1993. La Cucaracha dominates the press coverage of the Carerra Panamerica.

I got to the first town which was a beautiful old Mexican town with a big square with covered walkways and little shops, restaurants and bars.  I found Mr. and Mrs. Ward of the top team sitting and drinking. I asked: ‘What happened to you guys?’ The very quote of Mrs. Ward was: ‘The third fucking gear and that was it.’ They got into third gear and the engine exploded! So they coasted in to the crowd and I didn’t even see them because they were surrounded by thousands and thousands of people. I’d managed to beat them within the first two minutes of the race.

I sat there and had a drink with them and we worked that the conrod that broke in their engine and was made of titanium – that one conrod cost more than my car. They saw the funny side... evetually.

The race continued and all the cars crashed and burned and broke down, but the little A-35 didn’t crash or burn or break down. La Cucaracha got to the end and the crowd loved it. That night the rally was televised on the news and all the competitors stood up to see the big screen and see themselves on telly. The rally report came on and they showed the guy leading the rally and, in 64th place, La Cucaracha. There was a big long shot of La Cucaracha shooting across a dirt track. Then the next day on the front page of the country's only national paper, a picture of … La Cucaracha.

Suddenly the organisers realised that I’m not so much of a bad guy after all. And now they start to talk to me but by then I’m not talking to them. The car became quite famous and some entrepreneur made little triangular, blue flags with La Cucaracha written on them. All of the crowd had one of these flags. The crowds would say to the Marshals ‘Where’s La Cucaracha? Where’s La Cucaracha?’

• 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