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New Zealand, the Aston Martin DB11 has landed

4 August, 2016

Following the driving debut of the Aston Martin DB11 at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed in late July, luxury British brand Aston Martin has now unveiled the DB11 on New Zealand soil at Cibo in Parnell, Auckland.

As the first product launched under the company’s ‘Second Century’ plan, the DB11 is the new figurehead of the ‘DB’ bloodline, a bloodline with a very prestigious history.

During the DB11’s unveiling, Patrik Nilsson, president of Aston Martin in Asia Pacific, said, “We are excited to unveil DB11 in New Zealand. As the first ‘DB’ since the introduction of the DB9, we are already experiencing significant demand for DB11, demonstrating the strong affinity for Aston Martin in this market.”

The DB11 features a distinctive design, including refined aerodynamics, and is powered by a newly designed 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine. Utilizing a new lighter, stronger, and more space-efficient bonded aluminium construction, the DB11 is the most powerful and most efficient DB model in Aston Martin’s history. As such, Aston Martin are claiming the car as “the most significant new Aston Martin since the introduction of the DB9 in 2003”. 

The in-house-designed engines are rated at 600BHP and 700Nm of torque, making the DB11 the most powerful production DB model ever. Those performance figures are good enough to push the car to a top speed of 322kph and a 0–100kph time of just 3.9 seconds.

Patrik Nilsson added, “Aston Martin has a proud, 103-year heritage in the luxury automotive market, and the DB11 embodies every aspect of the brand with absolute elegance and indulgence, combining the very latest technology and finest quality hand craftsmanship.”

The DB11’s RRP starts from NZ$365K plus on-road costs, and the first local deliveries are scheduled to begin at the end of 2016.

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.”