Would any of these machines be in your ultimate two-car garage?

14 April, 2016

A few of the members of The Motorhood team (NZ Performance Car, New Zealand Classic Car, and NZV8) have come up with their ultimate two-car garage.

Check out our thoughts below, but then, taking into account an unlimited budget and your day-to-day driving requirements — do you need a tow car, do you drive long distance, do you haul kids, or just want to haul ass — let us know what your ultimate two-car garage would be in the comments at the end of this article, and we’ll select our top submission to get the latest copy of all three magazines!

Lachie Jones: New Zealand Classic Car staff writer

Bay one: Audi C5 RS6 Avant

Big enough for taking the family away, comfortable around town, sticks like shit to a blanket, insanely fast with a remap pushing things above 500hp.

Bay two: McLaren P1

A sensible hybrid car to counteract the RS6’s desire to burn fossil fuels.

Todd Wylie: NZV8 editor

Bay one: Jeep Cherokee Hellcat

With 707-supercharged-Hemi horsepower in a family-friendly four-door package — with room for the dog — what more could you ask for in the ultimate daily driver / toy hauler?

Bay two: Twin-turbo LSX-powered 1966 Chev Nova Wagon

Because sometimes shiny paint and modern creature comforts are overrated, but ridiculous amounts of horsepower never are …

Connal Grace: NZV8 deputy editor

Bay one: 1966–’67 Dodge Charger

I don’t get how anyone prefers the 1968–’69 Chargers to the first-gen! I’d have a pro-tourer with modern underpinnings, with a dirty Ray Barton 528ci Hemi and Jerico four-speed trans.

Bay two: ’49 Buick Roadmaster

I should probably have a practical vehicle on this list — like a bagged ’59 Impala two-door wagon — but who cares about practicality when you’ve got a ’49 Buick kustom?! Slam it to the floor on bags and Cadi hubcaps with wide whitewalls, chuck a white leather tuck ’n’ roll interior inside, and a 6L80E auto and LS3 deloomed and dressed to look like a Nailhead. Daily driver sorted!

Marcus Gibson: NZ Performance Car editor

Bay one: ETS Hilux

Nothing beats a vehicle that’s been hand built in the shed. Although I love Nigel Petrie’s, I would have to build my own version, with a 26B PP backed by a Holinger HD6. Or perhaps using a carbon ’80s-shape C10 body with a Nascar driveline … Hell, if it was my dream double garage it would have a hoist so I could have both.

Bay two: BMW E46 M3 CSL

I have an M3 as my daily driver already, but why not go one better with the super-light CSL version. Drop in a half cage and have VAG Motorsports go all out on the engine build, but keep it NA. BBS wheels, big brakes, and lots of semi-slick.

Jaden Martin: NZ Performance Car staff writer

Bay one: Nissan Z31 300ZX

Who doesn’t love transforming an ugly duckling into something rad? However, it would require a cheeky engine swap — a turbo VH45DE should do the trick.

Bay two: Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione II

Italian ’90s Group B styling, power to weight, and still the most successful individual model designation ever to compete in rallying. Perfect for lugging the groceries home.

Don’t forget to tell us in the comments below what two cars would feature in your ultimate two-car garage!

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”