The Book of the Ford Thunderbird from 1954 by Brian Long (Veloce)

Surely one of the most attractive US cars since WWII, the original two-seater Ford Thunderbird was produced from 1954 to ’57 and immortalised in American Graffiti.

Over four million Thunderbirds were sold in total, and reading about the various versions in this excellent book is almost like a tour through US car styling of the past 40 years. Thunderbirds won Car of the Year awards a few times, many of the models were well written-up by US magazines, and the racing versions did well in NASCAR for a good few seasons.

This is the most comprehensive book, with hundreds of photos and lots of reprinted brochures (including some fascinating ones from Japan, where the author now lives). Long also fits each year’s Thunderbird into US auto market developments at the time.

If you have or want to own or restore a ’Bird, there’s every detail change for each year — including paint and upholstery colours. Well written and well illustrated, this is how a model ‘autobiography’ should be presented.

Review by Mark Holman

Everyday Classic 1954 Ford Zephyr MK1 – Black Magic – 154

Ford’s all new Zephyr model of the 1950s was a pioneering family car from Ford of England. Tim rides in a lovely, black, no frills example restored near New Plymouth in another celebration of Ford’s 100th anniversary

Post war cars in Britain were reheated or dusted down versions of pre-World War II models, and for the great Ford Motor Company it was no exception.

Then came the Zephyr. That exotic Z word, once mainly heard only in yachting, was to become etched on the consciousness of not only Ford fans but the driving populace of the British Empire, from Dagenham and Dorchester to Dannevirke and Dargaville!

We are so used to the common Zephyr name stitched into classic motoring’s unfolding tapestry that we sometimes forget how revolutionary the MkI Ford Zephyr was. After the highriding V8 Ford Pilot and the so called sit-up-andbeg Prefects, the Ford Zephyr’s arrival in 1950 spearheaded new Ford technology.

1968 Ford Mustang GT500KR – Snake’s Alive – 154

With their point well and truly proven in road racing, utilising the Shelby Mustangs, the Ford Motor Company changed tack a little for 1968. Its focus went, with all eight ‘guns’ blazing, to the drag racers and the street racers whose requirements varied somewhat, but whose bottom line shared a desire for power. That power could be had in air conditioned comfort in the Shelby GT500KR. It was a fairytale come true

Shelby the name, Shelby the car; what was the formula that created such a legend? Was it all hype, or was it all fact? Was it a man riding on corporate funds to build his own motoring reputation? Or was it perhaps a corporation riding on one man’s ability to deliver what its own engineers could not? Whatever the situation, Carroll Shelby wasn’t the type to toe the party line, he was an individualist, one who was determined to finish a job properly, to complete any task assigned to him and not be afraid to soil his hands along the way. Corporate funds merely fed the man’s necessities.

This lanky Texan, the son of a US postal worker, had proven fairly early on in his racing career that you could take it to the big guns and win.

His road racing career began in an MG, of all things, but as his talent began to attract the attention of race car owners much faster rides came his way, among them a Cad-Allard in 1953. The name came from the Cadillac engine in a Sidney Allard car, a machine capable of around 241kph (150mph) on the straight.

1914 Ford Model T – Henrietta Ford? – 187

Penn meets up with a quietly competent Model T owner and previews the Horseless Carriage Club’s upcoming re-enactment of the 1917 Parliamentary Tour.

Beverley Oliver is a rare woman — a Model T owner and driver, a state that she’s enjoyed for 20 years and will likely enjoy for another 20. She’s not one of your nominal owners; she uses her car regularly. In fact, she actually drives the car from Wellington to Auckland several times a year and can usually be found (in period costume) on some event or other behind the wheel of her very pretty little 1914 two—seater Model T.

You need a 40 acre paddock and half a day to master the techniques to manipulate the foot pedals

Beverley shames me because I have never driven a Model T, maintaining that you need a 40 acre paddock and half a day to master the techniques to manipulate the foot pedals, brakes and throttle lever (and on a wet day, a third hand to swing the manual windscreen wiper). As I get older, I get less inclined — or able — to multi—task.

The two hobbies I’ve enjoyed most in my life are old cars and women (of any age). I’ve tended to grade a woman’s interest in me by the interest in old cars she feigns when ‘chatting’ to me. Let’s face it, if God had meant women to be petrol heads, we’d maybe have had somebody called Henrietta Ford lead the charge.

Still, there are a few women heavily into cars and they are invariably interesting and able. I give you the terror of the Waitemata Vintage Car Club, Dianne Humphries — able, outgoing and a great petrol head. Very feminine, too.

Paul Fahey’s Alan Mann Ford Escort – 180

Paul Fahey raced a lot of cars during his very successful career. He may have started out with a VW Beetle in 1961, but he was a Ford guy through and through,

Words: Steve Holmes Photos: Terry Marshall

Fahey raced just about every variation of Ford product during his career, from one of the first Lotus Cortinas imported into New Zealand, to a Lotus-powered Anglia, a Shelby Mustang, a fastback Boss Mustang, and finally, a Capri RS2600 during the last chapter of his racing career. However, his favourite race car was none of the above. It was the little white Escort he acquired from Alan Mann Racing in 1969.

Fahey demonstrated that he had the ability to win in virtually any car

By 1969, the number of competitors arming themselves with V8 machinery in New Zealand saloon car warfare was on the increase. At a time when development of the small block V8 was still in its relative infancy, finding power proved a little easier than finding reliability. But following the V8 path made sense. Parts were easily attainable, reasonably priced, and potential was seemingly unlimited.

However, Paul Fahey chose to buck against the trend. He sold his successful Shelby-built Mustang, and purchased himself an Alan Mann Racing Escort T/C. But why take a seemingly backwards step, when clearly all the evidence proved running a V8 was the only obvious way forward? Two reasons. Firstly, despite the growing number of V8 tin-tops appearing on the local scene, none of them were as well developed, as fast, or as consistently reliable as Fahey’s Mustang. Read the rest of this entry »

1936 Ford V8 Pickup – Classic Workhorse – 177

Words & Photos – Tim Chadwick

Tim Chadwick goes for a pleasant drive in a vintage flathead Ford still used as an everyday jobber for a New Plymouth crane hire firm

Back in the late ’90s, a service station attendant at my local garage told me, “Watch out, those old flathead Ford V8s can get up and go!” He was issuing me instructions on how to drive a vintage Ford V8 and reminiscing about hot rods at a time when I was due to depart and collect a ’38 Ford V8 from the Picton Ferry and drive it up to Taranaki.

Back then I thoroughly enjoyed the long drive up to the ’Naki, and came to enjoy the torque, sound, and smooth workings of the original Ford V8 flathead engine. Since then I hadn’t set foot or backside in another original old style Ford V8 until the opportunity presented itself to test drive the everyday jobbing 1936 Ford V8 wellside ute — or pickup — operated by Ian Roebuck Crane Hire from Waiwakaiho, on the outskirts of New Plymouth. The Roebuck company utilises some very heavy duty equipment and cranes servicing a variety of applications from building contracts to salvage work, and for the oil industry and beyond. One photograph on the Roebuck office wall even shows an aeroplane being craned by one of its machines.

Yet, alongside the heavy lifters, the everyday runabout parked outside the busy offices of the crane hire firm is a utilitarian Ford V8 which hasn’t been glamorised or ‘warmed up’. It is a breathing example of how Ford’s basic workhorse looked, smelled and sounded in the pre-war years, through the services of wartime, and then in the post-war years when the world was getting back on its feet. A wide range of tradesmen relied on trucks like the Ford V8 to perform regular reliable duties. Read the rest of this entry »