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Point Wells resident Warwick Mortimer is fast bringing New Zealand’s motor sporting history back to life with the recent restoration of a Formula One car.
Last month, the 1970s-era vehicle had the final touches put to it, with a full engine and gearbox restoration completed and a quick ‘driveway run’, before it departed for Dubai and then England.
Mortimer is no newcomer to this process, having pieced together cars such as a 1969 Formula 5000 racer and a McLaren Can Am.
This latest project in his Matakana workshop, a 1974 Maki 101, has close ties with the NZ motoring community after being raced by Howden Ganley in the 70s and then at Goodwood in 2014.
“I purchased the car from Japan in 2016 because of its connection with Howden,” Warwick says.
“Since then, I’ve had five guys working on it at different times to get it to its current condition.”
The car is powered by a rare three litre Ford DFV Cosworth engine, worth around $200,000, and capable of over 300km/h.
Warwick says the car is a great example of why New Zealand is one of the best countries at restoring vehicles and he hopes it will attract more projects to his workshop.
“I originally had plans to race it over in Monaco and show it off as an example to Europe, but unfortunately this didn’t happen.
“It’s a very collectable vehicle, though, so it wasn’t a difficult one to sell on instead.”
He hopes to restore more F1 cars in future, but for now will get back to completing his March 84G Mazda, which he started work on in 2015.
