Old Stig approves of the new Mustang

11 November, 2015

The all-new Ford Mustang has been singled out as being the ultimate stunt car by Ben Collins — best remembered for his role as Stig on a certain BBC TV motoring programme.

Collins — whose movie stunt-driving credits include Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, Mission Impossible, and The Dark Knight Rises — has just completed filming on his own film, Ben Collins: Stunt Driver. Check out the video of Collins discussing the Ford performance line-up back in September, 2015:

In that film, a Ford Mustang beats an array of high-performance road and competition cars during 48 hours of explosive, high-speed challenges featuring aerobatic planes, helicopter gunships, and military machines.

Check out the video of the Ford Mustang in action below:

 

Picking over the past – 1940 Ford V8 ½-Ton Pickup

Jim and Daphne Ledgerwood have been around Fords most of their lives. They love their Ford coupés and two door hardtops, while also making room for an occasional Chevrolet. Their Wanaka based ‘Originals’ collection, featured in New Zealand Classic Car’s July 2022 issue is headed by an outstanding time-warp black 1940 Ford Coupé, its original factory assembly markings and documents offering something of a nostalgia trip.
Jim’s early days in hotrodding in Dunedin were spent building up a number of early Ford pickups and he became a prolific builder of modified pickups.
“I had lots of early Ford V8s in those days and once I had finished them I often sold them on. I would run out of garage space. I had up to a dozen restored Fords at most times then.”

Motorman – The saga of the Temple Buell Maseratis

Swiss-born Hans Tanner and American Temple Buell were apparently among the many overseas visitors who arrived in New Zealand for the Ardmore Grand Prix and Lady Wigram trophy in January 1959. Unlike Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Ron Flockhart, Harry Schell and Carroll Shelby who lined up for the sixth New Zealand Grand Prix that year, Tanner and Buell were not racing drivers but they were key players in international motor sport.
Neither the rotund and cheery Buell nor the multi-faceted Tanner were keen on being photographed and the word ‘apparently’ is used in the absence of hard evidence that Buell actually arrived in this country 64 years ago.