Kiwi Ingenuity: Southward's Collection of NZ built vehicles

Welcome to a special feature that we have been working on. This past week, we have travelled to the Southward's Car Museum to check out their awesome stash of rare and legendary automobiles and to uncover the small cache of original, NZ home built cars that are part of the collection.

We start our tour with a very special rat rod that was actually built by the team at Southwards. It is based on a Lincoln Zephyr V12 and is built from spare parts.

The rat truck is powered by a flathead Lincoln Zephyr V12 that from memory produced around 130 BHP in this form. (Sorry for the editing, people kept getting in the damn shot! :) )

The interior is also delightfully ratish with the use of a chain steering wheel, aluminium dashboard and a rough leather seat.

The vehicle has quite an imposing stance when viewed from the front with its huge rusty grille and wide wheel track.

Next up is a really weird and strangely styled car called the "Turosar".

The strange styling theme carries on in the interior with the use of a Mazda RX4 steering wheel, odd gauges on the dashboard and a really funky colour scheme. Also there were some really odd hexagonal louvers across the rear window.

This is one of my personal favourites, the Purvis Eureka. It is based off the Nova kit car that was designed in England and is designed to be built with a Volkswagen chassis and Volkswagen or Mazda Rotary engines.

This particular model is called the PL30 and was produced from 1975 to 1976.

The cars angular styling totally fits in with its 70's origins, along with that awesome sliding roof.

The interior is quite basic but also functional and stylish with extra deep bucket seats, wood grain dashboard and deep dish steering wheel.

Even the badge is stylish!

This Can-am style car is called the Taipan. It is also based on a Volkswagen chassis and engine just like the Purvis Eureka next to it. Only 47 were produced overall which makes this quite a rare car.

Curiously, the RPM gauge is placed near the gear shifter and not on the dashboard.

Next to the Taipan was this beach buggy that looks ready to hit the sand with surf boards on the back.

The buggy is also rather minimalistic but doesn't have to be full of gadgets if you are having fun simply just driving it.

Yes, that is a Mcdonald's branded Volkswagen Beetle!

This interesting wee car was part car, part wicker basket.

The whole cockpit was surrounded by wicker weave which added a unique style and distinctively Kiwi touch to the car.

This car is called the T Car. It is a highly accurate replica of a MG TF sports car and is based on mainly Mazda MX5 or Toyota drivetrains. These cool little cars are the best selling kit car in NZ with many being produced since 1983.

Last but not least is this New Zealand version of the Land Rover which is called the Trekka. It is an original design that utilises a robust Skoda built engine. There aren't too many of these around but they are a neat Kiwi made vehicle.

That concludes Part One of our Southward's feature. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming next week!!!