Reinventing the wheel: The man who made his motor

So fond of cars is Clarrie Ranby that as a teen he built his own. In 1957, Clarrie, who lives in Summerset at Karaka, and three friends – Alan Watson, Graham McGill and Ron Cox – decided to each build a sports car.

Panel beater Clarrie had been at school with Graham, who was doing an apprenticeship at the railway workshop with Alan and Ron. They bonded over their love of cars. Alan had already built a car and inspired the others.

They brainstormed designs, drawing from the Triumph TR3, the Aston Martin DB series, and the era’s fashionable tailfins. Alan worked on the bodies; the others built the chassis. As apprentices with little money, they needed a creative solution for a workshop. Clarrie suggested his dad’s henhouse. “It was the perfect size,” he says. With a bit of persuasion and a new home for the chooks, they had their workshop. “The chooks moved out and we moved in!” laughs Clarrie. They scoured wreckers’ yards for parts; what they couldn’t find, they made. “The mechanical parts came from the yards,” says Clarrie. “Everything else, we built.” Body shapes were made using plywood, chicken wire and plaster of Paris, then covered in fibreglass – a novel material at the time. Colours were drawn by lot: Ron’s was white, Alan’s yellow, Graham’s blue, and Clarrie’s red – the ultimate sports car colour.

Most weekends were spent building, and by 1960 the cars were complete and roadworthy. To meet New Zealand legal requirements, Clarrie named his car the ‘F10 Sporty’, inspired by its Ford Prefect 100E engine. Shortly after the car was completed Clarrie met Maureen, his future wife, at table tennis. “Perfect timing,” laughs Maureen. “If we’d met earlier, he wouldn’t have had the time to spend with me!” The Sporty, with tartan upholstery and a handmade luggage rack, took them to Napier for their honeymoon in April 1962. But a two-seater isn’t ideal for a growing family. In 1963, expecting their first child, Clarrie sold the Sporty. The others did the same.

Almost 40 years later, Clarrie’s cousin spotted Alan’s car, now a different colour, in the New Zealand Classic Car magazine. At a car show, Ron got a tip about Clarrie’s car – it was parked in a Pakuranga garden, still bearing his army number plate. “I just said ‘Good God,’” Clarrie recalls. “I recognised it instantly.”

The owner, planning to move overseas, hadn’t restored it. Maureen and their daughters secretly negotiated to buy it back for Clarrie’s birthday. While he was away on a coach tour, family and friends removed the Sporty from the garden and brought it home.

Clarrie returned to find it on a trailer in the driveway, festooned with balloons. “Needing a lot of work!” he laughs. Ten years later, the Sporty was road-ready again. Clarrie kept most of it original, but updated the upholstery to red and black. In 2013, the car took him and Maureen to a car show in Porirua.

To honour the project, Clarrie made four fibreglass replicas – one for each friend. He gave a seriously ill Graham his blue model a week before he died. Alan and Ron passed away in the years that followed. These days at Summerset at Karaka, Clarrie is more likely to be woodturning than building cars. “I practically live in the residents’ workshop,” he laughs. He and Maureen moved to the village nine years ago. “We were looking ahead,” says Clarrie. “Some people leave it too late. It’s best to come in while you can still enjoy it.” Happily, their friend Rona, wife of the late Ron Cox, also lives there, and they see her regularly. Friends and activities are central to their village life.

In March, Clarrie had the chance to do a hot lap in a Summerset-sponsored McLaren GT at Hampton Downs. “I loved it!” he says. “Even at 224km/h the stability was amazing. It was so much fun. To paraphrase Bruce McLaren: “You measure life in achievements, not by years alone.”

Photos by Emma Steiner Photography

This is an article from the Winter 2025 edition of Summerset Scene magazine

Click here to read the full issue