Years ago in the living room of his family home, James Robinson was playing with a toy car. “I always liked cars but I was not really a huge car person,” James explained to me, but at the age of 18 that all changed. At that time, James’ father purchased an original one-owner 1967 Morris [...]
The Trans-American sedan series (Trans-Am) was almost certainly the world’s most famous, most successful saloon-car racing series during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A creation of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), the Trans-Am joined the Can-Am series for Group 7 unlimited sports cars, and Formula A/Formula 5000 series during the mid-1960s as [...]
I had been a Porsche fan since my first sighting of a red 356A in 1959, as I biked back to my boarding school from church, in Napier. Even now, as one thinks back to the late 1950s, Porsches were always so smooth and squat in comparison to any other cars – also faster and [...]
When Motor road tested a 3.4-litre XK150S FHC in August 1959 they recorded a best top speed of 133.9mph and their conclusion was that the “XK150S Jaguar is a truly remarkable car which combines a stupendous performance with surprising docility and good manners. To drive it is one of the more memorable experiences motoring has [...]
I first crossed paths with Gavin Hicks in 1997 when I photographed and wrote about his 1969 Maserati Ghibli. Whilst road-testing the Ghibli, Gavin talked about his early experiences with the Italian marque. From him I learned that he’d sat in his first Maserati – a 250F – at the age of 15 at the [...]
Dene Hollier competed internationally on two wheels – even racing at the legendary Isle Of Man TT – before turning his skills to four wheels when he went single-seater racing. Sadly, Dene passed away on January 19, 2019 at the age of 91 years and three months at the Ranfurly Residential Care Centre and Rest [...]
The Daimler SP250 was born when Edward Turner, head of the Automotive Division of BSA – at that time Daimler’s parent company – was given the brief to develop an all-new volume production car. Eschewing the use of Daimler’s more traditional six-cylinder engine, Turner developed a new 2.5-litre V8. Already known for his hemi-head Triumph [...]
In the sixties, the annual trek to Blenheim for the season-opening motor race meeting was always an adventure. The circuit was around the streets of the nearby township of Renwick – and it was always a matter of argument whether the ‘w’ was silent. There were three Renwick (or was it Rennick?) circuits, the first [...]
Formula Ford (or F1600 as it is commonly referred to) is the only single-seater category with a national status, but as I write this following the opening round of the latest New Zealand title grab, the racing was at a low-key meeting at Ruapuna, while the championship rounds for other categories was some five hours [...]
As I pull up the drive of the Dawber family property it is not long before my eye is caught by the late afternoon sun glinting on the chrome work of an unfamiliar car slowly being enveloped by grass and moss. The chrome parts I can see are set off by a patchwork quilt of [...]