Chris lives in New Zealand's southernmost city, Invercargill,
a couple of hours south of the world famous Queenstown. He says he has been watching this web site for the last
few years, "always looking forward to a new month when you list the new cars." Well, now after a year
of hard work and hard saving, Chris has a car of his own to add to the site!
Chris saw this car online in June of 2004. It was in Corona, California, so he got his friend, Ray, to go and have
a look at it and he bought it on the spot! Ray stored it in Los Angeles until September, 2004, and after a month-long
boat ride, it landed at Chris' door step on October 18, 2004. "Which," he says, "just happened to
be my 10 year anniversary of being with my partner Lisa - what a great present!"
Since then, Chris has gone through the certification process to get it legal for New Zealand roads, then panel
beat it - which was not a lot of work, as the car had been in California all its life. From what Chris has found
out so far, he thinks he may be the car's third or fourth owner. |
Chris brought some parts from Dearborn Classics and a set of Doug Thorley headers and a teardrop light (thanks to
Brian) to finish it off.
The paint is a shade of red found on a 2003 Australian Ford Falcon, and a nice bright white stripe. The car's engine
is a 351 Cleveland with 86,000 miles on it, and it has an FMX transmission with 3.50 gear ratio. The wheels are
15 x 8 Torque Thrust 2. The interior is black with cloth bench seat and column shift like the first season of the
TV show. It has a Sony Explode mini disc mounted in the "boot" (trunk) with corded remote (so the dash
has not been cut apart - very nice) and Boschmann 550 watt rear speakers. Chris also added a personalized "ZEBRA3"
license plate and has been asked if the plate was for sale a few times!
Chris has owned a couple of hot rods and a few V8 cars like Camaros, Holdens, and Fords before, but this is his
"dream car" and it gets the most looks and thumbs-up from people. "I get such a buzz when I drive
it" he says, "and it's only been on the road for a week!" He says, "I owe a BIG THANK YOU to
Barry and Andy for their help to get ZEBRA3 up and running and finished. Also to my partner Lisa and daughters
Rhian and Teiah for putting up with me while I was working on - as Teiah puts it - "the old brown car". |