Attitude Problem THE IDEA WAS TO BUILD SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT AND TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX — THE REBIRTH OF THE MUSTANG PROVIDED A PERFECT PLATFORM FOR JASON AND HIS TEAM TO HAVE A BIT OF A PLAY WITH WORDS: SHANE WISHNOWSKY PHOTOS: GLEN MCNAMARA ason Hansen’s philosophy at his company, Autocolour Matrix, is to think outside the box and build stuff a little differently. When it was announced that the Mustang was to be sold brand new in New Zealand, with the steering wheel on the correct side of the car for our roads, Jason’s mind started wandering. There was no doubt that the marque was popular worldwide, but he likened them to a “packet of jelly beans: there were heaps of them, but they all looked exactly the same, apart from the colour.” His company is a bit lucky when it came to building cars. Its specialty is building one-off fullcustom vehicles, therefore his team possessed the necessary skills and equipment to transform the humble pony car into something a bit more ‘yeah’ and a lot less ‘nah’. They had just finished piecing together a latemodel Mazda RX-7 and attached a Rocket Bunny kit to the exterior of the Japanese coupe. Jason was pretty impressed with the quality and fit of the bodykit, and he just loved the tough look achieved. He approached good friend Dean Hewetson, who he’s built a couple of cars for in the past. Dean had overseas connections, and one of his friends just happened to know Cory from another Japanese bodykit powerhouse: Liberty Walk’s US branch. This is a company known for its radical reworkings of modern high-end cars, so who better to approach?
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Auto Channel Issue #40 October 2021