Discovered wrecks along New Zealand’s highways and byways

30 December, 2014

 

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Trevor Stanley-Joblin has put together a gallery of the roadside relics discovered while travelling throughout New Zealand

Morris Minor attracting attention to the Open Café — photographed during the running of the Pirelli Mainland Classic Tour, with a tour entrant’s Minor convertible parked alongside

A 1973 Land Rover — an ex–Automobile Association Canterbury service vehicle owned by a neighbour in August 2011

Part of a huge collection spotted in Ranfurly, December 2008

A 1916 White truck, seen on the roadside at Roxburgh — note the solid rubber tyres!

This 1951 Lanchester LD10 was, for many years, parked in a driveway on Avonside Drive, Christchurch. Trevor owned one of these back in the ’80s, and it appears to be completely original having only travelled 41,371 miles (66,580km)

This ‘landcrab’ Wolseley 1800 is still in remarkably original condition, but resides in a field in New Brighton. The 1800 Austin/Morris/Wolseley models have the most spacious interiors of any four-cylinder car of their era — they were, essentially, ahead of their time

This Ford Model A has been at the Te Waimate Station for many years. The station was founded in 1854 by Michael Studholme, while this Model A was purchased in 1953 for £35, and was originally a four-door sedan, but it was converted into a flatbed pickup for use around the farm

At Ashburton’s Botanical Gardens this Lanz Bulldog tractor is now used as a children’s play vehicle. These German tractors were built from 1921 right up to the ’60s, the company being purchased by John Deere in 1956. Can one of our readers tell us when this particular Bulldog might have been built?

To finish first, first, you must build a winner

Can-Am royalty
Only three M20s were built, including the car that was destroyed at Road Atlanta. This car was later rebuilt. All three cars were sold at the end of the 1972 season. One of the cars would score another Can-Am victory in 1974, driven by a privateer, but the M20’s day was done. Can-Am racing faded away at the end of that season and was replaced by Formula 5000.
These days the cars are valued in the millions. It was unlikely that I would ever have seen one in the flesh if it hadn’t been that one day my editor asked me if I would mind popping over to Taranaki and having a look at a pretty McLaren M20 that somebody had built in their shed.
That is how I came to be standing by the car owned and built by truck driver Leon Macdonald.

Lunch with … Roly Levis

Lunching was not allowed during Covid 19 Lockdowns so our correspondent recalled a lunch he had with legendary New Zealand racing driver Rollo Athol Levis shortly before he died on 1 October 2013 at the age of 88. Michael Clark caught up with Roly and members of his family over vegetable soup