probably isn’t worth trying to include on your next registration application. The slightly madcap world of Carlo Abarth, a successful [...]
Bruce McLaren’s name is firmly etched into all motorsport enthusiasts’ memories, not only for those who witnessed his driving skills in this country throughout the sixties, but for the incredible legacy he left the world. For me, the opportunity after 50-plus years to finally be in a position to travel [...]
The relatively small number of cars that plied the roads of the small English town I grew up in during the early 1960s were mostly the rather dull British saloons so prevalent during that time. A Zephyr or a Sunbeam Rapier was regarded as being something rather exotic, and even the new MGBs – usually [...]
André Citroën produced his first car in 1919 – the Type A. As the first truly mass-produced European car, in an age when the manufacturer supplied a running chassis to be bodied by a coach builder, it was unusual in being delivered from the factory complete and ready to drive. The Type A was the [...]
This is a tale I’ve told before, but I like it so here it is again. As a young lad growing up in the 1960s, the first time I ever came across the Zagato name was when I read Ian Fleming’s book On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. In that book, the Bond girl who would [...]
Many of us have owned the same classic car twice in our lifetime. Some of us have regretted going back as our rose-tinted memories can mislead us as to how good that first experience actually was. I am guilty of this and must say that twice I have re-purchased a past vehicle and both times [...]