Celebrating 300 issues: the special edition of New Zealand Classic Car

31 December, 2015

With the January edition of New Zealand Classic Car now on sale, we celebrate our 300th issue with a special edition of New Zealand’s first and best classic car magazine. And, as a special bonus for our readers, every copy comes with a 2016 New Zealand Classic Car calendar and a terrific pack of classic car playing cards.

In what has now become something of a summertime tradition, our January cover car is a rare and rather splendid coach-built Ford Zodiac Estate — one of a number of bespoke vehicles built by Abbotts of Farnham.

Moving away from British Fords, we indulge ourselves and take a test drive in a pair of classic supercars — Ferrari’s fabled flat-12 Testarossa and Lamborghini’s totally over-the-top Countach.

Meanwhile, we also give readers an insight into what it takes to put together an eye-grabbing New Zealand Classic Car front cover — and reveal, for the first time, some of our more crazy ideas.

All your favourites are on board as well — Nationwide News, Behind the Garage Door, Motorsport Flashback, and, of course, Donn Anderson is Motor Man.

Pick up your copy of our 300th edition at your local supermarket or bookshop, or buy a print copy or a digital copy of the magazine below: 


Travelling companion

It’s easy to see why the Morris Minor Traveller was one of the best-loved variants of the Morris Minor. Introduced in 1953, it was equipped with the same independent torsion bar front suspension, drum brakes, and rack and pinion steering as its saloon sibling but, with their foldable rear seat increasing versatility, many Travellers were used as trade vehicles, says Derek Goddard. Derek and Gail Goddard, the owners of this superbly restored example, have run Morris Minors since before they were married in 1974.
“Our honeymoon vehicle was a blue Morris Minor van — it was a rust bucket,” says Derek.

Super Leicht Gullwing

It’s fair to say that nothing much in the classic Mercedes world gets past Mercedes-Benz Club stalwart Garry Boyce so it wasn’t surprising to learn that around 15 years ago he had sniffed out an extremely rare 300SL lightweight Gullwing as well as a 1958 300SL Roadster hiding away in the Waikato. The cars were not for sale but Garry eventually managed to persuade the owner to allow him and his restoration team to take a look at the Roadster. They discovered a very distressed but largely unmolested car. The car was so original that the body had never been off the chassis, meaning most of the parts and fittings were still present and correct, as they had been fitted by the factory.