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Fiat 500 hits a 1.5 million milestone

11 November, 2015

Fiat produced just over 3.4 million of their classic 500 ‘Bambina’ cars between 1957 and 1975, and on November 10, the 1.5 millionth example of their modern 500 rolled off the lines at Fiat’s Tychy plant in Poland.

 

Confirming the popularity of the new 500, that impressive figure has been achieved in just eight years and four months following the car’s initial launch — and, today, the Fiat 500 is now for sale in more than 100 countries around the world, from Japan to North America and, of course, New Zealand. Interestingly, the UK accounts for more than 240,000 of the total number of 500s sold in Europe.

Check out the latest edition of New Zealand Classic Car for a full feature on a fully restored 1963 Fiat 500D.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.