Alastair gets his car and motorbike licenses the day he turns 15.

I was driving by the time I was twelve. I used to chauffeur my mother round because it was legal if you were accompanied by a licensed driver back then. If my mother was driving to Hamilton from the countryside I would drive there and back. The day I turned fifteen I got my license. 12th of March, 1958 there I was ready to go; next day I was back to get my motorbike license. The car test had me sitting next to a traffic policeman. He got in the car and said: ‘Do you know Franklyn?’ I said I knew it. ‘Do you know Aylesly street?’ I said yeah, sure. He said: ‘Well take me there.’

I drove carefully across town to Franklyn and he told me to stop outside the hairdressers. He got out the car and went inside and gave his girlfriend, who was one of the hairdressers, a peck on the cheek. He chatted her up for five minutes, got back in the car, and I drove him back to the police station. ‘Yeah you can drive kid,’ he said and walked off.

Then the next day I came back to the police station for my motorbike test. The test was at 10:00am and I was there at 9:45am, ready and waiting. And then at 9:55am I thought: 'Bugger, I haven’t got 10 shillings.' That was what it cost to take the test but I didn’t have any cash on me. So I jumped on the bike, roared across town to the nearest place I thought I could borrow 10 shillings, which was the family grocer shop. I knew the grocer well because I lived just down the road and I knew he would give me 10 shillings.

I ran into the shop and said: ‘Hello Mr Frank I need 10 shillings,’ and he took it out the till and put it on the tab. Back on the bike, back to the police station, slammed to a halt and now it was 10:05am. I ran inside saying: ‘Sorry I’m late, sorry I’m late, I had to go and get my 10 shillings.’ And the traffic cop said: ‘Was that you riding the bike?’

I had to admit it. Here I go I thought: banned before I even get the license. He said: ‘Where’d you go?’ So I told him I went to Berryls court to the Grocers shop. He said: 'When did ya leave?’ About 5 to 10.

‘You can ride the bike kid,’ he said and gave me the licence.

• 1943 Alastair's early years
• 1955 Licence to drive
• 1957 Alastair's High School years
• 1959 Evading the police
• 1960 Becoming a mechanic
• 1966 The Tasman series
• 1966 Leaving New Zealand
• 1967 Joining McLaren
• 1967 CanAm Door Catches
• 1967 Monza
• 1968 South Africa
• 1968 CanAm
• 1969 Driving the Formula 1 Cars
• 1973 Fittipaldi joins McLaren
• 1973 McLaren Team manager
• 1974 Montezemolo
• 1975 Hunt replaces Fittipaldi
• 1975 Hunt gets paid little
• 1976 Inventing the Air-Starter
• 1976 Six-speed Gear Boxes
• 1976 Misbehaving in Canada
• 1976 Japan
• 1977 Adidas Uniforms
• 1977 Changing Tyres
• 1977 Leaving McLaren
• 1979 Nelson Piquet
• 1980 Skirts on Formula 1 Cars
• 1981 Leaving Formula 1
• 1982 Making Lists
• 1982 Signing on
• 1982 Creating Space Station
• 1991 Highland Fling
• 1991 Classic Marathon
• 1992 Getting the Austin A35
• 1992 El Salvador
• 1993 Carerra Panamerica
• 1993 Centre of attention
• 1993 Nicest car in rally
• 1993 LeJog
• 2000 London to Sydney
• 2000 Porsche Racing
• 2000 Porsche Crashing
• 2001 Ferrari
• 2001 Inca Trail
• 2004 Berlin - Moscow - Berlin
• 2005 World Cup Rally
• 2007 Norway
• 2008 Liège-Brescia-Liège
• 2008 An Icelandic Odyssey
• 2008 North & West Africa
• 2009 West Coast America
• 2009 London to Casablanca
• 2010 New Zealand Festival of motor racing
• 2010 New Zealand Big Sky Adventure