Larry Price recreates the car of his dreams

17 October, 2016

Larry Price still clearly remembers the excitement he felt as he heard the news — live — of the D-Type Jaguar crossing the finishing line in second place during 1954.

Fast forward three-plus decades, and, right from the start, Larry has done his best to replicate the ’56 and ’57 long-nose winning cars. Although he knew his car would never be an exact replica, he enjoyed doing the research and building details that were non-functional facsimiles, such as the wiring and fuse boxes in the passenger compartment.

The car was finally painted in colours as close to the Le Mans car as possible, and the number four is a nod to the Ecurie Ecosse car number that crossed the line in 1956, driven by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson. The single stripe across the nose was also on the original car, and represented the fact that it was the Ecurie Ecosse number one car.

We’ve put together a gallery for you to get a sneak peek at what makes Larry’s car so special:

Check out our full story in the November issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 311).

Grab a print copy of the mag now!

Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.

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.”

Larry Price recreates the car of his dreams

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