F1 team ex-manager rebuilds rally-worn Ferrari into ‘tool room perfect’ replica GTO
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Alastair Caldwell was McLaren’s Team Manager in their most successful years of ’74 and ’76
Alistair Caldwell is a former team manager for McLaren, and he raced a Ferrari around the Inca Trail Rally, and after it the car was left in ruins. After year done this, he discovered that a company in New Zealandhad replicated the car, and had taken it around the trail once again. Alistair commented, “The car was certainly not suited for the job, and during the rally it certainly suffered a great deal. The trip lasts for 27,000 miles, and this was not the right car to do it in.”
Then in New Zealand in 2010, Alastair read a local magazine article about a company who had replicated a GTO. He asked them to upscale his 330.
“Sadly this company in New Zealand went into receivership in the middle of doing a really bad job, so I was left with an unfinished car and a huge cost.”
Not deterred, Alastair took on the task himself. He hired three New Zealanders to complete work on the car. He tries to forget the cost of paying for the same job twice, and Alastair now owns a beautiful vehicle, which auctions at around £250k.
This year, having recently completed the 2012 Trans-America Challenge in a classic Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, Alastair is currently seeking to rally the GTO: “I have no particular event in mind as yet but will rally the car and rally it hard if need be!”
Despite having retired from Formula 1 and now in his late 60s, Alastair continues his colourful life both on the road and in business. In 1983 he established the UK’s first self storage company, Space Station.
Under increasing demand, Space Station is now the longest-running self storage company in the UK, operating in Berkshire, West London and Greater London, for domestic, business and student use – where Alastair can be found hard at work when not hard-rallying classic cars.
Alastair’s website is at www.alastaircaldwell.com
