Seen at the Auto Moto D' Epoca fair at Padova, very nice early car..... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Recently reborn "605" twins... Besides complete mechanical & cosmetic restorations, one even required "corrective surgery" (inside the case) due to a "birth defect" gone ignored since it was first assembled in '72, even though the presence of this "defect" could be felt just about every time the car has been driven. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here are four Daytonas that were in NZ in the early 80s. The photos were all taken at the (then) Wigram Air Force base, in Christchurch, where the annual Lady Wigram Trophy race was held. Apologies for picture quality. I suspect I took them on a 1950s Voigtlander. The blue Daytona was owned by the father of a friend. He paid NZD28,000 for it in around 1979 or 1980. It had a broken clutch. The vendor was Monaco Motors. He sold it to a UK buyer in the mid-80s for NZD300,000. The red plexi Daytona was for sale in Dunedin in 1979 for NZD30,000. I tried to talk my grandfather into buying it as an investment. It was bought by a Christchurch businessman who was driving it in the photo, taken during the supercar challenge at the 1983 Lady Wigram Trophy Race weekend. It or another was sold to an Australian buyer via Gavin Bain's Fazzaz in 2010 for NZD400,000. (A newer Daytona was offered for sale more recently by the local Ferrari dealer for NZD1.6m.) I have no information on the brown or green Daytonas in the photo. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
These cars were photographed at the Christie's International Festival at Silverstone in July 1992. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks Mike. As a life long vintage car/all-things-mechanical enthusiast and "professional" restorer of them, I enjoy viewing, working on and photo-documenting (and at times, sharing) details of their "inner beauty" not easily detectable in fully assembled vehicles. I actually have 10s of thousands of these type of photos I've shot of my work in past 25+ years. My clients get copies of many taken of their respective cars and/or components while in my care.
Here's the Plexi Daytona for sale at Fazzaz in Christchurch (photos taken 2008). It has a different registration plate to the one in the 1983 photograph. Based on the registration details this was first registered in NZ in late 1971 or 1972 It is a 1970 model and s/n 12841. It had 59000 miles on it in May 2007, which was probably when it had its last Warrant of Fitness check in NZ, before being sold to Australia. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Google is a wonderful thing... Here's another Plexi Daytona that appears still to be in NZ. It still has its original registration. It was first owned by Christchurch businessman, Bruce Bellis. I recall seeing the car being chased by a traffic police car north of Christchurch in the mid-70s. S/N 13783. It had 64,000 miles on it in April 2015. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great photos SAB. Thanks for posting. I think the brown one may be 14881 The green one I am much less sure about but it may be 17609 before it was turned into a comp. car.
I have 17611 as being sold to NZ in 1980, I have it as blue but with black interior, the interior in the car in your photo looks much lighter, do you have any more photos of these cars as it may help?
Not sure of the event, but it would have been in July. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There was a small shop in Henderson, Auckland that were restoring at least 2 Daytonas around about 1985. Also one went through the inside fence at Pukekohe's very fast Champion corner. I believe it ended up with fence posts up through the floor. I left the event (do not remember what the event was but think it was a drive what you brung day. There was no races) before this happened but this car and a 246 Dino were having lots of fun before this accident. Pete
Interesting but no idea. From memory it was in one of the side streets off Henderson Valley Road. Of course it could have relocated and we are talking ~30 years ago! Pete
Found some old pictures... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I have to agree, Bill. I took the shot yesterday, among others, for more technical (suspension "ride height") reference reasons, but later, while on hold on the phone, briefly experimented with some photo editing...
Thanks Grant. At times it sure feels like it, especially like last year, when I had 3 in the shop simultaneously to be worked on or similar occasion few years ago depicted in my "avatar" image. Currently only 2, but along with couple of other make/model (vintage) projects seem enough to keep this, mostly one-man "factory", busy. To complicate things, I prefer to (and my clients seem to insist I) do almost everything in-house and myself. Today I'm aiming to finish a 3rd convertible top replacement on a 1957 DeSoto Adventurer (1 of 300 made) after attempts by two highly recommended/regarded L.A. area trim shops failed to deliver desired results, even without any financial or timing constraints imposed on them. Monday I hope to install one of the "completely restored" (by yours truly) Daytona transaxles shown in an earlier posts on this thread, maybe even get to test drive it (@140+ mph ? ;-) later next week. Image Unavailable, Please Login
