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!

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.