SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

Weekly Motor Fix: Daimler Dart and E-Type Jaguar built five days apart

3 February, 2015

 

data-animation-override>
“Every week we’ll bring you The Motorhood’s Weekly Motor Fix. This week, the New Zealand Classic Car team bring you a double feature with two cars they’ve discovered during the week that they think are something special”

We recently discovered these two beautifully restored classics that have just arrived in the country. The owner, a long-term kiwi expat (31 years away in the UK and Middle East), has just returned home to New Zealand from Dubai in the UAE. He cleared his 1961 Daimler Dart and 1961 E-Type Jaguar through Customs just in time for Christmas Eve; the same day he arrived back in  Auckland for Christmas. 

The Dart is a New Zealand new car built by Jaguar Cars Radcliffe factory on May 2, 1961 and supplied by Oxton Motors in Grafton. The current owner bought the car in February 1976 at the tender age of 19 because he could not afford an E-Type Jaguar. He fully rebuilt the car on a student budget with the help of a few friends whilst studying architecture at Auckland University. He sold the Dart in December 1979 to buy his first family home in 1979, thinking his ‘darting’ days were over.

However 20 years later — almost to the day — in December 1999, he purchased the very same Dart back from a friend who had owned it for 18 years. After five years of ownership, it was leaking much more oil than it burned and to prevent further deterioration he had it shipped to Dubai in 2004 where he had been working since 1993. After four years the Dart was ready and was entered in Dubai’s annual Classic Car Festival for five years running, with great enjoyment at the rarity value the car attracts in a place like Dubai.


outside CMC-4.jpg

In 2008, having got the Dart under his belt as it were, his thirst for an early E-Type returned with a vengeance, and after reaching the conclusion that life is not a rehearsal, he decided to really scour the planet for a suitable car, travelling to the USA, Belgium, and finally Scotland where he found a suitable car. The 1961 E-Type was amazingly original but very tired, and as it turned out was built just five days before his Daimler Dart saw the light of day. The car was still in its correct factory cream paint colour but had the wrong black interior. After another four years of restoration work in Dubai, that included soda blasting the amazingly rust-free shell back to the bare metal, and a trip for the car back to the UK to have the correct Jaguar red interior and double-duck soft-top installed, the car is ready for its first competitive outing. 

Keep an eye out for a full magazine feature in New Zealand Classic Car soon, and you’ll be able to see them at Ellerslie Intermarque Concours d’Elegance on February 8 at Ellerslie Racecourse.

Grand Routier — in the french tradition

10 July, 2025

Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Lago-Record Factory Berline sedan, to give its full name. Daughter Cath let us know how proud she was of her dad, who had been tinkering away in his garage on this car for so many years.
Without exaggeration, it has been a mammoth task. I first saw this Talbot-Lago in mid 2019. The long-nosed, sweeping, curved four-door saloon, clothed in its misty green metallic paint, was quite breathtaking. There’s more than a little English influence in it, too, harking back to company owner Tony Lago’s involvement in the Clement-Talbot-Darracq era. The long front wings and bonnet, usually multi-louvred, highlighted with artful touches of chrome bling, are typical of the era, but these were indeed luxury length. Interiors provided leather-clad, armchair-style seating and ample legroom, with touches of wood and surprising details such as dainty childproof interior locks — a far cry from today’s lozenge boxes.
Paddy, a retired civil and structural engineer, knows his way around a lathe. He has a well-equipped garage-workshop to assist in any machining tasks along with his other passion for restoring classic motorcycles.

The Great River Road

4 July, 2025

A few years ago my family, knowing my fondness for driving, gave me the book Unforgettable Road Trips: Thirty-Six Drives of a Lifetime by Martin Derrick. Most of the road trips listed take less than a day in places like Scotland, Monaco, and Australia, plus one in New Zealand. Most of these places were too far to go just for a short drive but four of them would take several days. My interest was piqued, and those four drives were added to the bucket list. To date, I have done three of them: ‘Route 66’ (USA 21 days), ‘State Highway 6’ (NZ 10 days) and ‘The Great River Road’ (USA 22 days). You can drive all of them in less time, but you could also fly over them. We wanted a decent immersion in their charms.
The great river referred to is the Mississippi. While the name conjures the deep south, the river actually starts at the bottom of the great lakes, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 3800km later. The great road is more of a concept than a specific strip of tarmac, as you can drive down either side of the river on various routes. Regardless of which side you drive, time should be kept aside for detours to places such as Nashville, which is famous for something or other.