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Be sure to grab an edition of New Zealand Classic Car Issue No. 296

18 August, 2015

The August issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 296) is now on sale!

We take a close look at a the final iteration of the original Monaro — Holden’s HZ Monaro GTS. This iconic Aussie muscle car marked the end of an era, after which Holden put the Monaro nameplate into hibernation for two decades.

Cars don’t come more British than the iconic Daimler 2.5-litre V8. The winning recipe of shapely Jaguar Mk2 bodyshell and Edward Turner’s refined V8 engine proved to be a real winner.

Japanese classics are becoming more and more collectable amongst enthusiasts every year, and none more so than cars like our featured rotary-powered Mazda RX-3 Coupe. This pristine example has managed to survive more than four decades without becoming heavily modified. It is a truly outstanding car.  

Read all about a discovered, almost-forgotten barn find. This Bugatti Type 57 was part of the much-publicized Baillon collection, and is now in New Zealand. The owners have rather ambitious plans to bring this historic vehicle back to its former glory.

Additionally, there are eight pages full of nationwide news, and don’t forget to take advantage of this month’s subscription offer.            

1975 Suzuki RE5

1 November, 2024

Suzuki had high hopes for its RE5 Wankel-engined bike launched in 1975. It had started looking at the Wankel engine in the mid-60s and bought the licence to the concept in 1970.
Apparently all of the big four Japanese makers experimented with the design, Yamaha even showing a rotary-engined bike at a motor show in 1972. But Suzuki was the only one of the big four to go into production. Like many others at the time, Suzuki believed that the light, compact, free-revving Wankel design would consign piston engines — with their complex, multiple, whirring valves and pistons, which (can you believe it?) had to reverse direction all the time — to history.

Westside story

25 October, 2024

For the young Dave Blyth, the Sandman was always the coolest car and he finally got one when he was 50. “I have always had a rule. When you turn 50, you buy or can afford to buy the car you lusted after when you were 20. I was 20 in 1979 and the HZ Sandman came out in 1978. It was the coolest of the cool — I just wanted one,” he says. “Back then a Sandman cost $4500 new and a house was worth about $20,000. I made about $30 a week so it was an impossible dream then.”
Dave was heavily influenced by the panel van culture of the time. “I started with an Escort panel van and upgraded to a Holden HD panel van with a 186ci six cylinder. I started a van club, Avon City Vans.