Legacy of a fine body of work
THIRDGENERATION Oamaru motor body builder Rod Tempero used to joke the family business was better known around the world than the town’s famed blue penguin colony.
For many in the motoring world, Oamaru was the place that handbuilt fabulouslooking replica Dtype Jaguars and a swathe of other desirable road registered cars from the 1950s and 1960s era.
But for the wider public, many were unaware of what was produced in unassuming premises around the town since Tempero Coach and Motor Company was established by Alan Tempero in 1946.
It was Alan’s son Errol who put the town on the motoring map, moving away from producing the firm’s breadandbutter revenue of practical, commercial vehicles into the world of exciting racing cars, an interest which dated back to his childhood.
Errol Tempero, who died on September 8 last year, aged 84, was brought up in Oamaru, the only child of Alan and Jessie Tempero. Educated at Oamaru South School and Waitaki Boys’ High School, he served his motor body building apprenticeship and joined his father’s business.
He had built his own small car in 1953, as a teenager, but the business was more conventional, building ambulances, local body trucks and utes, Xray units, buses and caravans.
He took over the firm in 1973 and continued building and designing ambulances on Holden onetonne utes. The Tempero ambulances were known as more stylish than their contemporaries.
Alan had a longtime interest in nice cars, whether English or American, and his son inherited that interest. A stack of car magazines, collected from a very young age, remain in the Tempero workshop.
Back then, car racing was ‘‘huge’’; it was in the days of Stirling Ross, Jim Clark and Archie Scott Brown. Good cars came to New Zealand, during the offseason in Europe, to race in what was later the Tasman Series.
When Scott Brown won the Lady Wigram Trophy at Christchurch in his Lister Jaguar — shortly before his death in a crash at Spa
Francorchamps — thousands gathered to watch.
It was not until the late 1970s that Errol began to build replica Dtype Jaguars, the first for his then teenage son Rod, who joined the business in 1977.
Mr Tempero encouraged his son to flick through the car magazines and pick one out. It happened to be a Dtype which Errol was very approving of and he built it for Rod with the help of Alan.
Soon after, a man pulled up outside the workshop and asked if it was for sale and that was when Mr Tempero realised there might be a market for such cars. It was duly traded for a Triumph Stag and the foray into car building began. A photograph ended up in an Australian sports car monthly and demand for cars took off.
Over the next 25 years, Mr Tempero’s business built 48 Dtypes, Ctypes and XKSS’s, three Lister Jaguars, a HWM Jaguar, a FIA Cobra, four DBR2 Aston Martins, five XJ13 and various Ferrari models.
Another photograph of a
Temperoproduced car, which Rod raced in a street race in Queenstown, found its way to the United States and subsequently led to interest from Fine Sports Cars, of San Diego.
The Tempero name then was not widely known as many of the cars were ordered and supplied to that one company, at that time owned by Alan Holmes, Bill Freeman and Ash Marshall, where there was no brand on them.
Bill Freeman was a professional racing driver, race team owner, and race car manufacturer who teamed up with Academy Awardwinning American actor and race car driver Paul Newman; they had a joint racing team racing Porsches, while Ash Marshall was an Australian drag racer and the first Australian to clock more than 200mph.
Australian Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan once came to Oamaru to testdrive a Tempero Dtype.
Mr Tempero had no idea who he was until members of the Dunedin Jaguar Club later pointed out the significance of the visit.
Rod said that was the ‘‘cool part’’ of the business; just ‘‘normal’’ people turning up, in latter times, under Rod’s leadership, sometimes arriving by helicopter in the paddock behind the converted poultry sheds, south of Oamaru.
Rod described his father’s workmanship as ‘‘top rate’’ — recognised around the world as excellent.
It was only really in recent years that the Tempero name became more prominent.
The team peaked in the mid1990s when 14 staff were working on predominantly Dtypes from the workshop in Wansbeck St, later demolished to make way for the expansion of the Oamaru New World carpark.
After an ‘‘outoftheblue’’ approach, Mr Tempero sold the business to an American partnership in 2002 and Rod continued to work there until 2008 when he branched out on his own, opening his own workshop.
Mr Tempero was thrilled to see that happen and enjoyed visiting and lending a hand, although he was none too fond of the ducks, which wandered in and out of the workshop.
There were now six staff, including Rod and his son, fourthgeneration Caleb, and they continued to work the same way as Mr Tempero, using a blackboard, rather than computer, to design the cars.
‘‘It’s the way Dad taught me . . . There’s no skill in poking that [a car] out if the computer does it all for you. No skill factor.
‘‘That’s what Dad had. He could see the car when it was still in the steel rack and built it accordingly. I wouldn’t be here doing what I did without Dad,’’ he said.
It was a shame Rod’s pet project was not finished before his father’s death.
Mr Tempero had seen the ListerJaguar ASB race when he was a teenager and Rod was keen to build one, both because he liked it and also because of the interest his father had in it. Mr Tempero built the 3D buck for the car.
Rod described his father as a hard but fair boss who was also very generous.
‘‘He would recognise your talent and let you go,’’ he said.
Undeniably clever and innovative, but also very private and humble, he shunned the limelight and it would be his son who would handle any interviews.
Outside of work, family was important to Mr Tempero who was married to Wynsome (nee Burton) for 62 years. The couple — who had three children — were a real partnership, and
Mrs Tempero did the administration work for the business.
In his early years, he was a keen rower, both in singlesculls and fours, and also enjoyed playing squash, serving a stint as president of the Oamaru Squash Club.
The Tempero family holidayed at Otematata for several decades and Mr Tempero loved boats, building his own jetboat, fourwheeldriving and shooting.
A history buff, he had an extensive library covering everything from military and car history to British and Italian history.
Movies were another passion, particularly cowboy films from the 1950s and 1960s.
Fascinated by design, he was inspired by legendary
American architect Frank
Lloyd Wright and he designed three of the couple’s homes, each of which had a distinctive style, and created with the future in mind.
Mr Tempero is survived by his wife Wynsome, sons Rod and Brandon, daughter Jane, and their families. — Sally Rae