1988 FORD TIFFANY CLASSIC

Of this car, the maker’s brochure says, “Don’t just show up at your destination, arrive in a Classic Ford Tiffany, and make your entrance one that will always be remembered!” It looks as if the getting there would be very memorable as well. It seems like the sort of car that you could ride in the backseat of, so long as the driver was in uniform and wearing a peaked cap, or drive yourself and have a whole lot of fun doing so too.

By the looks of it, that’s a fairly accurate description of this machine. Manufactured by the Zimmer Motorcars Corporation in the good ol’ US of A in 1989, this car is based on a 1988 Ford Mercury coupé. That means that it shares quite a lot of mechanicals with both the Ford Mustang and some of the Australian Falcons. Ford’s five-litre motor gives it plenty of get up and go.

This car was imported into New Zealand in 2012 but, since then, has had work worth $60K done on it to achieve certification here. This includes uprated brakes, electrical components, the exhaust system, as well as many other bits and pieces.

The car looks like something Dick Dastardly might have driven — sort of a cross between a throwback to a 1930s luxury car and a comic book car. The straps across the boot and those air horns just behind those front bumpers look very 1930s, but then the interior looks very 2000s — and, for sure, no 1930s car had a five-litre overhead-valve V8 like this one does, and, certainly, nothing from that era ever had the ride handling brakes or an automatic transmission like this.

It might not be a genuine classic car, but it certainly looks like one, and, as the brochure suggests, it will certainly make your arrival, and departure for that matter, a very impressive event.

Contact the owner, Kiri, on 021 216 5332.