In the mid-90s I went to a huge storage shed near Avondale where Motat kept machinery that was either not on show or that it had no room to display.

For example: a full size NYFD ladder truck that had to be driven at both ends.

My contact was a guy called John Walker who was a volunteer with responsibility for looking after machinery and my reason for being there was that my client, Lion Breweries, had just sponsored the restoration of an original beer tanker. Given that NZ pioneered the mass-distribution of tap beer via refrigerated tankers, this was billed as the earliest of its type in the world.

Sitting in this large storage shed was a beautiful little Lotus GP car. John Walker told me that it was one that Jim Clark had raced here and even then I realised that it was pretty special. It was a very pretty little car - in Lotus Green with the yello/green Lotus nose badge.

What happened to that car? Has anyone been to Motat to see if it is on display? Is it missing?

Can we track it down?

(Motat's track record is not all that good - one of the cars that was loaned to it was the McLaren now being restored by the McLaren Trust, a vehicle that somehow went from Motat to lying under some macrocarpa trees in South Auckland and was rescued just hours away from being buried. No-one is quite sure how that happened.)

John Walker said he had driven the NYFD ladder trailer just the once and would never do it again - he said it was a terrifying experience. You had to steer the end of the ladders in the opposite direction to the driver up-front to get round corners - and it would accelerate the tail end just like when a water skier swings away from the direction of the boat.