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Thrashing the Jaguar XJ220: Brilliant or Blasphemy?

2 August, 2017

You may have read about the ultra-low mileage, Kiwi-based Jaguar XJ220 in a recent issue of NZ Classic Car. If so, you’ll have read about the rich history and racing pedigree of the XJ220. You’ll have read about what goes into repairing the XJ220 and the bespoke tyres which threatened to send the XJ220 into oblivion.

What a car — a piece so recognisable it could take rightful place in an art museum. Unless you’re these guys.

The infamous TaxTheRich100 YouTube channel has been making car videos for several years, but not your run of the mill, take your Miata out for a Sunday hoon type videos, mind you. These guys put on a hell of a show in some of the most exotic and expensive cars in the world, including the XJ220.

If you get squeamish at the site of millions of dollars worth of cars being driven by maniacs (they do know how to pedal, though), it might pay to look away now.

Burning (very expensive) rubber to taking the XJ220 out to do some paddock work. Possibly not what Jaguar had in mind but it looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”