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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

Motorsport Flashback –The right racing recipes, and cake

17 September, 2025

If a top-fuel dragster sits atop the horsepower list of open-wheel racing cars, then cars designed for the massively successful Formula Ford category are close to the opposite end. Invented in the mid-1960s as a cheap alternative to F3 for racing schools, the concept was staggeringly simple: introduce the Ford Kent pushrod to a spaceframe chassis; keep engine modifications to a minimum; same tyres for all; ban aerodynamic appendages; and you get the most phenomenally successful single-seater class of racing car the world has ever seen.
The first-ever race for these 1600cc mini-GP cars took place in England in July 1967, but it quickly took off. The US and Australia were among the earliest adopters. It took us a little longer because we had the much-loved National Formula, comprising predominantly Brabhams, Ken Smith’s Lotus, and Graham McRae’s gorgeous self-built cars, all powered by the Lotus-Ford twin-cam. After a memorable championship in 1968/69 the class was nearly on its knees a year later. The quality was still there with Smith winning his national title, just, from McRae, but the numbers had fallen. Formula Ford was the obvious replacement and was introduced for the 1970/71 season as ‘Formula C’.

Angela’s ashes

28 August, 2025

In November 2018, Howard Anderson had a dream of finding a 1964 Vauxhall PB Cresta to recreate the car he, his wife, Ruth, and three friends travelled in from London to Invercargill in 1969. The next night’s dream was a nightmare. He dreamed he would find the original Angela but it was a rusted wreck somewhere in Southland.
Howard’s inspiration came from reading about a driver in the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon who was reunited with his Vauxhall Ventora 50 years later. He, Ruth, and her parents had watched the start of the rally from Crystal Palace in South London. The fashion at the time among the rally and race set was to paint bonnets flat black to avoid the sun’s reflections flashing into the driver’s eyes, thus saving them from certain disaster. Howard admired the flat black bonnet on the Ventora so much he had Angela’s bonnet painted dull black.