The 1964 Fiat Abarth Berlina Corsa, driven by Rotorua businessman Phil Lowe with co-driver Phil Sutton, has started and finished all of the 20 Targas held in New Zealand.
The inaugural Targa South Island will be the last for the little crowd-pleaser, often spotted on two wheels.
It will be retired after the last day on Saturday in Queenstown, close to its final resting place at the Highlands National Motorsport Museum in Cromwell.
The Fiat is the only car in the Targa to have started and finished every event.
Retaining that unblemished record of finishes is Lowe's main focus this week and, on the way, he hopes to pick up, for the sixth time, the trophy for the most consistent performance based on a formula using the car's age, engine size and final placings.
"That's the trophy we covet,'' he said.
Based on the Fiat 600 platform, performance house Abarth fits a 1000cc engine producing 74kW, compared with the original engine producing 15kW.
He bought the car in Sydney in 1991 as a road car. Then the first Targa was announced, and it turned into a rally car.
It has completed 80,000 racing kilometres.
Yesterday, on some of the stages, he reached 185kmh. Anything over 160kmh he describes as ''quite exciting''.
There were too many fast special stages yesterday, the Fiat liking ''tight, twisty downhill''.
They did add to their score of Porsches. Each event, Porsche transfers are stuck on the side of the car like a World War 2 flying ace - every time they catch one, a badge gets crossed off.
He is going to miss the Fiat, but a love for the Italian cars will see it replaced with a new Abarth 500 RST - the hot version of the latest 500.
The old car goes with many great memories, one of which was rolling it on its side on his very first Targa.
''I found out it would travel OK on two wheels up to 45 degrees. It fell over at 46.''
Spectators came out and rolled the car back upright.
A few weeks later he received an anonymous package from a spectator. Inside was the crushed racing mirror.
It was ''panel-beaten out'' and is still on the car, somewhat scraped and pitted.
''It's part of the story,'' Lowe said.
