Hot Rodding Handyman

LANCE SLATER IS PROVING THE POINT THAT CARS DON’T NEED TO BE PRO BUILT, NOR COME FROM AMERICA, TO BE WELL BUILT AND TURN HEADS!

In New Zealand, just as with our Australian cousins across the ditch, the Holden versus Ford rivalry is a strong one — a byproduct of many decades of competition both on and off the racetrack. Over in the United States, the situation was similar, with Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler at each other’s throats on the Nascar ovals, and fighting for supremacy on the dealership floor. The result of this was roaring V8 engines in barely tamed race cars for the road — think Camaro Z/28, Ford Mustang Boss 302, and Chrysler’s Hemi-powered road racers; or, closer to home, the Ford Falcon GTHOs, Holden Torana SLR5000, and Valiant Pacers. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, all was peaceful. Ford had built and maintained a reputation for producing such family-oriented vehicles as the Popular, Prefect, Anglia, and Zephyr — not quite the same as the overpowered muscle machines abroad. That hasn’t gotten in the way of the passion of diehard Ford man, Lance Slater — he’s been a loyal supporter of the blue oval since day one, and he’s a pretty big fan of the blue oval’s Pommie stuff. As such, the collection that he’s built up over the decades would do any petrolhead, let alone any Ford lover, proud. The first thing we notice upon entering the property is the garden art — the rusted carcasses of cars that Lance knows are beyond saving but can’t bring himself to throw away. They’re also a fitting welcome to the place, as the biggest shed directly opposite is where Lance keeps some of his earth-moving equipment, and is pretty much his main storage bin — piles of Ford engines, the odd Rover V8, diffs, gearboxes, and all sorts of mechanical componentry reside in here. It’s not a storage bin just for Lance’s stuff, either — in the far corner, his friend’s Falcon XA GT resides under a cover and his son’s worked Mitsubishi VR-4 takes the other corner, while a tractor takes pride of place, belonging to a friend who collects tanks. “It’s got the right badge on it, at least, so I told him he could keep it here if I can use it — which, actually, I haven’t yet!” Lance says.