If you’ve never seen Tom Slick before — Tom’s a car, not a person by the way — then chances are you’re wondering what an ugly old thing such as this is doing on your screen. Well, while Tom may not be the prettiest, nor the fastest, car to ever grace the pages of NZV8 or this website, it’s certainly up there in terms of having a colourful history.

You can check out the full story on the car in Issue No. 141 of NZV8 (on sale from December 26), and we assure you it’s one you won't want to miss.

Thanks to Kay Lane, wife of the vehicle’s now deceased original owner and builder Colin ‘Shady’ Lane, we managed to get plenty of old photos of the car, which you can see here.

Shady, who was well known in the Wellington area, had a number of interesting vehicles over his lifetime, and Kay was equally as involved, also having impressive vehicles, such as her 1937 Austin sedan, which featured in various hot rod magazines.

Unfortunately in 2013 Shady lost his battle with cancer, but prior to that he didn’t let his illness get in the way of his love for drag racing, discharging himself from Waikato Hospital to race at the 2013 Nostalgia Drags just months before his passing.

These days the car is in good hands, under the combined ownership of Scott Campbell, Andrew Gate, and Brian Matthews, who’ve replaced the Y-block motor, which grenaded on Shady at his final event, and keeping the rest as a perfect time capsule as to how it was.

Check out NZV8 Issue No. 141 (on sale from December 26) for the full story.