OLD IRON
What connects an REO truck, racehorse Phar Lap and Opotiki? Well, when I was a young boy in the early 1940s I ‘acquired’ a beautiful enamel REO radiator badge off one of Rip Reece’s old trucks. In the 1970s I was a foundation member of the Australian REO Truck Club and I was friends with the club president Michael Kerrigan. After one visit to the club in Australia, I received a letter from him with a drawing of a REO radiator badge. He had purchased an old REO horse float….but it was minus the badge. On the next trip over I gave my REO badge to him. In the 1980s Michael was contacted by a film company asking if his horse float was available for a movie. A deal was struck, and they tidied the float up and painted it. Michael went to a practice run the day before the actual filming of that section of The Phar Lap Story.
REO a Kiwi hit Story & Photos: Gavin Abbot
HE REO MARQUE HAS MANY CONNECTIONS with the New Zealand transport industry. Best known for its REO Speedwagon truck from 1915 (and not to be confused with the Illinois rock band popular in the `70s and `80s), REO Motors’ history is connected to brands including Oldsmobile, Mack, White and Diamond T. The REO name continued into the 1970s on Diamond REO trucks but the heyday for brand was before World War 2 – a time when REO trucks and buses were regularly seen on NZ roads. REO Trucks were very popular in NZ in the 1930s and 1940s. They had a good range of models, and many were converted to six-wheelers with a trailing axle fitted. They also had branches in the main centres and were supported by country agents. Company founder Ransom Eli Olds was born in Geneva, Ohio in 1864. His family then moved to Lansing, Michigan, where his father started a machine shop. Ransom developed a steam engine, later switching to
Above: A pair of heavily laden REOs working alongside a Ford V8 for Onga Onga Transport. Below: 1929 REO Speedwagon horse float, as used in the Phar Lap film. Owned by Michael Kerrigan.
Truck & Driver | 81
