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Jaguar’s new XF to walk the tightrope

22 March, 2015

The Jaguar XF was first released in 2007, and is Jaguar’s biggest-selling and most awarded car. The all-new XF is to be revealed on March 24 and, featuring Jaguar’s aluminium-intensive architecture, is expected to provide class-leading efficiency, weight, and design — Ian Callum, Jaguar’s director of design, has said, “I believe the all-new XF will be the best-looking car in its class.”   

The XF’s lightweight credentials are to be highlighted, and Jaguar have thought of something quite outside the square to achieve this. The aluminium-intensive XF will be driven, in what Jaguar call a high-wire drive, across two 34mm thick wires suspended high above water.

Jaguar has enlisted world-renowned stunt driver Jim Dowdall — whose driving has starred in films including James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Indiana Jones titles — to help pull it off.

A teaser video for the feat can be viewed below.

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

12 February, 2026

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

30 January, 2026

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.