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The tangled and interesting history of this Lotus 22

8 December, 2016

As part of international Diamond Jubilee celebrations, many overseas Formula Junior racers are scheduled to compete alongside locals in special races to be held at Hampton Downs, Taupō, Ruapuna, Levels, and Teretonga this summer. To mark the occasion we look at the history behind the Lotus 22 once raced in New Zealand by Roly Levis in the early ’60s

In September 1963, Roly Levis placed an advertisement in the classifieds columns of UK magazine, Autosport. Looking to purchase a Lotus 22, Roly’s advert called for a car in good condition with a Hewland five-speed gearbox at a ‘non-comic’ price.

Subsequently, he purchased the Lotus directly from Jonathan Williams who, in 1967, would drive his one and only Formula 1 Grand Prix for Ferrari as teammate to Chris Amon in Mexico — coincidentally on the same day as Denny Hulme was crowned world champion.

Have a look at a few additional photos that didn’t make it into the feature in the January issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 313) — grab your copy here to read the full story.

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Britannia rules the roads – Royal Tour Cars – part 1

30 May, 2025

Today we take royal tours for granted, but once upon a time, or at any time before the 20th century, it was impossible for our monarchs to visit their downunder dominions because of the distances involved and the unreliable transport.
The advent of steam power for ships and trains, the evolution of the motor car and, finally, the arrival of passenger air travel shrank their world, and ours, considerably, and the royal tour became a feature of the empire and the Commonwealth.
The first British royal visitor to Aotearoa, New Zealand, was Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1920. During his 28-day tour, he travelled mostly by the royal train, which was both safer and more convenient for royal personages. A variety of best-available cars were used locally. Ideally, these would be Daimlers.

Motorman: Blame it on Rio!

22 May, 2025

Following the third polite advisory, I figured there had to be a fair degree of substance to the warning. “If this is your first visit to Rio de Janeiro, please be careful,” came the personal hushed dialogue from the pleasant hostesses on a far from crowded Varig flight from Los Angeles to the famous Brazilian seaside city.
The previous evening I had flown into LA from Auckland en route to the 1985 international launch of the Fiat Uno Turbo. I was prepared for another long haul of just under 12 hours across Mexico, central America, Colombia, and central Brazil to that nation’s third largest city. Surprisingly the 10,500km run from Los Angeles to Rio is actually longer than the 8800km LA-London air route.
With the journey including a brief stopover in Honolulu I expected to travel just under 44,000km for the return journey to sample what was to be a low-volume version of a popular Italian car that would sell in even lower numbers in New Zealand. I like to think this shows nothing more than my deep commitment to my craft. In fact, even though I became lost on the homeward journey my total air miles would be little different.