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New Zealand Classic Car 379, July 2022 is out now!

28 June, 2022

The new(ish) time trial category in the Targa New Zealand rally has been a boon to classic car owners who no longer want to hammer their precious cars at ten tenths, but who still relish competition and keen driving on closed tarmac roads. This year, managing editor Ian Parkes went along as navigator in John Corbett’s magnificent Series 1 E-type to see why the event brought so many previous entrants back and nearly doubled the entry overall. He is enchanted by Emma, the Jag, and his experience of the event is also an education.

Read the full story in New Zealand Classic Car 379

 


 

Also in this issue: a mint Datsun 240K, New Zealand’s own version of Bruce McLaren’s road car project, and a look at the magnificence on offer at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. 

What to expect in the July 2022 issue of NZCC


American muscle, Japan style


Better than ever — Jaguar’s GT

Plus lots more in New Zealand Classic Car 379!



GET YOUR COPY HERE

Roadside relics

24 July, 2025

There’s been a proliferation of ‘barn find’ and ‘junkyard relic’ type books hitting the market, over the last 10 years or so. Writer Tom Cotter has been a major culprit with titles like Barn Find Road Trip, The Cobra in the Barn, Route 66 — Barn Find Road Trip and many others. In the same vein are: Lost Muscle Cars and a swath by Jerry Heasley, such as Jerry Heasley’s Rare Finds: Mustangs and Fords. They are almost exclusively American titles.
It got me thinking of all the road trips I’d charted around this country over 40 plus years hunting out and photographing what I thought of as roadside jewels — diamonds in the rough if you like, captured in all their glory, ensnared by time and weeds out in the back blocks. Interestingly, most of those cars have disappeared with the passage of yet more time.
Mulling on this point prompted me to go through scenes that had captivated me over 45 years on the road, an epitaph of sorts of earlier times, when these cars arrived at their final resting spot. I’d also capture those on their last legs, supposedly still operational and snapped curbside. I’ll also include a few snaps from my overseas junkets in Cuba, Buenos Aires and other locales.

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.