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Weekly Motor Fix: Galaxie watching made easy

1 March, 2016

 


As Americarna is one of the largest events for American vehicles in New Zealand, there’s never any shortage of jaw-dropping vehicles on display. We came across this exquisitely restored ’67 Galaxie while it was parked up at Onemana. 

The third-generation Galaxie is a handsome vehicle from the factory — those stacked headlights and expansive grille make for a seriously good-looking face. 


This one’s more than just sharp lines and good looks, though — a set of 15-inch Billet Specialties wheels look right at home under the big Galaxie body, and the fitment is about perfect. These don’t look like they were just grabbed off the shelf, and it’s always refreshing to see instances where people buy wheels ‘for’ their car, rather than just buy wheels. 

Chrome-finish Wilwood calipers also peer out from between the Billet Specialties spokes, hinting that there may be a few horses under the hood that need reining in. 

Flanking those rad front wheels is a hint as to what resides beneath the Galaxie’s long bonnet, which unfortunately remained closed during our five minutes with the car. The 390 badge is a bit of a no-brainer — implying it’s a 390ci FE V8 powering the beast. In a world where 572ci engines can be bought off the shelf, it’s sometimes easy to forget that 390 cubes is still a hell of a lot. Could the ‘Double Trouble’ decal be hinting at a dual-quad (twin four-barrel carbs) set-up? We don’t know, but speculating is always fun. 

A look under the rear shows that this car hasn’t been given a quick blow over with a paint gun either. The chances of it having been subject to a body-off rebuild are pretty high — you don’t just refinish your diff, fuel tank, and undercarriage for a laugh. 

Inside, it’s no less impressive. The upholstery looks spot-on, and while there are hints of a banging sound system, no plastic Japanese head unit is readily visible. We’d go so far as to hazard a guess that the factory-looking stereo is actually a modern reproduction, designed to look the part. And it’s nice to see the factory tiller, tying everything together perfectly. Was it kept for easy visibility of that oh-so-subtly hidden tacho? 

This Galaxie is no magazine cover car, but it’s a beautifully finished example that we’d be ecstatic about having the keys to. You don’t need 1000hp, or a 20-layer paint job, or a crazy customized interior — having a beautifully finished cruiser is more than enough, especially if you know it’s been done right, and will get you wherever you want to take it.   

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.”