Celebrating 300 issues: the special edition of New Zealand Classic Car

31 December, 2015

With the January edition of New Zealand Classic Car now on sale, we celebrate our 300th issue with a special edition of New Zealand’s first and best classic car magazine. And, as a special bonus for our readers, every copy comes with a 2016 New Zealand Classic Car calendar and a terrific pack of classic car playing cards.

In what has now become something of a summertime tradition, our January cover car is a rare and rather splendid coach-built Ford Zodiac Estate — one of a number of bespoke vehicles built by Abbotts of Farnham.

Moving away from British Fords, we indulge ourselves and take a test drive in a pair of classic supercars — Ferrari’s fabled flat-12 Testarossa and Lamborghini’s totally over-the-top Countach.

Meanwhile, we also give readers an insight into what it takes to put together an eye-grabbing New Zealand Classic Car front cover — and reveal, for the first time, some of our more crazy ideas.

All your favourites are on board as well — Nationwide News, Behind the Garage Door, Motorsport Flashback, and, of course, Donn Anderson is Motor Man.

Pick up your copy of our 300th edition at your local supermarket or bookshop, or buy a print copy or a digital copy of the magazine below: 


Put a ring around that

Provenance is a valuable part of a classic car and DKW/Auto Union collectors Brendan and Bobbette Odell have a detailed documented history of a special car in their growing collection of these little two-stroke wonders.
Brendan’s hometown of Pretoria enjoyed more than its fair share of the marque, where their reliability and performance made them popular..
“There used to be a joke going round in South Africa that there were more DKWs in Pretoria per square mile than anywhere else in the world,” Says Brendan.
The Odells redressed that balance a little when they shifted to New Zealand as they brought some of the cars with them.
One of their DKWs also accompanied them to Tonga. Brendan’s green 1959 Auto Union 1000 two-door went with them from South Africa to Tonga from 2010 to 2013 where he worked for the local airline. It then travelled on with them to New Zealand. It is one of just 10 right-hand drive cars of the two-door basic model remaining worldwide.

Stag roars again

The Triumph Stag pictured here has been lovingly restored from what was once, in the owner’s words, “a horrible, terrible job”. Owners Glynn and Alison Gaston hail from Dunedin and along with their grandchildren now enjoy cruising in the Stag after a three-and-a-half-year restoration.
In 2011, Glynn was looking for a classic car to restore. After 21 years with Air New Zealand he was working as a Super Shuttle driver, with four days on and four days off, which gave him the time to take on such a project — something he had always wanted to do.
“I’d looked at quite a few cars over the years. The idea was to restore a car as something to keep me going. I had looked at different MGs and I would have quite liked an Austin Healey or something similar but they were really expensive.
“Then I saw a Stag and I thought, Ah, this is nice. This is what I would like.