1991. Alastair is persuaded to take part in the Highland Fling and finds he enjoys being poorly received in his 'tart's car'.

The first historic rally I entered was called the Classic Marathon. This was an international rally which meant you had to have an international licence. I didn’t have an international licence so I had to do four domestic rallies in the UK to get one. I entered the Highland Fling with a neighbour of mine, I did it in my wife’s 280SL Mercedes, which I bought for her; it wasn’t meant to be a rally car.

Well the Highland Fling was a hoot. The car was brilliant because people in the rally didn’t consider it a rally car: they thought it was a tart’s car. They asked me what I did and I told them I was a hairdresser and they believed me. They made me take the hubcaps off because they didn’t think it looked like a rally car at all, so I very reluctantly gave in and left them in the lobby of the hotel.

One of the best tests they had was a hill climb up the old rest-and-be-thankful, which was a pretty rough, steep road. I was sent out last because they thought I was rubbish. I was car 60 out of 60. When we got to the top of the hill the marshall was waiting for us; a caricature of a Scotsman with a sporran, kilt, big wooly socks and a skind00 (traditional Scottish dagger). I asked him: ‘How did I get on?’ He said: ‘Och you get that tonight laddy.’ I said: ‘No no, I’m the last car up, you’ve got the times there, how did I get on?’ He said: ‘No no no you get that tonight laddy.’ So I reached out and plucked the list out of his hand, much to his amazement, and looked down the list: I was fastest.

My fellow competitors in the Highland Fling were funny because some of them were just so competitive and serious. The fact that we finished third overall enraged them because we weren’t meant to be car 60, not car 3.

They had other trials that we enjoyed such a tests in car parks. I love to read the rally regulations like I used to do in motor racing and I looked at the different rules and saw that knocking over a cone was a 5-second penalty. I calculated that if I knocked over three cones it’s a 15-second penalty but I can go from start to the finish in 2 seconds. So I did, and won. Everyone else was going round the cones in 30 seconds. I just drove straight there and added 15 seconds to my time.

That didn’t go down well so the next year they introduced a new rule that gave a big penalty for ‘not attempting the cones.’

• 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