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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.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.