Paula and Craig Jamieson’s caravan persuasion

30 January, 2017

Paula and Craig Jamieson never set out to own a retro caravan. What they really wanted was a hot rod, but they couldn’t find one that suited them. Then a few friends started getting into caravanning, so they began looking at them as well.

It wasn’t long before Paula and Craig found the perfect caravan. They drove to pick her up the next day, and were not disappointed. It had nothing that they had on their must-have list, and yet somehow ticked all the boxes anyway! Now that they had the perfect caravan, it was time to make it their own.

But, they were still missing something — a suitable tow vehicle. After a Sunday sushi run, Paula returned with a 1955 Packard, ‘The Four Hundred’, restored by Duffy Hannah from Rotorua.

Have a look at a few additional photos that didn’t make it into the feature in the February issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 314) — grab your copy now to read the full story.    


A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.