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Formula Ford One Cool Cat

2 February, 2024

GM hasn’t produced too many cars under the Buick marque of late, but reminiscing about how they used to is a good reason to bring Marin Leusink’s Wildcat out of the shadows
By Mat Mortimer

In the ’60s Buick was butting heads with the Mustang and Thunderbird, Corvette, Impala, and many others for eight-cylinder supremacy. 
In the Buick stable the most well-known of the marque was the Buick Riviera, a competitor in the American version of the luxury auto market and, while it was a two-door, it wasn’t squarely pitted against the popular Ford Thunderbird. Following the introduction of the Riviera in the early ’60s, Buick released another trophy car, the Wildcat. 

A Wildcat on the prowl
It’s fair to say Taupo-based Wildcat owner Marin Leusink is a fan of the big cat. 
Marin’s 1964 Buick Wildcat is a two-door, hardtop sedan, powered by 401 cubic inches (6.6litres) of Nailhead V8 engine, backed up by a TH400 3-speed transmission. 
The 401 Buick Nailhead engine wasn’t just used in the Wildcat. The 401 was the second generation of 90-degree V8 power plants producing 325bhp (242kW) and a significant amount of torque for the time — 445nM. This number was impressive enough for the engines to be used elsewhere in a somewhat different capacity. They were mounted on trolleys and used as ‘starter-motors’ for the SR-71 Blackbird supersonic jet!

Some effort required
After considering the options Marin imported the car from Arizona in 2017. 
“I wanted to make sure it wasn’t from a seaside state, to avoid too much rust in the body,” he says. 
Marin set about giving the cat some claws (again). For some reason the roof of the car had seen some filler, but inspection showed no real reason for it being there. After taking the car back to bare metal, the bodywork was done, minus the unwanted and unneeded bog to get it to the revitalised state it is in now – all stock to the 1964 variant.
The ’64 is special in that it didn’t feature the regular horizontal Ventiports like its predecessors, but instead it wears the vertical chrome Wildcat-branded hash-marks on the lower front quarter panel, setting it apart from others of the same era.

Making it purr
No project car can ever be complete on bodywork alone — even a classic such as this. 
Marin decided to breathe some new life into the Buick, boring the already capable 401 cubes out to 407 and adding a few extra touches, including TA Performance roller rockers and a super street camshaft. Crowning all this valve train work was an upgrade to the standard Rochester carb, with a 770 Ultra Street Avenger looking after the inhalation. 
Breathing out also became a little less restrictive with headers and a 2.5inch exhaust added. 
“As much as I’ve tried to keep it original in many ways, these changes all made sense at the time. The original Rochester was replaced — they do have a few issues — and I haven’t looked back really,” he says.

The finished product 
The ’Cat rolls on a set of standard wheels, with the option of a set of chrome Cragars. This gives Marin the ability to get either a hot-rod look and style, or keep it closer to how it was in the ’60s from the factory.
Either way, with all of the work put in, it’s clear the car is now back to as close as Marin could get (engine aside!) to a great looking standard Wildcat, and it may well be literally one of a kind. 
“I’m pretty sure it’s the only one in captivity, there are a few Rivieras about, but I haven’t seen another Wildcat.”

1964 BUICK WILDCAT

Engine Buick Nailhead V-8
Displacement 401cu (bored out to 407cu)
Valve Train TA Performance roller rockers and super street camshaft
Carburation 770 Ultra Street Avenger
Exhaust Headers and 2.5″ twin exhaust
Compression ratio 10.3:1
Transmission Super turbine 400 trans
Brakes F/R Disc
Suspension F/R Archers coil springs and heavy-duty sway bar

Grand Routier — in the french tradition

10 July, 2025

Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Lago-Record Factory Berline sedan, to give its full name. Daughter Cath let us know how proud she was of her dad, who had been tinkering away in his garage on this car for so many years.
Without exaggeration, it has been a mammoth task. I first saw this Talbot-Lago in mid 2019. The long-nosed, sweeping, curved four-door saloon, clothed in its misty green metallic paint, was quite breathtaking. There’s more than a little English influence in it, too, harking back to company owner Tony Lago’s involvement in the Clement-Talbot-Darracq era. The long front wings and bonnet, usually multi-louvred, highlighted with artful touches of chrome bling, are typical of the era, but these were indeed luxury length. Interiors provided leather-clad, armchair-style seating and ample legroom, with touches of wood and surprising details such as dainty childproof interior locks — a far cry from today’s lozenge boxes.
Paddy, a retired civil and structural engineer, knows his way around a lathe. He has a well-equipped garage-workshop to assist in any machining tasks along with his other passion for restoring classic motorcycles.

The Great River Road

4 July, 2025

A few years ago my family, knowing my fondness for driving, gave me the book Unforgettable Road Trips: Thirty-Six Drives of a Lifetime by Martin Derrick. Most of the road trips listed take less than a day in places like Scotland, Monaco, and Australia, plus one in New Zealand. Most of these places were too far to go just for a short drive but four of them would take several days. My interest was piqued, and those four drives were added to the bucket list. To date, I have done three of them: ‘Route 66’ (USA 21 days), ‘State Highway 6’ (NZ 10 days) and ‘The Great River Road’ (USA 22 days). You can drive all of them in less time, but you could also fly over them. We wanted a decent immersion in their charms.
The great river referred to is the Mississippi. While the name conjures the deep south, the river actually starts at the bottom of the great lakes, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 3800km later. The great road is more of a concept than a specific strip of tarmac, as you can drive down either side of the river on various routes. Regardless of which side you drive, time should be kept aside for detours to places such as Nashville, which is famous for something or other.