2001. Alastair decides against taking his Mercedes to the Inca Trail rally when he discovers that several are already entered.

I was going to do a rally called the Inca Trail which was an enormous journey across South America from the top right to the bottom and back to Rio. I needed a navigator to share the costs so I talked to the organisers and they came up with a gentleman to accompany me and we chose to take in the 280SL: the Tarts car.

Meanwhile I’d decided to go to India and buy a 500cc Royal Enfield motorcycle and ride it back to England. While I was doing this I wasn’t paying much attention at all the regulations of the Inca Trail. They were sending paperwork but I wasn’t responding because I was away and busy.

When I got back I looked at all this paperwork and saw that there were twelve or thirteen Mercedes in this rally and six or seven of them were 280SLs. I didn't like that at all. My Rolls Royce Silver Cloud seemed like the best option but when I asked my navigator, quick as a flash he said: 'Wouldn’t that be rather hard on fuel old chap?' He was down to pay half for this trip so had a say on what we drove. I hadn’t thought of the price of fuel as significant compared to the cost of the rally overall. The difference between the two vehicles was minor compared to entry fees and running costs. So I said: 'How about a Ferrari?' He said it sounded like an excellent idea. This made me chuckle to myself because if you’re driving past a petrol station with a Ferrari you'll feel a tug on the steering because it’s so well trained to stop at every single one it sees. I know Ferraris: a) there horrible to drive and b) you can’t go anywhere without them breaking down.

• 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