Mark Guyton wants Mike Hosking to buy his house. Guyton is selling his four-bedroom trophy home in Cromwell and thinks the Newstalk ZB Breakfast host would be interested. Why? Because it overlooks Highlands Motorsport Park and houses a smart racing car collection in the upstairs lounge.
“Mike Hosking loves cars. He has some very nice cars and he likes Highlands Motorsport Park as well. He would be a very good contender to buy the house,” Guyton told OneRoof.
He is looking for offers over $2.75 million and encourages Hosking to get in touch.
In his younger years, Guyton imagined a career in motorsport but he segued to collecting as he got older. “I used to race go-karts and had the intention of racing cars, but all I really do is go round and round,” he said.
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Ownership of 22 Monaco Drive comes with membership of Highlands and the video on the OneRoof listing shows Guyton doing laps in his beloved green and black Radical, bought after the British-built car won a Radical Cup Australia challenge.
Guyton and his wife Joan built the home in 2020 to house eight cars. However that proved to be insufficient for his growing collection, so they extended out above the garage last year, creating a second lounge, which Guyton calls “the showroom”. The building work included a car lift.
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“It was eight cars originally, and there’s comfortably 13 cars in the garage and showroom now,” Guyton said.
Asked why he decided to store his sports cars in his lounge, he replied: “I’m a car collector. So, I enjoy looking at cars more than driving them. And I need somewhere to store them. So, you might as well enjoy them in your home as well as having some storage.”
Guyton struggled to choose his favourite, though. “That’s pretty tricky,” he said. “I don’t really have a favourite. They all have their own personalities. But the Kmart car that’s in the showroom upstairs is a tribute to the Lap of the Gods car that [racing driver] Greg Murphy drove. That’s probably my favourite at the moment. It’s a pretty cool car and it has a similar history to Murphy’s car. But of course, it’s not the real thing.”
Guyton also owns a limited-edition Greg Murphy Maloo ute. He explained that it is one of just ten Holden Commodore utes of the same design.
Not all of his cars are high-performance vehicles. A 1967 Fiat Bambina also has pride of place in the upstairs lounge.
A second upstairs lounge is home to part of the owner's car collection. Photo / Supplied
The property even comes with a special car lift on which the 1967 Fiat Bambina sits. Photo / Supplied
The cars aren’t just objects of desire. They are also road-worthy. “The road-legal ones are all warranted and registered, so they can go out any old time.” With the unregistered racing cars, Guyton drives them out of his property, turns onto Pit Lane and enters the track without driving on a public road.
Guyton’s wife isn’t a racing fanatic, but she loves the home. She was behind the purchase of artworks by Peter Miller, which adorn the walls. She met the artist on a chair lift at Cardrona ski field, which led to purchases of several of Miller’s Fun Ho! works.
The couple are selling the property to build an even better home for Guyton’s car collection.
Tall Poppy listing agent Keeley Anderson said buyers would need to become Highlands’ members in order to purchase the property. Membership costs $15,000 plus GST with annual fees of $4960 plus GST currently. The buyer also needs to be approved for membership, but she doesn’t expect that would be a problem for Hosking. “I think that he’d be acceptable definitely,” she said.
The property overlooks Highlands Motorsport Park. Photo / Supplied
Action on the track. Photo / John Cowpland, Bruce Jenkins
The requirement for membership pretty much ensures that all of the owners in the development are motor racing fans or work in the industry.
“The owners are all into motor racing,” Anderson said. “You’ve got this epic community of really like-minded individuals. I just think it’s such a cool place. There’s just nowhere like it in New Zealand that offers this unique blend of luxury lifestyle and community.”
All of the roads in the development have motor racing themes: Le Mans Grove, Silverstone Drive, Pit Lane and Daytona Avenue. Quinn’s Way is named after Tony Quinn, the visionary owner of Highlands, said Anderson.
Highlands is a motorsport park, but it’s also a tourist attraction in its own right as well. They have got a cafe there, which is a brilliant cafe, said Anderson. “They’ve got an incredible museum. They’ve got go-karts. There’s something for the whole family to do at Highlands. It’s a unique little spot.”
Anderson said Cromwell was growing in popularity among buyers who now look beyond Queenstown. “I work in Queenstown as well. Buyers often fly into Queenstown and then they discover Cromwell. It’s such a pleasure for them to discover it and they realise that [it is] 45 minutes down the road from Queenstown and from the international airport.
“Cromwell has got so many epic things. It has world-class wineries. It has the most incredible cycle trails. It has Highlands. It is such a bustling, thriving and growing community and it’s so much more affordable than Queenstown and Wanaka.”
- 22 Monaco Drive, in Cromwell, Central Otago, is seeking enquiries over $2.75m
