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Land Rover’s amazing Valentine’s Day gift

23 February, 2015

Valentine’s Day 2015 presented four good friends with a slightly better gift than a box of Cadbury Favourites. As students of Otago University 15 years ago, Will Radford, Jeremy Wells, Anthony Dawson, and James Shatwell chipped in for a 1957 Series I Land Rover. ‘The Landy’ was a staple in their many adventures and trips throughout the country. Of course, time moves on, and after 15 years of ownership, The Landy was listed for sale on Trade Me, with a story of the friends’ many adventures, and their sadness at parting with it.

Land Rover New Zealand had come across the auction, and with the help of Will’s wife Claire, began a secret operation to restore The Landy from the ground up. Tony Katterns and the Custom Metal Shapers team were enlisted for the restoration. Broken parts were replaced with genuine Land Rover parts, while some of the characteristics that made it theirs — such as some of the dings and bumper stickers — were retained.

James McKee, Land Rover New Zealand’s marketing manager, says, “A heart-warming tale accompanied the listing, documenting the many journeys and stories this Land Rover has been part of and showing just how much the vehicle meant to the four guys. We decided it was an amazing opportunity to help them continue their relationship with this classic vehicle, so we bought it and restored it back to its former glory.”

The Landy was taken for a tour of the South Island following the restoration, to recreate some of the adventure shots Will included in the Trade Me auction, before it was returned to Auckland in time for Claire to hide it in the shed for the four mates’ ultimate Valentine’s Day present.

We will have a full feature on The Landy in New Zealand Classic Car Issue No. 293, on sale April 20 — be sure to keep an eye out for it, to read all about The Landy’s history, and the adventures of four good mates. Check out the video of the story and the work that went into the vehicle below:

Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.

Range Rover CSK — the original SUV

5 June, 2026

The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the SUV moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inch wheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with only a few minor touch-ups by the Rover styling team.
According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”