2009 Nissan R35 GT-R Premium – A Supercar to the Snow – 238

Allan takes off in Nissan’s GT-R supercar – his destination; the world-famous Chateau at Tongariro.

Around 16 years ago, I found myself at the wheel of a 1966 Prince Skyline 2000GT-A, one of the first of the truly hot Skylines. By today’s high-performance standards, the 2000GT-A wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows and yet, in mildly modified race-spec, this type of Skyline dominated the Japanese racing scene of the mid ’60s. Indeed, the Skyline GT’s development programme would eventually lead to the semi-legendary R380. Powered by a twin-cam, 24-valve version of the Skyline GT’s straight-six, the R380 was capable of reaching a maximum speed of 280kph (174mph).

However, even as Prince worked to develop its new sports racer, fate stepped in and, in late 1966, Prince merged with Nissan. The next evolution of the R380 – the R380-II – would carry Nissan badges when it appeared at the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix, which at that time was not a genuine, FIA-sanctioned F1 event. Later, the R380-III would also be developed by Nissan. The R380-III was intended to run with a new, quad-cam V12, but initially Chevrolet V8s were used until Nissan finalized its V12.

When the 5.9-litre V12-powered version finally came together, the car was renamed R382 – and with around 447kW at its disposal, the R382 was supposedly capable of attaining a top speed of around 350kph. Read the rest of this entry »

Mid Winter Break in the Porsche Cayman S – 236

NZ Classic Car’s editorial team take a break, size up some future feature ideas, sample the fare offered at the Formosa Golf Club and, just for good measure, road-test a Porsche Cayman S

During the course of the working year, NZ Classic Car’s lead editorial team (all two of us) don’t often get a chance to relax and take a breather – from the moment we start work on the first issue of the year the copy, production and print deadlines pile up on top of each other leaving little room for idle reflection. As I discovered when I took over the Deputy Editor’s reins from Tim Nevinson, the job is definitely of the 24/7 variety. Mind you, I’m not complaining (no one would listen anyway) – I mean, there are very fews occupations that allow you to combine a love for classic cars with a regular pay-packet!

However, during a recent round of planning meetings, NZ Classic Car’s loyal and hard-working sales team must’ve felt that the editorial team were looking at little frayed around the edges – not too surprising as we’d been working without a break since the latter half of January. As such, they came up with a scheme which would allow us to take a day off, enjoy a drive in a comfortable, modern sports car and, just to round everything off, they also arranged for us to enjoy lunch at a local luxury golf resort. Typically, of course, we also decided to use the ‘day off’ to visit a few ‘car’ people – a busman’s holiday.

Our day would start, of course, with the picking up of our ‘chosen’ car. Read the rest of this entry »

Kiwi-built Stinger back on track in Europe

Readers with good memories will remember the Stinger as a Kiwi-built, Subaru-powered single-seater built and designed by the late Bob Needham. Originally devised as a cheaper alternative to Formula Ford, alas the Stinger concept was never taken up by local motorsport regulators. Our current Editor, track-tested the Stinger at Pukekohe – as featured in the April 2002 edition of NZ Classic Car.

Before Bob passed away, the one-and-only Stinger accompanied NZCC’s departing Deputy Editor Tim Nevinson, when he departed these shores to return to the UK. Tim demonstrated the Stinger on several occasions in the hope of gaining UK interest – however, nothing presented itself.

Nothing was heard about the Stinger until, just recently, we received an email from two Dutch racing enthusiasts, Matthijs Otto and Leon Reijnen. These two men had acquired the Stinger and were in the throes of bringing it back into shape for track use – and, on May 11^th, the Stinger returned to the race-track during testing at Zolder in Belgium. Read the rest of this entry »

2010 Chevrolet Camaro – Back in Black – 230

Ever since the Transformers movie, Ashley’s wanted to get behind the wheel of a new Camaro — not an easy task with only three examples currently residing in New Zealand .

The Camaro is often referred to as the poor man’s Corvette and, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I’d agree with that sentiment. Today, Generation 1 Camaros rank highly in the muscle car pecking order as far as values are concerned, and have earned their reputation as being amongst some of America’s most precious iron.

So, if you’re a Camaro fan then you can thank Ford. Why? Let me explain.

When Ford introduced its all new Mustang back in 1964, General Motors naively paid minimal attention, but within months of the Mustang’s introduction, and with soaring sales of over 100,000 units in six months (nearly half a million by the end of its first year), GM finally cottoned on to the fact that Americans wanted a genuine four-seater sports car.

The race was now on, big time, for the design team that produced the Corvette, Corvair, and Nova to come up with an answer to the Mustang. Preliminary mock-ups turned out by Chevy’s design team included a two-seat roadster, a fastback and even a station wagon, but they finally settled for a four-seat sport coupe which was also available as a convertible. As it turned out, considering the ‘big’ car standards of the day, the Camaro was actually considered a compact.

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2009 Mercedes-Benz E500 Saloon – Three-Pointed Star Wars – 229

We reckoned Allan wouldn’t have a problem taming the 285kW V8 in Mercedes’ latest E-class saloon — but could he handle all the technology that’s packed into this high-end executive express?

The luxury car market is a real tough one these days, and even the market-leading Germans are having to pull a few extra tricks out of their corporate lederhosen in order to combat the snot-nosed rivals snapping at their ankles. And, for the three-pointed star, it’s been a pretty hard road as they battle against drooping sales, the world recession and well-publicised reliability issues.

However, Mercedes seem to be over the hump and, with the newly released E500 — available in either saloon or coupe form — it has re-ascended the high-tech throne by packing a simply staggering array of equipment into this car. In fact, so long is the E500’s list of standard fitments that Mercedes has eschewed the usual owners’ handbook — instead you get a disc-based interactive handbook.

And you’ll need it too — I only spent a few days in the E500 and barely scratched the surface of the techno-goodies on offer.

And, while techies may savour all the driving (read: nanny) aids on board Mercedes’ latest business class cruiser, I have to say that I was rather underwhelmed by all the buttons, knobs, and dials. I found most of it counter-intuitive — after accidentally pressing a radio reset button, I failed to relocate the FM radio band, and it wasn’t until I realised the satnav had voice control — very handy when you’re on the move — that I finally figured it out.

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Mini Clubman JCW – The Full Works – 224

We recently took the opportunity to spend a day checking out the new John Cooper Works MINI Clubman thanks to the good folk at MINI New Zealand

I was trying to remember the last time I had driven a Mini, I couldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like Minis, it’s more a case of lost opportunity over the past 37 years of driving. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to getting in behind the wheel of a new Clubman as I had spent a fair bit of time with Mini lovers from all over the North Island while gathering information for our special Mini 50th anniversary issue. Plainly, their enthusiasm for the marque had definitely rubbed off on me.

As I was ushered out into the BMW (NZ) parking by Michael Grieve, it was clearly obvious which car I was getting for the day by the Clubman’s JCWORX number plate. Michael explained how enjoyable this car was to drive and, after a few moments spent showing me the finer details, I headed off to try it for myself.

Giant Leap

So many things go through one’s mind when driving a completely unfamiliar car for the first time. You are never too sure what to do first — adjust the stereo to your favourite station, look for the air conditioning controls, have quick look around to see how many people are staring at you or just give it an almighty squirt to see how fast it goes. I found myself reluctantly thinking that this is one seriously cool vehicle — I tried not to, but I couldn’t help myself. After all, I’m a muscle car man — how could I possibly think this way? However, I’m going to tell you here and now; the Clubman worked it’s magic on me. After all, how can 1.5 million people be wrong since 2001 — one small step for BMW, one giant leap for the Mini.

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2009 BMW Z4 – Sporting Heritage – 223

BMW’s latest Z4 might tone down the overly radical looks of its predecessor, but it’s a better car – not least because it’s both more comfortable, and more sporting to drive

BMW are also reducing model complexity at a time when car companies are carefully perusing their bottom line, by introducing a single model with an electrically folding hard-top roof in place of two cars, the Z4 roadster and coupe.

However, an open-topped car can rarely match the dynamic excellence of a roofed one, decapitation reduces stiffness while adding bracing boosts weight. Still, BMW undeniably builds evocative roadsters, all low-slung, with long bonnets and short tails.

BMW’s first, the type 3/15 PS, briefly appeared as a six-cylinder roadster from 1930 — the so-called Wartburg roadster, with its 315/1 successor from 1934.

In 1936 the type 328 Roadster arrived, with 60kW pushing the 830kg car to almost 150kph — insanely fast for the roads of the time.

Perhaps BMW had to pause for thought; the next one arrived two decades later, the 507 V8-engined roadster designed for the US market. Just 253 were built.

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2009 Lotus Elise SC – Blown Away – 222

Lotus has now been playing around with the Elise for years and, despite introducing the S2, the basic car remains essentially unchanged since its debut in 1995. The reason for the subsequent plethora of limited and special edition Elise models is quite obvious — since the death of the top-end Esprit at the start of the millennium, Lotus has virtually become a one-model company. Of course, some may point to the modern day Europa, but even that car could be best described as an upscaled Elise, as it shares the same basic platform. As well, although a fine car in its own right, the Europa never gained a similar impact on public imagination as the innovative Elise. That may all change with the impending arrival of the 2+2 Evora but, until one actually arrives in New Zealand later this year, that remains to be seen.

Supercharging the Elise

The Elise SC was released in the UK last year, but it’s taken until now for an example to find its way to our shores. Presently, this Burnt Orange example is the only SC in New Zealand and, at just under $130,000, the local Lotus agent has no plans to import a second car — unless someone orders one!

That’s a bit of a shame, because the SC is definitely the car I’d pick if I were ever tempted to part with my K Series-powered Elise. Sure, the SC packs on a bit of extra weight over my more basic car — fully laden and with the addition of the Touring Pack, our test SC probably stepped just over the 1000kg mark — but once on the move, you hardly notice the weight difference.

Some time ago, when we road-tested a supercharged Exige, I was entranced by that car’s urge but I was less taken by the fact that the Exige has a roof and a very uncompromising attitude. I prefer open-air sports car driving and, anyway, a fixed roof in an Elise-based car means that you’ve got to be young and flexible to get in and out of it — two characteristics I no longer possess! Add in a suspension set-up more attuned to the race track and the Exige, for me, is just a step too far. So, for my money an open topped, supercharged Elise fitted with more compliant suspension makes a lot more sense — you can enjoy open air driving, the experience is less intimidating and, at the same time, you can revel in the fat torque band provided by the supercharger.

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