SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

RIP Big Man: Jonah Lomu passes away aged 40

18 November, 2015

Sad news came across our desk today that New Zealand rugby icon Jonah Lomu passed away at the age of 40. While almost every Kiwi over the age of ten years old will know his name due to his rugby prowess and spin-off marketing contracts, there was another side to the ‘Big Man’.

What’s not known by most is how much of a car guy he was, and for those of us who know him personally, that’s what we’ll remember him for the most.

Like many growing up in South Auckland, Lomu’s dream was for big audio systems, and as his fame and finances grew, that’s an area he spent plenty of time working on. Starting as a privateer, he soon grabbed the attention of New Zealand audio brand Fusion, and became the global marketing face for it. This saw his Nissan Patrol soon become the loudest SPL vehicle in the country, and an even more ambitious Ford Transit van project embarked on.

Like most others though, he was also a fan of horsepower, and, as such, always had something impressive in the garage. Back in the late ’90s when I personally spent quite a bit of time with him, he had the latest, at the time, HSV, of which everyone was generally blown away by its ‘massive 20-inch wheels’ and impressive audio set-up. The irony was, he’d chuck the keys to anyone, and I remember being told many a time to take it out and skid it up …

When the R34 Nissan GT-R was released in 1999, Jonah was one of the few who could afford one, and soon became well known for it. Over the years the car gained more and more power, but was soon seen more in the hands of his good friend and tuner Arnie, while Lomu drove other cars. Included in those was a more subtle R32 GT-R, and a way less subtle Lamborghini, and even a Hummer at times.

View fullsize

IMG_8455.jpg

View fullsize

IMG_8461.jpg

View fullsize

IMG_8534.jpg

One of his dreams was always to own a true muscle car though, and to tick that box he purchased Mark Bardsley’s old tubbed and blown Camaro street car, owning it for a few years before selling it on. That wasn’t the only Chev in the collection though, as he also had one of the tidiest Chev pickups you’ll ever lay eyes on. We featured that way back in Issue No. 13 of NZV8.

Over the years, while his health suffered, his love of cars never faded, even if his ability to get out and have fun like he used to decreased.

Our thoughts go out to his wife Nadine and his family at this time. We know, however, a good friend of his and fellow car guy who passed away a decade ago last month, Antony ‘Ant’ Little, will be looking forward to catching up once more.

RIP Jonah.

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”

The actual Formula One

18 September, 2026

Seeing, in a shed in Hamilton, New Zealand, the Darracq 120 racer that Louis Wagner, also a pioneer aviator, drove to victory in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race felt a little like finding a Rembrandt at a garage sale.
For historical significance, I’d say this car ranks with Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp, the first Indianapolis 500 winner. Unlike Harroun’s Wasp, which has been lovingly cared for at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum over the years, this historically pivotal machine wound up half a world away from its home in France and, to most of the motoring world, largely forgotten. Sadly, so is the story of how the car got to Aotearoa in the first place.
More often than not, a racing car that is a few years old is regarded as obsolete and relegated to a shed somewhere. As far as racing drivers and team owners at the cutting edge of the sport are concerned, the cars are virtually worthless at that point. They can’t be driven on the street; at best they can be reconfigured for lower levels of the sport, so few people care about them until their historical significance becomes more apparent.