Prized truck off to museum

After five years of cleaning up car show awards around the country, "The Joker" mini-truck will soon leave Wanganui for its new home in a South Island museum.

Wanganui spray painter Paul Gibson said he had sold the highly modified 2005 Ford Courier to Highlands Motorsport Park, where it will go on display in its car museum in Cromwell.

He began building the truck more than five years ago and showing it in competitions around the country.

In all, it has won two national titles and over 150 awards - 23 this year alone - and at one point he had to stand down from a show as organisers said he had won too many.

The truck is powered by a Mazda race engine built by Wanganui's Pulse Performance and comes complete with a 140-decibel sound system. But, although Mr Gibson said he made sure the truck was warranted, registered and all the modifications were certified, it was rarely driven.

"It's less of a workhorse now and more of a show pony," he said.

Mr Gibson has already started building another car but would not say what it was because competition around the country was so fierce. "You've got to keep people guessing."

He hoped to have it complete in time for the 2015 show circuit. Now 53, he said his new car would be his last.

"The one after that will be a hotted-up mobility scooter."