Shower thoughts: w​​​​​​​hat’s the best car from the year you were born?

9 July, 2017

Picture this: You’re six months old, you crawl onto any car yard in the world with a blank cheque ready to buy a brand-new car, what will it be? We put the question to some of the team here in the office to find out. What would you be buying?

Lachie Jones, staff writer at New Zealand Classic Car
1981 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40
Timeless, awesome to look at, and ready to take on the Zombie apocalypse with aplomb.

Todd Wylie, editor of NZV8
1980 Buick GNX
The easy pick would be for a Buick GNX, they’re just so wrong, that they’re right.

Connal Grace, deputy editor of NZV8
1992 Ferrari F40
You’d be a fool not to pick the legendary Ferrari F40. Raw unadulterated horsepower at its finest, and a time capsule of an engineering period we’ll never see again — all brawn and no brains (electronics).  

Jaden Martin, staff writer at NZ Performance Car
1993 Toyota Soarer (Z30)
Factory option 1JZ-GTE with five-speed manual inside a Toyota luxury coupe? Yes please — add a dash of low and a set of WORK Rezax IIs, and I’ll be a happy man.

Adam Croy, senior photographer
1980 Ferrari 308 GTSi
Who wouldn’t want to smash one through the Hawaiian back roads!!

Ashley Webb, editor of New Zealand Classic Car
1956 Chevrolet Belair Sport Coupe
The best of the tri-fives!

Let us know what you’d pick and why too, we may even throw you a copy of the latest mags to sweeten the deal …

Lunch with … Rodger Anderson

At first, I wondered if I’d driven up the wrong driveway. The car in the garage was an early Mustang resplendent in royal blue with two broad gold stripes, which was not what I was expecting. I knew that Rodger Anderson, who made his name in Minis and a BMW 2002, was a Porsche man these days — the other end of the spectrum from American muscle. I had no idea of his affection for Detroit iron. It didn’t take long to discover just how passionate this former Saloon Car Champion is about cars, as long as they’re interesting.

Back from the brink – 1968 MGB GT

Auckland classic car enthusiast Kerry Bowman soon realised he had a massive job on his hands in restoring his classic 1968 MGB GT. When Kerry and his MGB first appeared in New Zealand Classic Car in March 2021, in “Behind The Garage Door”, the stripped-out shell had revealed some nasty surprises. Once the true extent of the hidden damage was discovered, the work would normally have been handed over to a professional fabricator. However, with the assistance of experts such as MG specialist restorer, Paul Walbran, Kerry has completed an impressive restoration and saved this car from the scrapheap.