Mild-mannered street car during the week, smoke-billowing race car on the weekends.

Rooted… would be the best way to describe how this 1969 RS/SS Camaro was when it came into Tristan Teki’s possession. But since it was an RS/SS and since the seller was a good mate who was willing to do a deal on it, an agreement was made and it soon changed hands.

Tristan has been playing with cars for as long as he can remember, and in his time he’s owned more old Holdens than he’d care to think about. Over the years he’s taught himself how to do pretty much everything car-related. From panelwork to fabrication to mechanical work, he can do the lot, and generally does so along with help from various mates. And since he’d developed the skills required to turn a car from a rust bucket to a race car, that’s exactly what he decided to do.

With help from fellow Wanganui Road Rodders member Dean Scott, the rusted-out floors were chopped out and new ones stitched in. Along with this came the replacement of both rear quarters, the rear valance panel and both doors. As if that wasn’t enough to put most people off, the panels that weren’t rusted out were dented, so not a single panel could be left untouched.  (more…)

At first the Hooper family’s Ford Bonus may look like a cool truck. Peer closely and you’ll find it’s in a class of its own.

At events like Americarna, Beach Hop or Muscle Car Madness, it can be hard for a car to stand out. Always at these occasions there ends up being more than 1000 cars in attendance, and often they’re all parked in a field or reserve where they can easily blend into one another.

For every feature car we find, there’s probably a handful we don’t get a chance to see, or that we just plain miss. Doug and Gillian Hooper’s Ford Bonus truck was not one of those.

It Gets Better

From the moment we first laid eyes on the rear end of the Bonus, we knew it was good. However, it wasn’t until we walked around the front, taking a peek through the side window on the way, that we knew we had to get it into NZV8.

Having a fantastic-looking engine bay helped the cause, but to be honest, we were too busy admiring the detail to notice that the distributor was at the wrong end of the motor. Yep, this Ford is powered by a Chev… and a damn cool one at that. (more…)