Ferris de Joux - Later Cars

Later Cars

In 1985 de Joux bought the remains of a 1964 Formula One BRP chassis and damaged V8 BRM engine, and over the phone to England, a BRM transaxle. He obtained the missing parts on a journey to England. On completing the BRP he sold it to English collector Anthony Mayman.

In 1999 de Joux made a one-off Maserati Special. Auckland Ferrari enthusiast Allan Cattle had a 3.5-litre, six-cylinder Maserati engine sitting under a bench in his workshop, after he found it in England beneath another car restorer's workshop bench and brought it home. Ferris saw the engine and decided to build a car in the style of a 1937-39 Maserati. The car was pieced together with assorted spare parts over a three years period and completed in 2002.

An intervening project involved an enthusiastic retired Whangarei farmer named Hamilton Walker who in 1969 appeared to be on the verge of producing an ambitious fibre-glass bodied twin-rotor two-door four-seater sedan. Because the car would contain 90% local content, it was argued that the car could be retailed in the (tariff protected) New Zealand market for approximately £750 less than a BMC Mini imported fully assembled from England. De Joux was the designer of the car's body, working in collaboration with project engineer Dennis Smith. The project never made it to the production stage.

During his later years de Joux made fibreglass kayaks and raced a Brabham powered by a SCAT 2.0l engine. He died on 30 May 2009 aged 73.