1971 TRIUMP 2000

Name: Jared Buckett Age: 24 Location: Lower Hutt, Wellington Occupation: Manager at Unleashed Automotive

NZ Performance Car: Hi, Jared. You don’t see many slammed Tri’ 2000s — how did you come to own it?

Jared: Hey, NZ Performance Car. A family friend owned quite a few of these and gave me one as a farm car when I was younger to learn how to drive in. From there, I was always thinking… up how to make one look kind of cool — when it came time to buy a proper first car once I had my licence, I decided it was a smart idea to look for something simple and reliable like a Primera, but this popped up first (somehow under a Primera search) and I had to have it ...

It’s a pretty unique style overall. What has inspired the build?

I grew up on a farm, and Triumphs, especially the 2000s, have always been associated with being farmers’ vehicles, and I wanted to take that and make it different. I really love the boso and shakotan stylings from Japan, so those have definitely been a strong inspiration for this build.

And we take it those huge Hoshinos were based on the same idea; were they hard to make work?

Yes, very [laughs]. When measuring up the wheel arches and backspacing, etc., before getting the wheels built into their current sizes, I may have overestimated how much room there was to play with and went a little adventurous on the sizes. Once they came back, we found they didn’t fit the rear at all ... but, after some cheeky modifying, a bit of cutting, and a couple of secret tricks, we managed to squeeze them in under the guards — only just.

It looks all the better for it, too. The engine bay doesn’t look like it’s been forgotten either — has it seen some love recently?

For sure. The engine was ripped out for a rebuild after it died, and I decided to paint everything before it went back in for a tidier appearance, as well as treating the engine bay to a nice coat of black. It was a bit jammed up in there, so I relocated the battery to make it look less busy, too.

Does it see much driving time now that it’s done?

It used to get out most days until the engine died, but now it just needs to get a tune and I’ll try to drive it as much as possible. It gets a lot of attention while out, so it’s fun to drive and watch the stares, especially from older people who have fond memories of the model.

We can’t help but stare either. Are there any plans for the future?

An engine swap is on the cards over the next few years, but, for now, she’s pretty well done.

Hope to see her out again soon — thanks for the yarn, Jared.