Kiwis have long upheld a reputation for producing something a little special from their sheds. Catherine Pattison caught up with a modern-day Burt Munro, whose Mad Max-style V8 trike is a triumph of adaptive mechanical know-how and some sheer can-do in the garage.
When Queenstown's Scott Howey was lying at the bottom of a cliff 17 years ago, watching his mate take his last breath beside him, he may have thought his motorcycling days were over. Indeed, the doctors told him he would not walk again, let alone ride.
Mr Howey was the pillion passenger on a Harley Davidson when it crashed on a road in Northland, near Kaikohe, an accident which claimed the life of his friend Massey Te Aika, of Timaru.
The incident was a reference point in a past that Mr Howey acknowledges is punctuated by mistakes.
Confined to bed for six months with a spinal compression fracture, he began to conjure up a fantastical solution to his predicament. A trike. But not just any trike. The machine had to be monstrously grunty, look menacing and he had to figure out how to build it himself.
Mr Howey (41), of Kelvin Heights, had seen a V8 trike in his teenage years which provided him with both the passion and the perseverance necessary to see its construction through.
"I loved it and I knew that it could be built."
He found out the biggest trike ever manufactured had a 454 cubic inch big block motor in it and decided to go bigger. A massive 460cu in, big block V8 - equivalent to a 7.2 litre engine - out of a Ford became the component of choice.
This was the early 1990s, when computerised graphics were not a design option and no-one was forthcoming with plans for building a V8 trike. So, following the Kiwi ingenuity principle, he laid the running gear out in the garage and figured out how to construct the three-wheel wonder from scratch.
The strategy was threefold - matt black, all motor and "quite hard case".
"I wanted to stick with it looking raw and lumpy."
Gleaning inspiration from the Mad Max movie, Mr Howey purchased high pressure pipe and a pipe bender to fashion a frame. The "trial and error" end result utilises one continuous piece of pipe, with the front end design based on a Harley Davidson Springer.
Mr Howey's Timaru mechanic friend Paul Ashby did the profile cutting and steel plate work, ensuring the trike took the right shape. Slowly, but surely, the beast was brought to life - but giving it a chance to stretch its legs was a complicated compliance process.
"It was very, very, difficult to get it on the road," Mr Howey says.
In 1994, the trike - described by its owner as "Mad Max meets Burt Munro" - was certified and has reverberated on the highways ever since.
Mr Howey makes it available for rides at community or charity events and enjoys working with disability groups, taking the wheelchair-bound for a blast.
He is now an active member of the Salvation Army, having reached out to the social welfare organisation about four years ago when his life had spiralled out of control.
Convictions for malicious misuse of a telephone and careless driving causing injury and bike gang affiliations left the former Devils Henchmen president looking for a way out.
"I made bad decisions when I was younger but I have successfully broken away from the gang scene.
"Someone that's come from my background can give information and knowledge to people to help them leave gangs. My ambition is to help people reform their lives."
Mr Howey's focus is now his baby and wife Amy, yet this does not mean the trike had to go.
"You can still have your old interest in your bike, with the understanding that there is the ability to move ahead with your life."
Not content with its enormous engine capacity alone, he rigged up a nitrous oxide system to give the trike an extra boost on its drag racing days. His best quarter mile time was 10.2sec, achieved on the Oamaru airport and aided by the nitrous oxide system.
"It's the most powerful trike that we know of built in the southern hemisphere."
Weighing in at 1.2 tonnes, it is a handful, and Mr Howey emphasises that the rider has to know what they are doing.
The right line is crucial coming into corners, the camber must be assessed correctly and he "uses the power to keep it out of trouble".
Crouching on gigantic Nascar practice tyres (measuring a whopping 127cm x 127cm x 38cm), sprouting tubular exhaust pipes and elongated handlebars, it is a dead-set drawcard for passersby to photograph.
The price tag, it turns out, is "priceless".
"It's not for sale, because it's for my son," Mr Howey explains, looking fondly at 1-year-old James playing on the floor.
Mrs Howey quickly adds "and he's not getting it until he's 18".
The trike
What the trike has on board
• Ford 460 cubic inch (7.2 litre) big-block V8 engine.
• Holly 750 carburettors.
• Nascar 127cm x 127cm x 38cm practice tyres with hand-built rims.
• Nitrous oxide system boost option.
• Nine-inch Ford Falcon diff.
• Hand controls from a United States Harley Davidson ex-police motorcycle (the siren button triggers the nitrous oxide).
• A C6 Rib-back automatic transmission.
• A rear radiator cooling system equipped with two thermostat-activated fans.
