Would any of these machines be in your ultimate two-car garage?

14 April, 2016

A few of the members of The Motorhood team (NZ Performance Car, New Zealand Classic Car, and NZV8) have come up with their ultimate two-car garage.

Check out our thoughts below, but then, taking into account an unlimited budget and your day-to-day driving requirements — do you need a tow car, do you drive long distance, do you haul kids, or just want to haul ass — let us know what your ultimate two-car garage would be in the comments at the end of this article, and we’ll select our top submission to get the latest copy of all three magazines!

Lachie Jones: New Zealand Classic Car staff writer

Bay one: Audi C5 RS6 Avant

Big enough for taking the family away, comfortable around town, sticks like shit to a blanket, insanely fast with a remap pushing things above 500hp.

Bay two: McLaren P1

A sensible hybrid car to counteract the RS6’s desire to burn fossil fuels.

Todd Wylie: NZV8 editor

Bay one: Jeep Cherokee Hellcat

With 707-supercharged-Hemi horsepower in a family-friendly four-door package — with room for the dog — what more could you ask for in the ultimate daily driver / toy hauler?

Bay two: Twin-turbo LSX-powered 1966 Chev Nova Wagon

Because sometimes shiny paint and modern creature comforts are overrated, but ridiculous amounts of horsepower never are …

Connal Grace: NZV8 deputy editor

Bay one: 1966–’67 Dodge Charger

I don’t get how anyone prefers the 1968–’69 Chargers to the first-gen! I’d have a pro-tourer with modern underpinnings, with a dirty Ray Barton 528ci Hemi and Jerico four-speed trans.

Bay two: ’49 Buick Roadmaster

I should probably have a practical vehicle on this list — like a bagged ’59 Impala two-door wagon — but who cares about practicality when you’ve got a ’49 Buick kustom?! Slam it to the floor on bags and Cadi hubcaps with wide whitewalls, chuck a white leather tuck ’n’ roll interior inside, and a 6L80E auto and LS3 deloomed and dressed to look like a Nailhead. Daily driver sorted!

Marcus Gibson: NZ Performance Car editor

Bay one: ETS Hilux

Nothing beats a vehicle that’s been hand built in the shed. Although I love Nigel Petrie’s, I would have to build my own version, with a 26B PP backed by a Holinger HD6. Or perhaps using a carbon ’80s-shape C10 body with a Nascar driveline … Hell, if it was my dream double garage it would have a hoist so I could have both.

Bay two: BMW E46 M3 CSL

I have an M3 as my daily driver already, but why not go one better with the super-light CSL version. Drop in a half cage and have VAG Motorsports go all out on the engine build, but keep it NA. BBS wheels, big brakes, and lots of semi-slick.

Jaden Martin: NZ Performance Car staff writer

Bay one: Nissan Z31 300ZX

Who doesn’t love transforming an ugly duckling into something rad? However, it would require a cheeky engine swap — a turbo VH45DE should do the trick.

Bay two: Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione II

Italian ’90s Group B styling, power to weight, and still the most successful individual model designation ever to compete in rallying. Perfect for lugging the groceries home.

Don’t forget to tell us in the comments below what two cars would feature in your ultimate two-car garage!

Classics on the green

16 October, 2026

Many pretenders vie for the title, but the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance gets my vote as the biggest thing since sliced bread.
The 71st edition of the world’s pre-eminent and best-known concours event featured 28 classes, judged by a 180-strong jury, which also chose the recipients of 26 special awards.
The size of the event, the number of visitors, and, most mind-numbingly, the sheer number of amazing cars, is almost overwhelming. There are so many quality cars to gaze upon, and so many people gazing at those cars, that it is almost impossible to cover everything.
Notable among the many attractions were the centenary celebrations of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an elegant Talbot-Lago Grand Sport, Hermann Graber’s Swiss-bodied cabriolets and coupés, the jewels of Otto Vu Italian V8s, early Alfa Romeos, Lincoln and its centenary, and cars with unorthodox propulsion systems.

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

29 September, 2026

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.