NZCC #343 PREVIEW

A N A E R O - P O W E R E D R A C E R — T H E LY C O M I N G S P E C I A L

FORD

MUSCLE GARAGE SUNDAYS ON

ISSUE 343 $10.99 INCL. GST JULY 2019

themotorhood.com

BENTLEY 100 YEARS

100E PREFECT

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME ROLLS-ROYCE MERLIN 12 CYLINDERS, 1 1 9 3 K I L O W AT T S

CHEVELLE SS

U LT I M AT E STREET MACHINE

PORSCHE 959 — MOTORMAN LOOKS AT A 30 -YEAR- OLD SUPERCAR

CONTENTS

343 JULY 2019

FEATURES

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6 100E FORD PREFECT

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FROM DAGENHAM, ESSEX, TO THE UTMOST PARTS OF THE EARTH

14 NSU RO 80

A NOT-SO-PERFECT GERMAN

22 BENTLEY

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NOW 100 YEARS OLD

32 LYCOMING SPECIAL 50 YEARS LATER AND STILL FLYING

40 THE ROLLS-ROYCE MERLIN

THE MOTOR THAT FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM

46 JPS BMW

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL NOISE

48 LUNCH WITH BILL GAVIN “THE MAN WITH THE INTERESTING LIFE”

78 HONDA DREAM AND BENLY

THE QUIRKY PAIR THAT HELPED TO CHANGE MOTORCYCLING

84 CHEVELLE SS

STRAIGHT OUTTA DETROIT

92 THE BEETLE

ALMOST ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST

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CONTENTS

343 JULY 2019

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COLUMNS

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MOTOR SPORT FLASHBACK KITS AND PIECES MOTORMAN PRICE ON

EVENTS 104 TARGA HAWKES BAY REPORT 107 PORK PIE CHARITY RUN

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FEATURE 1962 100E Popular

F I V E-S T A R MOTORING FOR THE MASSES

T H E F O R D 1 0 0 E W A S N ’ T E X A C T LY A ‘£5 POM’ BUT LOTS OF THEM DROVE ONE Words: Kevin Shaw Photos: Adam Croy

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FEATURE 1972 NSU R0 80

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His dad was invited to drive it. Mark remembers his ot everyone appreciates an NSU, apparently. uncle slapping his dad’s hand away from the gear lever Owner Mark Crompton says that when whenever he tried to rest his hand on it in the usual he turns up among a group of classic car style (putting your hand on the gear lever engages the enthusiasts with his Ro 80, he’s as likely to electric clutch). be greeted with sorrowful shakes of the head The car bristles with unusual features. It has rack-andand comments like, “Why would you?” and “Oh dear!” as pinion steering, rare at the time, with hydraulic assistance. often as smiles of recognition.

It has inboard front brakes and discs all round. It has an It seems that the Ro 80’s reputation for being brilliant early Bosch capacitor discharge ignition (CDI) for its two but flawed — and likely to disgrace itself in the engine spark plugs — it produced such a fat spark that NSU did department — remains as robust, and unfair, as ever. away with the twin-spark arrangement from the earlier True, NSU’s revolutionary rotary engine was less engine. It has luxury items such as intermittent wipers and developed than Mazda’s later efforts, and its first iteration hazard flashers. It has tons of space in the back. There are was prone to failure before 100,000km (60,000 miles). If big soft velour front chairs designed by Recaro, and what the cars weren’t operated properly, the tips on the Wankel can only be described as a sofa in the back. Exterior trim is engine’s twin rotors would wear out fast, but that fault was anodized aluminium around the windows, and the slender fixed in the second year of production. Cars from 1969 bumpers are stainless steel. onwards had titanium tips, which completely solved the The Ro 80 has a torque mechanical problem, if not the converter between the engine reputational one.

AS THE PRICE OF and its three-speed gearbox, Mark says the only actual which has an electrically ‘problem’ with his 1972 Ro 80 CLASSIC MAZDA switched servo clutch. It has a is that it really needs a couple R O TA R I E S C L I M B S long-throw gear lever but only of minutes to warm up. And two pedals. Grab the gear lever, that’s it.

T H R O U G H S I X F I G U R E S , and the servo disengages the “The engine’s never been clutch. Select the new gear, apart. It’s done 75,000 miles W E TA K E A L O O K AT release the handle, and the [120,000km], and it’s going H O W C L O S E A R O T A R Y - new gear is engaged. Porsche well,” he says. fitted the same unit, which POWERED SALOON they called ‘Sportmatic’, to Ahead of its time some 911s.

In many ways, Ro 80s make C A M E T O C R E AT I N G A great classics. Purely from a NEW WORLD ORDER design point of view, the shape An oddball arrangement is stylish and distinctive. Its Meanwhile, the torque high-tailed wedge profile was converter covers the gap designed by Claus Luthe, who went on to design Audis between the wide-spaced gears. Need more power, and the equally timeless BMW E30, and influenced but you’re in the wrong gear? Just mash the pedal and car design to this day. The design remained the same the torque converter will sort it out. It’s an oddball throughout the car’s 10 years of production. arrangement, which Mark thinks was designed to hide the The rotary engine made for a low nose. NSU was among problems caused by low torque at low engine speeds — a the first to pay serious attention to aerodynamics, and the problem that NSU made for itself by using peripheral cars are wonderfully stable on the autobahn, a key design porting and fitting a restrictive exhaust to tame the criterion for big German saloons. The distinctive sixboisterous engine’s unseemly pops and gurgles. light windows, which Audi later adopted as a design cue, “Originally, it was very quiet. If you listened carefully, and slim pillars make for a very airy and pleasant cabin. you could hear the odd crackle and pop, but they Interestingly, the bodies don’t have a straight line on them. sacrificed a fair bit of power,” Mark says.

When Mark’s uncle turned up in one — this very car, The Ro 80 was intended to compete with BMWs and in fact — at his parents’ house when he was young, it Mercedes, and fair outshone other marques’ offerings at looked like a spaceship had landed. Mark can remember that time — let alone Mark’s parents’ old Vauxhall Velox walking around it, drinking in every detail. At the time, and Standard Ten. Its marketing slogan played up this any new car was a wonder, but this was like nothing he technical excellence: “Vorsprung durch technik”. Sound had ever seen. familiar? The six-light design wasn’t the only thing that “He bought in new in 1972. He lived in the Waitakeres, Audi adopted from NSU. (Audi also took its four-ring logo and I remember rattling around Scenic Drive in the back from Auto Union!) at great pace. I loved it,” Mark recalls.

NSU made its name with motorbikes, but its car

14 New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com

TECHNIK TOO FAR Words: Ian Parkes Photos: Adam Croy

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FEATURE Lycoming Special

THE ICONIC LY C O MIN G AN ENDURING KIWI SPECIAL

32 New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com

R A L P H WAT S O N ’ S E N G I N E E R I N G TA L E N T S E N S U R E D T H AT T H E A I R C R A F T- E N G I N E D LY C O M I N G W A S A L W AY S GOING TO BE A SPECIAL SPECIAL. DONN ANDERSON BACKG ROU N DS A REMARK ABLE MACHINE Words: Donn Anderson Photos: Quinton Taylor / Jack Inwood

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rom the moment you saw the silver Lycoming Special in the paddock, on the entry list of a North Island hill climb, at a car club grass track, or at sprint speed events, you knew that the result was a fait accompli. While predictable but never boring, the late Jim Boyd’s skilful and often spectacular handling of this ingenious New Zealand creation would inevitably result in fastest time of day.

Fabulous and memorable In 1972, Boyd described the Lycoming as fabulous and his most memorable car. Boyd’s four-year ownership began in 1963, yet this was a story that began in the early ’50s, when talented Auckland engineer Ralph Watson came up with the idea of designing a front-engined Special around a 290-cubic-inch, or 4733cc, flat-four Lycoming aircraft engine — a power unit described by Watson as sounding like “a team of panel beaters working in rhythm”.

This was a car that would chalk up a remarkable competition career, including two national sports car titles, three New Zealand hill-climb championships, and three Ken Wharton Memorial trophies.

On a dusty, windy February day in 1965, Boyd came home a surprise winner of the Dunedin Gold Star street race, pounding the Lycoming around the rugged railway circuit, at times with two of its wheels off the ground.

Driving the oldest car in the race, he finished nearly two seconds in front of John Riley’s 2.7-litre Lotus 18/21 Climax Formula 1 open-wheeler.

Boyd proved the versatility and flexibility of this special space-frame, aluminium-bodied machine during his tenure, simply driving the car to race meetings and other speed events. He loved the car’s wide torque range and versatility.

Recording 219kph on the tricky Ryal Bush road circuit in Southland in 1957 with Watson at the wheel, the car was later timed at 212kph at Ardmore, with the motor spinning at 3600 revs and, on the back straight at Pukekohe, an impressive 240kph was achieved.

A terrific cruiser Here was a racer with Morris Minor rack-and-pinion steering that was light and quick, with just one-and-a-bit turns from lock to lock and an easily detachable Watsondesigned steering column with adjustable rake.

The modified over-square aero engine developed its 225hp (168kW) at a modest 2600rpm, and Boyd recalled that, with road speed varying from 60kph to 72kph for every 1000rpm — according to gearing — the car was a “terrific cruiser”. themotorhood.com | New Zealand Classic Car

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MOTORMAN

Words and photos: Donn Anderson

CELEBRATING THE AMAZING

PORSCHE

959

PORSCHE’S LEGENDARY 959 W A S A I M E D AT R E D E F I N I N G T H E S P O R T S C A R .

DONN ANDERSON RECALLS EXPERIENCING A R ARE EX AMPLE IN AUCKL AND 30 YEARS AGO

70 New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com

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hree decades on, and lovers of fine cars still marvel at the technological triumph that was the Porsche 959, one of the greatest cars of the modern era. A rare masterpiece, this jewel in the crown of Porsche was so far ahead of its time, it was almost surreal.

On an autumn morning in Auckland in 1989, I was with the late Trevor Hudson in a red 959 with matching red interior, the only one of its kind in New Zealand at the time. A cancelled order bearing chassis number 241 and one of the last to be built, this 959 was bound for the Middle East, and Porsche distributor Colin Giltrap was able to have the car diverted to our shores.

Hudson could trace his motor-industry experience back to 1947, working as a young lad in his dad’s Austin franchise dealership in Levin. He moved to Auckland 20 years later and began working for Ross Jensen’s BMW dealership, before his appointment as managing director of European Motor Distributors in 1980, handling the VW, Audi, and Porsche brands. His long-time special love of Porsche was obvious as he introduced me to the 959.

It was early morning on Auckland’s waterfront Tamaki Drive, long before commuters had begun wending their way towards the city in their anonymous tin boxes, and the 959 was quick to cast its spell. Such was the occasion that we could scarcely contemplate the estimated landed cost in New Zealand of $750K — easily enough to buy three reasonably nice homes in Auckland in 1989, the same year that the nation’s housing costs took off and started a massive intergenerational wealth transfer.

The Giltrap car had already driven some of the roads in Europe, from the Porsche home in Germany to Paris and London, before being sent to New Zealand.

Never a financial success The 959 was never a financial success for Porsche, despite the ex-factory retail of DM420,000. Its development took far longer than expected, so much so that the factory retail was dramatically underpriced. Porsche would lose money on each and every one of the 292 examples (all left-hand drive) built between 1987 and 1988, unlike the lucky owners, who would inevitably profit handsomely should they ever sell their treasures. Thirty years ago, we were already predicting second-hand prices topping a million dollars. Little wonder that a further eight 959s would be assembled from spare parts four years after production ended.

Today, international prices — all calculated here in approximate New Zealand dollars — range between $1.36M and $1.45M, and Sothebys recently sold an Arizona-based 959 with 9000 miles on the clock for $1.7M. Another 1987 example in the US, showing 3500 miles, went for $1.9M, and one of the highest asking prices was $2.5M for a 21,000km 959 in Australia last year. Little wonder that owners have made a habit of flipping the cars, often after hardly driving them.

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A N A E R O - P O W E R E D R A C E R — T H E LY C O M I N G S P E C I A L

ISSUE 343

FORD

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

MUSCLE GARAGE

JULY 2019

themotorhood.com

BENTLEY 100 YEARS

100E PREFECT

ROLLS-ROYCE MERLIN 12 CYLINDERS, 1 1 9 3 K I L O W AT T S

CHEVELLE SS

U LT I M AT E STREET MACHINE

PORSCHE 959 — MOTORMAN LOOKS AT A 30 -YEAR- OLD SUPERCAR

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