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It’s Targa time!

13 October, 2019

 

 

New Zealand Classic Car’s November issue, on sale now, previews New Zealand’s greatest closed roads tarmac rally, Targa New Zealand.


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Flip the magazine over and it becomes a programme for New Zealand’s premier closed road event with racing, touring and time trial categories. We feature cars and drivers, route maps, times and places. Plus we have all of the goodness of another great issue. On the cover is what now qualifies as a classic — a Group A Toyota Celica GT4.


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Inside, the magazine, has a distinctly modern air, featuring one of New Zealand’s fastest selling new cars, the Tesla Model 3.


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There’s a new De Tomaso Pantera to compare with the classic pictured here (with next month’s cover car), part 2 of the equally beautiful and brutal Peking to Paris classic car rally, BMW’s 135i and a rare Mazda MX5 coupe. Happy reading!

Available on magazine stands or at Magstore now.


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The other Q car

12 August, 2026

Say the word ‘bond’ to anyone in the street and around 80 per cent straight away think of pop culture’s least-secret secret agent. The other 20 per cent may think of the wad of cash required to secure a flat or hire equipment that one gets back providing the fixtures and fittings stay much as they were.
However, mention ‘bond’ in specialist classic car circles and people will spin a very different yarn. If you dig deep enough, you will find an eccentric British carmaker that, throughout its 23 years in business, spawned some quirky and charming little cars.
The company was founded by Paul Sharp in 1922 under the name of Sharp’s Commercials Limited. However, the company did not start producing cars until 1948. The first car to carry the Bond name was the Bond Minicar. A three-wheeled, soft-top, two-cylinder eco car, the Minicar was a big hit at the time as the desire for an economical urban runabout that didn’t attract four-wheel car tax was strong in post-war Britain. All in all, 34,285 Minicars were produced over 26 years in a variety of variants.

Lunch with Bill Leckie: An Imp’s tale

6 August, 2026

Seeking limelight is part of Bill Leckie’s DNA, but when I asked him if anyone had written about his career and the cars he created, he didn’t think so. Even so, I was delighted when he agreed to sit down with me over a pie and coffee to reminisce. I started by asking how it is that someone who is so fanatical about F1 only ever raced saloon cars? Well, we’ll get to that, but where did things start? “I went to Cornwall Park Primary School and then to Remuera Intermediate where I became good mates with Geoff Perry, son of the legendary motorcycle racing legend Len.” Geoff Perry was 23 and on the edge of stardom when he was killed in a mystery air disaster over the Pacific in 1973. “We used to race around his backyard on a cutdown motorbike. It was friendly competition that I suppose helped hone our racing instincts. There was never much between us and so, by 11 or 12, I had a definite leaning towards speed.”