Larry Price recreates the car of his dreams

17 October, 2016

Larry Price still clearly remembers the excitement he felt as he heard the news — live — of the D-Type Jaguar crossing the finishing line in second place during 1954.

Fast forward three-plus decades, and, right from the start, Larry has done his best to replicate the ’56 and ’57 long-nose winning cars. Although he knew his car would never be an exact replica, he enjoyed doing the research and building details that were non-functional facsimiles, such as the wiring and fuse boxes in the passenger compartment.

The car was finally painted in colours as close to the Le Mans car as possible, and the number four is a nod to the Ecurie Ecosse car number that crossed the line in 1956, driven by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson. The single stripe across the nose was also on the original car, and represented the fact that it was the Ecurie Ecosse number one car.

We’ve put together a gallery for you to get a sneak peek at what makes Larry’s car so special:

Check out our full story in the November issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 311).

Grab a print copy of the mag now!

Lunch with … Cary Taylor

11 September, 2024

Many years ago — in June 1995 to be more precise — I was being wowed with yet another terrific tale from Geoff Manning who had worked spanners on all types of racing cars. We were chatting at Bruce McLaren Intermediate school on the 25th anniversary of the death of the extraordinary Kiwi for whom the school was named. Geoff, who had been part of Ford’s Le Mans programme in the ’60s, and also Graham Hill’s chief mechanic — clearly realising that he had me in the palm of his hand — offered a piece of advice that I’ve never forgotten: “If you want the really good stories, talk to the mechanics.”
Without doubt the top mechanics, those involved in the highest echelons of motor racing, have stories galore — after all, they had relationships with their drivers so intimate that, to quote Geoff all those years ago, “Mechanics know what really happened.”

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.”

Larry Price recreates the car of his dreams

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