New Zealand Classic Car – Issue 351 on sale now

26 February, 2020

 

 

The latest issue of New Zealand Classic Car has just hit the shelves. 

With over 100 hundred pages on offer, this issue has something for everyone, providing you have a certain passion for gorgeous French classics. The phrase, ‘a picture tells a thousand words’, is perfectly suited to this month’s cover. Two stunning Renault Alpines with so much in common, despite the 47 year age gap, but in a way couldn’t be more further apart. We take to the streets in these two stunners and reveal what’s under the skin of both these beauties.

Carrying on with our French theme, we belatedly celebrate 100 years of Citroën with an old favourite, the Citroën DS 23 Pallas. The curvaceous shape and lines of this distinctive and beautiful French icon was the perfect recipe for it to be voted the most beautiful car ever by a well known international magazine back in 2009. 

If French styling isn’t your cup of tea then don’t despair, there is plenty of great content including 100 years of Mazda and Donn Anderson takes us back three decades to when he was taken for a ride in piece of automotive history, a genuine Ford GT40. Michael Clark catches up with our very own drag racing legend, Garth Hogan, for part two of his great accomplishments over the decades and we take a look at the eight cars that were displayed at the first exhibition concerned with the aesthetics of motor car design plus much, much more.

Get yours in store now or delivered to your door from magstore.nz – New Zealand Classic Car – Issue 351.

The other Q car

Say the word ‘bond’ to anyone in the street and around 80 per cent straight away think of pop culture’s least-secret secret agent. The other 20 per cent may think of the wad of cash required to secure a flat or hire equipment that one gets back providing the fixtures and fittings stay much as they were.
However, mention ‘bond’ in specialist classic car circles and people will spin a very different yarn. If you dig deep enough, you will find an eccentric British carmaker that, throughout its 23 years in business, spawned some quirky and charming little cars.
The company was founded by Paul Sharp in 1922 under the name of Sharp’s Commercials Limited. However, the company did not start producing cars until 1948. The first car to carry the Bond name was the Bond Minicar. A three-wheeled, soft-top, two-cylinder eco car, the Minicar was a big hit at the time as the desire for an economical urban runabout that didn’t attract four-wheel car tax was strong in post-war Britain. All in all, 34,285 Minicars were produced over 26 years in a variety of variants.

Lunch with Bill Leckie: An Imp’s tale

Seeking limelight is part of Bill Leckie’s DNA, but when I asked him if anyone had written about his career and the cars he created, he didn’t think so. Even so, I was delighted when he agreed to sit down with me over a pie and coffee to reminisce. I started by asking how it is that someone who is so fanatical about F1 only ever raced saloon cars? Well, we’ll get to that, but where did things start? “I went to Cornwall Park Primary School and then to Remuera Intermediate where I became good mates with Geoff Perry, son of the legendary motorcycle racing legend Len.” Geoff Perry was 23 and on the edge of stardom when he was killed in a mystery air disaster over the Pacific in 1973. “We used to race around his backyard on a cutdown motorbike. It was friendly competition that I suppose helped hone our racing instincts. There was never much between us and so, by 11 or 12, I had a definite leaning towards speed.”