New Zealand Classic Car – September 2019

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS (^) Classic news and views
O
ne of New Zealand’s most iconic
classic-era race cars, the Corvette
V8-engined Austin-Healey originally
built and raced by Christchurch man
Arthur Kennard, is set to shake-up the annual
Goodwood Revival meeting in September
this year.
The car, only recently rebuilt after languishing
for almost three decades following a road
accident in 1967, is now owned by Christchurch
businessman and keen classic and historic driver
and enthusiast Lindsay O’Donnell.
Earlier this year, O’Donnell received
an invitation much coveted in the classic
racing world from the man behind the
Goodwood Revival meeting, Lord March,
to take the car over for the event. And he has
enlisted one of the best young UK-based classic
and historic racing drivers, Michael Lyons, to
drive the car. Lyons has raced F5000 single-
seaters here as well as at home in the UK.
Kiwi speedway great Geoff Mardon bought
the car in the UK and used it as a road car there.
Christchurch garage proprietor Arthur Kennard
bought it in 1955, shipped it to New Zealand,
and raced it for the next two seasons in factory
standard form. Then he took the unusual step of
buying a brand new 283-cubic-inch V8 engine
built for the then-all-new Chevrolet Corvette
from local General Motors dealer Blackwells.
To stop it, he also bought a set of Dunlop disc
brakes as fitted to the Aston Martin DB2.
With way more power and torque, and brakes
to match, Kennard won the Ken Wharton
Memorial Trophy sports car support race at
the 1958 New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at
Ardmore on debut.
Just before selling it in 1959, Kennard ran a
standing quarter-mile in the car at Ashburton
in a time of 14.5 seconds and achieved a
top speed over a flying kilometre of close to
150mph (241kph).
The ‘Healey-Corvette’ was used as both
a road and race car for the next seven years
until its then owner crashed it on his way back
to Timaru from the Lady Wigram Trophy
meeting in January 1967.
Though obviously repairable, the insurance
company wrote the car off and Christchurch
craftsman panel beater Dave Bunn eventually
acquired the wreck in the mid 1980s. Bunn
spent the next 10 or so years carefully returning
the car to better-than-new condition, before
accepting Lindsay O’Donnell’s offer to buy it
and use it in the Arthur Kennard way.
O’Donnell sent the car to Naseby, where
noted classic and historic car race engineer
Eric Swinbourn set it back up as a race-spec
road car.
Receiving an invite to ship it back ‘home’ for
this year’s Goodwood Revival is obviously a
bonus, and one that O’Donnell says he grabbed
with both hands.
“For those who turn up to watch Michael
driving it, it is obviously going to be something
special,” he says. “There will no doubt be plenty
of V8 AC Cobras there, but I’m fairly sure
there will only be the one Austin-Healey V8.
We believe Arthur was the first Healey owner
in the world to do a V8 conversion, so there
will be a lot of interest in the car from that
perspective as well.”
O’Donnell’s not doing things by halves either,
taking both Dave Bunn and Eric Swinbourn
with him to fettle the car while it is at
Goodwood.
This year’s three-day event will kick off on
Friday, 13 September and finish on Sunday,
15 September.
CLASSIC KIWI RACER GETS GOODWOOD CALL-UP
Above: The Arthur Kennard
V8-powered Healey-Corvette
in period
Right: Current owner
Lindsay O’Donnell driving the
restored car at a hill climb in
2015 (photo: Fast Company /
O’Donnell family)
102 New Zealand Classic Car | themotorhood.com