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The sound of engine music

30 January, 2017

Twelve-year-old boys are highly impressionable. With the parameters and perceptions of adulthood still some years off, if presented with anything that dazzles them, they are ripe to soak up associated kaleidoscopes of sound and images, and such momentous events can become lifelong addictions.

The 1968 New Zealand Grand Prix was only the second motor-racing event Gerard Richards attended — he had just turned 12. By the time he returned home that evening, the world would never be quite the same again.

Grab your copy of the February issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 314) to read this Gerard’s enchanting audio journey.   




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To finish first, first, you must build a winner

5 February, 2025

Can-Am royalty
Only three M20s were built, including the car that was destroyed at Road Atlanta. This car was later rebuilt. All three cars were sold at the end of the 1972 season. One of the cars would score another Can-Am victory in 1974, driven by a privateer, but the M20’s day was done. Can-Am racing faded away at the end of that season and was replaced by Formula 5000.
These days the cars are valued in the millions. It was unlikely that I would ever have seen one in the flesh if it hadn’t been that one day my editor asked me if I would mind popping over to Taranaki and having a look at a pretty McLaren M20 that somebody had built in their shed.
That is how I came to be standing by the car owned and built by truck driver Leon Macdonald.

Lunch with … Roly Levis

31 January, 2025

Lunching was not allowed during Covid 19 Lockdowns so our correspondent recalled a lunch he had with legendary New Zealand racing driver Rollo Athol Levis shortly before he died on 1 October 2013 at the age of 88. Michael Clark caught up with Roly and members of his family over vegetable soup