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Bangers and Ash: farewell to a legend

15 August, 2016

At about 5.30pm on Wednesday, August 3, we received the news that Chris Amon had passed away earlier that day. As the news was being relayed to me, it took me several seconds to register what I’d just heard. Just to make sure, I had to read the notice a couple of times, hoping that, somehow, the news had been misinterpreted.

Sadly, it was true — one of our greatest motor-racing legends had gone, and as a few of us stood around the editorial office in utter shock, I still found it hard to believe. 

The following morning — the day before the September 2016 issue of New Zealand Classic Car went to print — we decided to rehash the entire magazine, and put together a fitting tribute to celebrate the life of Chris Amon. 

It seemed like only yesterday that I was sitting in his lounge, interviewing him about his career, and at the same time he was reunited with the BMW 3.0CSL — dubbed the ‘Batmobile’ — after 38 years. This was the very car that he shared with Hans-Joachim Stuck during the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) series back in 1973. 

After a close examination of the car in which he and Stuck had won the 1973 Nürburgring Six Hour, I sat down with Chris, and was transported back to a time when drivers such as Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Jochen Mass, and James Hunt all vied for touring-car honours. 

It was the very first time I’d met Chris, and he treated me like I was a long-lost friend. Warm, kind, and generous with his time, he sat with me for a few hours reminiscing about his wonderful career, while remaining humble at the same time. Alas, the few hours I spent with Chris went by in a flash, leaving me with many questions that I wanted to ask. I could have easily sat listening to him for hours as he reminisced about his career, but as the old cliché goes — all good things must come to an end. 

As part of our tribute to Chris, we’ve rerun the full interview, along with special tributes from Donn Anderson and Michael Clark, who have kindly shared their own personal experiences with Chris over the years.

Chris Amon was a man much respected and admired in New Zealand and around the world — a Kiwi legend, and one of the world’s greatest ever race drivers. Rest peacefully.  

To read the latest from Ashley Webb and the New Zealand Classic Car team, pick up a print copy of the September 2016 issue here:




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Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

28 May, 2026

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.

Chrysler’s classy cruiser

22 May, 2026

I first saw our feature car, a 1970 V8-powered Regal 770 hardtop, towing a trailer carrying the tidy Ford Anglia classic racing saloon in Broadspeed racing colours that has featured in these pages. The coupe is comparatively rare here, which means anyone contemplating purchasing one of these big two-doors is sure to see prices continue to climb. The latter Charger has claimed much of the Aussie Chrysler limelight, but the simpler and classier lines of this car, which appeared dated soon after its introduction, now have a more timeless appeal.
Former owner, Balclutha motor engineer, Mike Verdoner, remembers the car well. He believes it came from Dunedin originally.
“I’m not sure about the car’s history, but I bought it off its owner at Kaitangata. Unusually, it was advertised in the local newspaper, the Clutha Leader, which was a surprise as these usually go for a lot more money on the internet. I had it for quite a few years. It needed a little bit of work to tidy it up, so I had to decide whether to spend the money on it to do it up, which could have been twenty grand. Its value at the time was not like it is now, so I sold it to Ewan. It’s probably now worth three or four times what I sold it for.”