2007. Once again Alastair impresses all with his unsuitable car when he finished 2nd in the Norway Classic Marathon.

The Classic Marathon is an English rally that I did in Norway in 2007 with the Rolls on little dirt roads. I took the back seats out of the car because I was told that booze was expensive in Norway. I filled it with fourteen cases of wine plus Gin and Vodka and mixers and a fridge. The back seat was a huge off-licence. Every night we’d buy one bottle of wine at the restaurant and no one could work out how our glasses stayed full.

All the cars were lined up for the Ferry in Newcastle headed for Norway. There were hot-shots there with lightweight cars, lightweight clothing, and no suitcases in the car because they had a luggage truck. Several of them came across to me with big grins on their faces and asked if I knew what the roads were like in Norway and I just said: 'No.'.

I pretended to be clueless as they told me that the roads were narrow and they didn’t want me getting in the way. They were basically complaining and I said: 'Well, if you catch me up, I’ll get out of the way instantly, don’t you worry. I know it’s a big car, but I’ll find somewhere to put it.' They’d walk away mumbling and complaining under their breath.

The rally was a week long and I led it for the first four days. I finished second in the end, beaten by a Lotus Cortina. No one came to see me after that. Funny that.

One hill climb was a little tiny dirt road and the organisers came over and said they didn’t think I should do it. I was leading the rally and I said: 'I think I should.' They didn’t think I’d be able to get up it and I said: 'Well if I can’t get it up, nobody else will be able to.'

I completed the climb and that night I was having my little cocktail party in the back of the car when some of these hot-shots came by and to my great joy asked me how I got on. They couldn’t bear to wait for the results, they wanted to beat me because I was leading. They asked: 'How’d you get on?' and I said: 'Oh it was a disaster, I was two seconds late.' Brilliant, most of them were ten or twenty seconds late, I’d beaten all of them.

• 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
• 1981 Making Lists
• 1981 Signing on
• 1981 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