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SOUL MAN
Ferrari 250 GTO Replica

If you travel down New Zealand’s east coast, 3 hours south of Christchurch along State Highway 1, to just outside of the harbour town of Oamaru, you’ll find an automotive ‘soul man’ of unimaginable modesty.

There, in a shop built from a chicken coop, Rod Tempero creates replicas of some of most iconic automobiles of the 50’s and 60’s from scratch; no blueprints, just books and his own skills, and those of assistants Carl and Caleb. Using traditional metalworking tools, hammers, wooden bucks, and an English wheel, they turn flat sheets of aluminium into works of art by eye and touch.

Tempero is a third-generation automotive artisan, who inherited his passion for exquisite reproductions from his grandfather, Alan, who began a coach building business in 1946, before his father Errol took over and later sold the business. Young Rod eventually established his own business which has thrived ever since. Tempero has manufactured and restored hundreds of cars over the years, with his most recent work being the construction of the 1962 250 GTO Ferrari presented here.