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Weekly Motor Fix: the Duzgo

31 March, 2015

 


This unusual-looking vehicle was built in 1978 by Giles Engineering in Whataroa South Westland. These little on-road/off-road vehicles were built for the farming community and have been described as the precursor to the four-wheel farm bike. Despite being only two-wheel drive and powered by a 12hp (8.9kW) Kohler engine, the vehicle’s range of gearing, 12 forward and three reverse, meant it could traverse the harshest terrain pulling a fair load without leaving deep tracks in the paddocks.

Construction of the first Duzgo began in the early 1970s; Giles Engineering went on to produce ten of these vehicles, each one individually numbered. This Duzgo is number eight. There were orders for another thirteen, when the Giles were visited by the men in suits from Wellington who, because they saw them as new vehicles, demanded payment of excise tax, which was placed on new vehicles at that time. The company was forced to close.


Though seen as new vehicles, they were built primarily from second-hand parts. For example, the two gearboxes intermeshed to give it the wide range of gears, were from Morris Minor and Ford Anglia.

According to the current owners, once you own one it is hard to part with it. ‘Duzgo #8’ has featured in a number of TV documentaries, one of which was Billy Connolly’s World Tour of New Zealand, where Billy described it as his “favourite car in the world.”

Duzgo #8 has been used as such other things as a hearse, a means to tow a helicopter trolley in and out of a hanger, and a wedding vehicle. It has currently been on display at The Bushman’s Centre at Pukekura, South Westland, and is currently on the market.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.