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Possum-killers: Narva Platinum Plus 130

10 August, 2017

 


 

With hundreds of different products thrust under your nose on a daily basis, we don’t blame you if you feel a little dubious when a new product hits the market, especially when you’re supposed to trust it for use on your pride and joy.

Luckily, we’re here to put these products through a rigorous ‘brofessional’ test, so that you can make a more informed choice when you’re staring at the shelf in your local. 

This month’s product is Narva’s latest offering in high-performance headlight bulbs, its Platinum Plus 130. The vehicle we fitted with the bulbs was an older E53 BMW X5 pre facelift, as the old yellow H7s bulbs it ran really dated the tow car’s looks at night. Fitting a new set of bulbs to any vehicle is a pretty straightforward process and can usually be done without tools. But X5s are a little different, and we needed to remove the entire headlight unit, whereas on most cars you can gain access to the rear of the assembly and simply click the bulb in place. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, it truly is a five-minute job. 

Your headlight will take either the H4 or H7 type, but be warned, when installing your new bulbs, do not touch the glass piece of the bulb. Wear gloves, as the oils and salts on your fingers will damage the quartz glass and shorten the bulb’s lifespan. If you do touch the glass, though, all is not lost. Simply wipe the bulb clean with rubbing alcohol or a solvent and remove all the excess with a dry cloth or paper towel. 

Narva advertises the Platinum Plus 130 as emitting 130 per cent more light than your traditional H4 or H7 bulb. While we had no real means of measuring the light output in a scientific manner, as you can see in our brofessional before-and-after wall test, there is considerably more light for the same power input. We were impressed. The other big change was the colour of the light itself, which switched from a yellow to a bright white, to instantly bring the truck into this century. The pack also included the park-light bulbs to match. 

A set of Narva Platinum Plus 130 bulbs retail for around $100, and they’re also available in singles from all leading automotive retailers nationwide. 

 

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.”

The Pininfarina 230 SL

14 May, 2026

It’s October 1964, and imagine you’re an automotive journalist covering that year’s Paris Auto Show (Mondial de l’Automobile). As you approach the Pininfarina booth, you come across a car that looks a bit like the Mercedes-Benz 230 SL introduced the previous year at the Geneva Auto Show, a car then arriving at Mercedes-Benz dealerships around the world.
But looking closely, its styling and proportions seem to be a bit different. And it has a fixed roof, unlike the Pagoda-style greenhouse of the removable hardtop seen on the production 230 SL. While today, the styling of the W113, under the supervision of Head of Styling Friedrich Geiger, with lead designers Paul Bracq and Bela Barenyi, is considered a mid-century modern masterpiece, acceptance in-period was not universal. Some critics called out the concave design of its removable roof, which ultimately gave the car its “Pagoda” nickname.