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Concept Corner: dreaming up a retro Ford Ranger

16 October, 2015

 

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“Every month NZV8 ask their cover car owner for the concept that they’d most like to build, or see someone build”

 

Lyndon Hakopa had Matamata Panelworks build a very cool XW Ford Falcon ute, which we managed to feature on the cover of Issue No. 126. If you’ve read the article, you’ll know that Lyndon is a family man, and as such the ute is a bit tricky, being just a two-seater. So when we asked Lyndon for his concept, this is what he came up with.

“I love Ford Rangers; they’re just so handy — although they’re a bit high to put the dog or motorbikes on the back easily. They’re far easier around town than an F150. So a lowered Ranger would be pretty cool; but then again, you just can’t beat the look of the older stuff, like XWs. So my concept is to mix the character of old with the convenience and reliability of new.

Utes like my XW are great if you’ve only got one passenger, but when you need to take the whole family, you need a crew cab, so I’d graft an XW ute and wagon together to get a double cab. The tray would still need to be long to help fit stuff on, but to help with proportions it could be shortened a bit.

In an ideal world, the whole lot would be built over a Ranger chassis, so that you’d get the mod cons like ABS and good suspension, but, to get it sitting down low enough, the chassis would need to be notched in the rear and Z’d in the front. With a few other suspension changes, like lowering springs, it should be able to sit low enough, especially once the wheels were swapped out for the same style as on my XW.

Building it off a Ranger chassis, it would make sense to use a full Ranger as the donor  — that way you’d get the interior, also, which I’d graft in. I’d even go as far as to use the firewall out of the Ranger so there were no issues with the brake booster and steering-column fitting.

Of course, the Ranger motor wouldn’t cut it, so I’d drop in a Coyote motor, backed with an autobox, just to make it nice to drive around town. It’d be the perfect thing to chuck the kids in, dog or motorbike on the back, and head out of town.

As for the colour? The Matamata Panelworks team did a great job on the XW, so it’d make sense to paint this one the same.”

Sounds like a cool concept to us. Make sure to have your say on our Facebook page.

What are your thoughts on it? Post in the comments below.

You can get a print copy or a digital copy of NZV8 Issue No. 126, where the concept was first featured, below:

 




Buy a print copy of the magazine for NZ$10


Buy a digital copy of the magazine for NZ$6.99

The other Q car

12 August, 2026

Say the word ‘bond’ to anyone in the street and around 80 per cent straight away think of pop culture’s least-secret secret agent. The other 20 per cent may think of the wad of cash required to secure a flat or hire equipment that one gets back providing the fixtures and fittings stay much as they were.
However, mention ‘bond’ in specialist classic car circles and people will spin a very different yarn. If you dig deep enough, you will find an eccentric British carmaker that, throughout its 23 years in business, spawned some quirky and charming little cars.
The company was founded by Paul Sharp in 1922 under the name of Sharp’s Commercials Limited. However, the company did not start producing cars until 1948. The first car to carry the Bond name was the Bond Minicar. A three-wheeled, soft-top, two-cylinder eco car, the Minicar was a big hit at the time as the desire for an economical urban runabout that didn’t attract four-wheel car tax was strong in post-war Britain. All in all, 34,285 Minicars were produced over 26 years in a variety of variants.

Lunch with Bill Leckie: An Imp’s tale

6 August, 2026

Seeking limelight is part of Bill Leckie’s DNA, but when I asked him if anyone had written about his career and the cars he created, he didn’t think so. Even so, I was delighted when he agreed to sit down with me over a pie and coffee to reminisce. I started by asking how it is that someone who is so fanatical about F1 only ever raced saloon cars? Well, we’ll get to that, but where did things start? “I went to Cornwall Park Primary School and then to Remuera Intermediate where I became good mates with Geoff Perry, son of the legendary motorcycle racing legend Len.” Geoff Perry was 23 and on the edge of stardom when he was killed in a mystery air disaster over the Pacific in 1973. “We used to race around his backyard on a cutdown motorbike. It was friendly competition that I suppose helped hone our racing instincts. There was never much between us and so, by 11 or 12, I had a definite leaning towards speed.”