A fabulous V12

As a young bloke I grew up to love cars and motor sport in the Bay of Plenty. I was a great mate of Denis Hulme, and we were car club members in Tauranga and the Mount. Hulme was good at hill climbs in his MG TF, and very quick. There weren’t a lot of scenes to race at other than Ardmore, and we went there every year until Denis, George Lawford and Feo Stanton went to the UK. Sadly George was killed during a race in Denmark.

I moved to Christchurch in 1962. At that time my fatherin-law, Reg Hoder, was a master motor body builder in Riccarton Road. Pat Hoare raced a fabulous V12 Ferrari Super Squalo, which could be easily heard above all other race cars at Ardmore and Wigram. In 1965 the Ferrari was built into a GTO road car from blueprint plans. Reg and his friend James Middleton were responsible for building the body on the original chassis. The car was fitted with original parts from Italy, and there wasn’t a ripple to be seen anywhere on the body, as you can see in the photos.

The black-and-white photo was taken of the original car at Ohakea air-force base in 1961.

I can remember when the car was finished, as Pat Hoare took everyone for a ride — it sounded fantastic.

Peter Griffin, Papamoa Beach

PS. I hope you can do a story on this car.

We’ d really like to track that car down, Peter. If you, or any of our readers, can help, please let us know. AFW