My First Mk3 Zephyr
By Peter Doherty
Below is a picture of my Mk3 that I had back in the
late 70’s early 80’s. My father bought this car new, sold it to my brother,
then I bought it off him. This photo was taken 30 years ago at New Year 1980
travelling over the Crown Range between Wanaka and Queenstown, note the narrow
gravel road compared to the two lane tar seal highway that there is today. And
yes the hairy guy behind the steering wheel is me!!!!.
This car could tell some stories, but will leave that for another day.
This car while in the family
was driven round the clock twice, was driven around the South Island at least
five times. While my dad had it, it was the family car and the farm work horse
carting machinery parts, sacks of grass seed and even bobby calves. My dad
shouted it a set of rings and bearings at 110,000 miles as well as a valve
grind. Then my brother got a hold of it and he didn’t spare the horses. One
night while racing one of his mates in a PB Vauxhall he took the top off a
piston at round the 100 mph, so that was the end of that engine and a new short
block was installed. While I had the car I had a pretty trouble free run,
replacing the distributor drive on the oil pump was the only job I had to do. As
I was the youngest in the family there was no one left to sell to in the family
so I sold it in the early 80’s and never saw it again. It would be nice to
think it has been restored and sitting in a garage somewhere, but more likely
to have been written off and ended up in the car crusher as many MK 3’s did
back then