Fantastic All Ford Day

23 February, 2016

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“If you are a fan of the blue oval, and the fine machinery produced by Henry Ford’s team of merry men, then the Christchurch 2016 All Ford Day was a must-do event. ”

Hosted, once again, by the Canterbury Mustang Owners Club, the February 20–21 event had a great turnout of vehicles — no doubt encouraged out by the beautiful weather.

Ford owners celebrated a weekend of their cars, starting with a cruise, held on Saturday afternoon, which involved taking part in the Henry Ford Memorial Run. This cruise was attended by a large group of owners.

With rain causing problems for the 2015 event, this year’s host club would have been very happy to be greeted by the polar opposite of bright sunshine on Sunday. Held at the Wigram Airforce Museum grounds, cars flooded the field with many clubs well represented, such as the Falcon Fairlane Car Club, Classic Cortina Club, and, of course, the Canterbury Mustang Owners Club, as well as the many individual owners who took the opportunity to get their rides out of the garage.

As well as food stalls, there were a number of vendors selling hats and clothing, and the two local Ford dealers ventured to the event to showcase the latest offerings from Ford, including the new right-hand drive Mustang.

It was great to see such a diverse range of vehicles on show. With a large number of Mustangs, including a black Super Snake, there was something to suit everyone’s taste, whether it was an Escort, Cortina, Falcon, GT40, or a T-bucket, the day had it all.

Well done to the organizers for another great show, and a little shout-out to Mother Nature for helping out this year with the sunshine.

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

29 September, 2026

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”

Fantastic All Ford Day

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