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David Brown to celebrate exclusive Speedback GT’s one-year anniversary

11 March, 2015

David Brown Automotive, Britain’s premier, 21st-century coachbuilder, unveiled their Speedback GT at the Top Marques show in Monaco last year. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Speedback GT’s successful launch, David Brown will be showcasing the car at the prestigious Retro Classics in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Speedback GT is a clear modern classic, styled upon the timeless lines of the Aston Martin DB5. David Brown, the businessman behind the car, owns one and, though he wanted to sort out the car’s issues, he found that he couldn’t take away from its classic character. The solution to this problem was to design and build a modern version, with classic lines and character, and modern reliability and comfort.

This is achieved through the chassis and running gear of a Jaguar XKR convertible (chosen for its pre-strengthened chassis), powered by the supercharged, five-litre V8 and six-speed automatic. The coach-built body comprises a blend of old and new techniques — a clay model was handcrafted initially, and a scan was made, allowing a lifesize computer rendering to be produced. According to this precise rendering, a wooden buck was made, allowing the bespoke, alloy body panels to be precisely hand-formed.

“Since the car first appeared a year ago, we have had a very strong response in Germany,” said David Brown. Several early orders for the Speedback were from the German market, and David Brown is aware that many of the Speedback’s qualities resonate with affluent German enthusiasts, making Retro Classics the perfect place to commence their 2015 show programme. Retro Classics showcase the finest classics, and modern vehicles, to a discerning crowd between March 26–29, at the Stuttgart Landesmesse. 

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.