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Weekly Motor Fix: the little Lotus from the big screen

7 September, 2015

 

Unlike our more hipsterish brothers over at NZ Performance Car, elderly classic car editors don’t often get to the movies. So you’ll have to forgive us for mentioning a movie that, although it came out a few years back, we only just saw for the first time a few days ago — Red 2. Well, actually, we really only watched the bit with the Lotus Exige S. And while the subsequent car chase was very good — taking full advantage of the Exige’s compact size to duck under barriers, dive between the axles of a container truck, and allow a spot of seriously cool drive-by gunplay — what really caught our attention was the scene where Dame Helen Mirren actually swept aboard the Lotus.

If you’ve ever crawled into the cramped cabin of an Exige — as we at New Zealand Classic Car have many times — you’ll instantly be aware that a spot of ‘movie magic’ was quite obviously involved during the filming of the aforementioned scene.

Our seasoned editor is almost 10 years younger than Helen Mirren — who was knocking on the door of 70 when she appeared in Red 2 — but he struggles to cram himself into an Exige with any degree of dignity, as can be seen in our photograph (an image that also explains why he rarely, if ever, puts the hood up on the editorial Elise).

Photo: sourced

Alright, Helen Mirren does appear to be rather better preserved than our editor (not to mention a whole lot better looking), but are we really expected to believe that an over-aged pensioner film star can demonstrate the flexibility of a teenager by diving into the cockpit of an Exige with such remarkable split-second speed?!

Ah, if only we could all utilize jump cuts to cover up those awkward, real-life moments!

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.”

Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

28 May, 2026

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.