MADE IN NZ
TEMPERO’S SOUTHERN STEEL
Enthusiasts contact Rod from all over the world at his factory just south of Oamaru, to see if he can build them their dream car.
“I like to approach each enquiry from a customer with the idea that what they want can be done,” Rod says. “Really, if you set your mind to it, we can build anything.”
Following a firm request from a customer, he meticulously researches a project, then it’s full-on — sourcing parts, forming the full-sized outline on a blackboard on the wall of his factory, then building a wooden buck to shape the bodywork.
“No CAD systems here. We do it the old-fashioned way,” Rod chuckles.
It can take two years to transfer the blackboard outline to the road.
This quiet, unassuming, but fiercely dedicated craftsman heads a team that turns flat sheets of aluminium into some of the world’s most tantalizing motoring shapes from Jaguar, Ferrari, Maserati, Cooper, Alvis, and Lister-jaguar, to name a few.
Call this craftsman a coachbuilder and he fair bristles. “We are motor-body builders!” he says.
Tempero’s association with desirable automobiles goes back to Rod’s grandfather, Alan Tempero, who started a motor-body building business in Oamaru in 1946. Rod began working with his father, Errol, in 1979, building Jaguar C- and D-types, Jaguar XJ13S, an XK180, an Aston Martin DBR2, Ferrari 250 TRS, and Ferrari California Spyders.
“It all started when I wanted to build a model powered racer. My dad asked me ‘why not build the real thing?’ and that is pretty much how we built my first D-type Jaguar,” he explains.
His father later sold the business, and Rod worked for the new overseas owners for a while before moving on to establish his own business, which he runs to this day.
A full house
Walking through the doors today reveals a sight you are unlikely to see anywhere else: a completed, stunning, dark-blue D-type OKV 2 — a rather significant car, as the original was an important development car for the Jaguar factory back in the day.
“We have got this for a wee while yet. Even though the guy is absolutely wrapped with it, he wants us to fit a four-point harness, as he thinks he may do a bit of competition work with it,” Rod says.
A second D-type is at about the halfway point of completion — it still requires a front bonnet (almost a third of the body of the car) and a lot of finishing work.
A host of other mouth-watering projects are scattered around the premises — including a Maserati, an Aston Martin DBR2, and a Tempero 335S.
Two brand new projects will capture the interest of many in the form of a rare British sports car and a not often-seen Italian model. “We are just getting the running gear sorted for an Aston Martin Zagato DB4 and also a Lamborghini Miura,” Rod tells us.
Getting these cars just right is never a quick process. He hopes that the DBR2, for instance, will be nearing completion sometime after the middle of next year.
Two of Tempero’s best known recent works — a 250 GTO and a 250F F1— catch the connoisseur’s eye for their iconic profiles. They have attracted a flood of compliments online and at auto shows for their astonishing quality. A lovely little 246 Formula 1 racer was another recent completion, and this has now been delivered to its owner.
You will note that we’ve skirted around using some of the original manufacturers’ names and that’s for serious legal reasons. Rod says he won’t display the expected badges either. They are all described as ‘Tempero’ models.
The bustling activity in the Oamaru factory is testament to the skills of this small band of craftsmen. The growing demand for their products means there are many more amazing projects in the pipeline. What follows is a list of projects currently on the go, and it is quite an eye-opener for its variety.
Rossellini 375MM
Prominent on the blackboard is Rod’s next creation. It’s another stunner in the shape of a Tempero 375 MM based on a distinctive one-off original, the ‘Rossellini’ coupé of 1954.
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director who made a name for himself after World War II. Swedish film star Ingrid Bergman wanted to star in one of his films. She wrote to him and the two
“No CAD systems here. We do it the old-fashioned way,” Rod chuckles. It can take two years to transfer the blackboard outline to the road
met in Paris. They struck up a relationship and Bergman went on to star in six of Rossellini’s films.
Bergman developed a passion for Ferraris matching Rossellini’s. He owned several examples and became good friends with Enzo Ferrari.
Rossellini was also a keen sports car racer. He entered the 1953 Mille Miglia in a Ferrari 250 MM but did not finish.
He was offered a 1954 ex-factory 375 MM ( No. 0402AM). It had a Pininfarina Spyder competition body when he returned it to the factory for repairs after a road accident. Ferrari sent it to body constructor Scaglietti, who designed a special new coupé body for it. It was Scaglietti’s first passenger car design on a Ferrari chassis and it took a year to build. It was returned to Rossellini in 1955 who then presented it as a gift to Ingrid Bergman.
Rossellini and Bergman used the car frequently on road trips. It was subsequently sold to a Mario Savona of Palermo, and it eventually came into the hands of French collector Charles Robert, who then auctioned it in 1994.
Microsoft executive Jon Shirley bought the car and had it restored over three years from 1995–1998. The car won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2014 — a first for a Ferrari and the first post-war car to win the coveted trophy since 1968.
Being only the fifth remaining example of a 375 MM, and with the most notable history, the Rossellini is a fitting project for Rod Tempero and his team.
Tempero 335S
Another example of Tempero ingenuity rapidly taking shape in a mass of tube framing is another Scaglietti masterpiece that will be known as a ‘Tempero 335S’.
An evolution of the 315S sports car, just four original examples of the 335S were
Rod says everything is done the old fashioned way, by eye and by touch. They do a lot of machining in house, but the real magic is in seeing beautiful shapes emerge from flat sheets on the factory’s panel-wheeling machines. It is ‘old school’ at its very best!
built and campaigned through 1957 and 1958.
These 190mph (300kph) sports cars were Ferrari’s answer to the challenge from Maserati’s 450S. They raced in the final Mille Miglia in 1957 and the 1957 1000km of Nürburgring. At the ’ring, the Collins/gendebien 335 S finished second to an Aston Martin DBR1. A string of other good results from the prancing horse stable helped Ferrari take the World Sportscar Championship for 1957. In 1958, a change to a three-litre engine limit for the championship saw it replaced with the 250 TR.
It is hardly surprising, then, that one of these cars became the second-mostexpensive car in the world, after another Ferrari, when it sold at auction in 2016 for €32M. When they are that special and that desirable, it’s easy to see why someone would turn over one of the famous V12 engines to Rod to work his magic in metal.
Rod’s team has fitted new camshaft covers to the donor engine. That engine was originally fuel injected, but, as the original wore an impressive array of downdraught Weber carburettors, the standard covers also had to go in favour of period-correct items. Rod had them cast locally and machined the final authentic touches in-house.
Tempero 250 F1 and 246 F1
The most recent creation to roll out the door was a Tempero 246 F1, which was completed alongside the recent Tempero 250 F1. Rod was keen to see both examples of great Italian Formula 1 race cars of the 1950s taking shape at the same time.
Tempero 250 GTO
The ultimate car for many of the marque’s fans has to be a 250 GTO, and owner John Reitveld put the question to Rod, asking him to build him one a few years ago. Rod’s immediate answer was yes.
The team completed this two-year project in 2015. John was involved with making a video of the build, and his commentary says it all: “He’s building them from scratch with no blueprints — just books and his own knowledge and his own skills. He’s coming up with these incredible products that are world leading. And they are built in Oamaru.”
Rod is happy to have a go at building examples of the world’s most exotic and rare cars, a task which would surely intimidate many others.
Rod rationalizes that they are all the same
to some extent. “Of course, no car is too difficult to build,” he says. That attitude has led to the growing demand for these and other Italian reproduction beauties from the Oamaru company.
The original 250 GTOS can be divided into four production categories. The first 18 had bolt-on spoilers and different nose treatments. Then came the welded-on spoiler cars with indicators, larger nose intakes; then the four-litre cars (three) and Series II cars (five). Each race team also made numerous mechanical changes to its car(s). Ferrari developed the early prototypes in-house, while Scaglietti built the later bodies.
Just 39 of the original-numbered Ferrari GTOS were built from 1962 to 1964. It was a 250 GTO that set the record price of US$38,115M (NZ$59M) at the Bonhams Quail Lodge Auction in Carmel, California in 2014, but it may soon be a mere alsoran. The number-two car in the production line with a great race history is now on the market in the UK with an estimated value of close to NZ$124M.
You can understand the enthusiasm of owners in a position to commission projects like this. A reproduction model with similar running gear made here in Oamaru is still going to have a healthy value.
Well worth the wait
Rod is justifiably proud of the quality of workmanship in this example. Every car is built to the highest standard. Parts are sourced from throughout New Zealand, the US, and Europe. Dunedin’s P&W Engineering did some of machining work for the front suspension. It is part of Giltech Precision Castings, which dates back to 1881, and is one of the largest companies in this field in Australasia.
When we visit the shed, earlier this year, the 250 GTO is back in the shed for a small bit of work. The 4.4-litre V12 emits a healthy beat as it rumbles out of the workshop. The Rosso Red paintwork — which was completed in a dedicated spray booth on-site — flashes dramatically in the sunlight. The amount of attention to detail involved is immediately apparent.
A point that we both agree on is that the term ‘replica’ has a different meaning when applied to vehicles of this build quality. It often means something that was created to look similar to an original design but it may not even be made of the same material or have the same mechanicals.
“Every one of these cars [Tempero 250 GTOS] was originally individually built. No one car was the same as another,” says Rod. “That is exactly what this is, a reproduction of the original design, albeit with modern metallurgy and improved quality parts.”
He says everything is done the old fashioned way, by eye and by touch. They do a lot of machining in house, but the real magic is in seeing beautiful shapes emerge from flat sheets on the factory’s panel-wheeling machines. It is ‘old school’ at its very best!
There is an amazing line-up of beautifully finished machinery coming out of this small Oamaru factory. Owners and enthusiasts will agree, the result is always well worth the wait.
Rod is justifiably proud of the quality of workmanship in this example. Every car is built to the highest standard. Parts are sourced from throughout New Zealand, the US, and Europe