Racing's shy dreamer

Colin Giltrap is one of New Zealand's richest - and shyest - men.

The amazing thing," say his friends gathered for the launch of the A1 Grand Prix motor racing series, is that Colin Giltrap spoke at all.

Admittedly he didn't talk for long. Giltrap spoke after the eerie booming of the conch shell, the calling by the Maori maiden and the haka.

He spoke after Jonathan Hunt, the High Commissioner, welcomed this crowd of around 120 to New Zealand House on the Haymarket, London, and the 28-year-old, Boston-educated Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, of the hugely wealthy ruling family of Dubai, creator of the A1 series, who oozed wealth from every thread of his shiny grey suit and tie, made his rather good jokes.

He spoke after the unveiling of the torpedo-shaped black and silver New Zealand racing car and the introduction of the drivers.

Even then Giltrap, one of New Zealand's richest men, and certainly its shyest, managed only a few words. "Thank you very much. It's great to be part of A1GP," he coughed out, in his distinctive machine-gun, gravelly growl.

"We're all very thrilled. Thank you."

The applause from this crowd of motor racing legends and enthusiasts, sponsors, ex-All Blacks, hangers-on, media and friends, was more surprised than enthusiastic. Behind his back, people talk about the integrity and generosity of this man.

As one says, "He's no ordinary car dealer. Colin's the only man I can shake on a deal with in the evening and know it'll happen in the morning. The only person."

For Giltrap, 65, the launch is the coming together of a dream that began when he was a car-mad "young fella" at New Plymouth Boys High School.

"I've always dreamed about getting involved with an overseas series," he'd said a week earlier in his spectacularly spacious penthouse flat in posh Belgravia, opposite the Carlton Tower hotel owned by the Sheikh.

This is the first time the man whose luxury car dealerships have made him a legend in New Zealand has granted a profile interview, either for the local or international media.

Why talk now? The formula for the A1 Grand Prix appeals to the patriot in Giltrap. Drivers race for their country rather than a manufacturer and therefore the series doesn't attract the huge costs of Formula One.

Driving talent is all-important and electronic gizmos, modifying the cars (and the chance to cheat) have hopefully been eliminated. As Giltrap says, eyes sparkling, "It's the World Cup of motor sport. A nation-against-nation contest created to test their best young drivers."

And he needs sponsors.

Once unleashed, Giltrap is an interesting subject. After the cancelled meetings that dragged on for half a year, I had expected a guarded tough guy.

Giltrap turns out to be friendly, candid, even warm. He sits there, surrounded by an amazing selection of auto magazines in neat piles, talking at first hesitantly, then with vigour.

Below he has five car parks. He drives a Bentley or Mercedes here, laughs at the thought of employing a chauffeur like his neighbours.

"I borrow one occasionally, if I really have to."

His voice is fair dinkum Kiwi with no trace of the pretentious round vowels that creep into the speech of New Zealanders who spend serious time in London.

As he is quick to point out, he and his down-to-earth, elegant wife Jenny are New Zealand residents, spending only four to five months a year in Britain, will always see Auckland as home and pay tax in New Zealand.

"I'm not here for the same reasons as some people," he says. "I feel New Zealand's been kind to me and I've gotta pay my taxes - and very happy to. I don't want to pay it to some other country that hasn't made me what I am today, you know."

Tomorrow Giltrap's black and silver dream car will line up at Brands Hatch, alongside 24 drivers from countries including China, the United States, and Britain. And, says Giltrap, although our young drivers, Jonny Reid and Matt Halliday, need some races before they are up to speed, we stand a good chance.

"The Brazilians said we were bloody quick, and for a couple of days we were quicker ... amazingly quick."

All cars, which cost around $350,000 each, plus spare parts, are identical, low slung, aerodynamic road rockets, complete with front and rear wings, Lola chassis with sealed, Zytek V8 engines producing more than 550hp and tyres supplied by Avon. There are no electronic driver aids. Each team runs two cars. There is no refuelling, only one tyre change.

By grand prix standards, the races are short: a 15 to 30-minute sprint to establish grid position, an hour for the main race.

Says Giltrap, "The cars will be within a hair's breadth from each other the whole time. [The difference will be] milliseconds."

The prize for each race is US$1 million ($1.44 million).

Ever since he heard about the series through a motor racing friend, Giltrap has been hooked on the A1 concept.

"I'd been looking for a way to help young drivers," he says. "I really feel we have the talent in New Zealand."

He set about pushing New Zealand's case with all his considerable energy, business know-how, high-flying connections and financial muscle.

In this company, despite our proud motor racing record, New Zealand is a midget. And Giltrap, on NBR's 2005 Rich List with an estimated fortune of $285 million (an entry he refuses to confirm or deny, "I've never talked to them"), and his yacht, Harlequin, berthed at Antibes in the South of France, was not an automatic starter.

"The Sheikh prefers larger countries, for the better exposure they give. The principals had to be major business people or governments. He wasn't keen on giving the franchises to drivers."

As Giltrap explains, Al Maktoum, an economics graduate, wants the series to act as a facilitator for trade, country to country, which is why he has included China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and other newcomers to the grand prix scene, in the lineup.

"No exaggeration. He can pick up the phone to 25 heads of state. He is talking big names: Kofi Annan is expected to raise the flag at Brands Hatch ... Nelson Mandela went to the South African launch ... "

What Giltrap does have is a passion for cars and racing that matches his rivals, plus the will to dig deep.

"Really it takes about $10 million a year to run the whole thing," he says. "Obviously there'll be a substantial shortfall in the first year and I'll have to finance it. But the people running it assure me we should catch up a lot of that. Should break even the second year, run a profit the third."

So far Fisher & Paykel and Zespri are major sponsors with Line 7 providing clothes and uniforms. "If we can do well it'll be fantastic for the country. Another thing for New Zealand to get behind."

For Giltrap, the A1GP series is the culmination of an idea dreamed up when his father owned an earth-moving business in New Plymouth. Colin drove the odd saloon car and sports car.

"I was no super star, but [I was] quite good. I should've been with the amount of mileage I used to do on the roads. Hundreds of thousands a year buying cars all over New Zealand and bringing them back to Auckland and Hamilton."

Around the age of 25 he started Monaco Motors in Hamilton, specialising in luxury cars. Next came Matamata Motors, a GM, Holden dealership, then the move to Auckland.

"I bought Coutts on Great North Rd. It had a number of franchises, Daimler and NSU, then we added Triumph and Rover ... before the Japanese cars dominated the market. Then we got BMW, Audi and Porsche, Mazda and quite a few others, and on and on."

From then he acquired different dealerships and operated them to the maximum - "building them up to bigger turnover and volume and trying to get the best service possible."

He says the market for luxury cars has been building over the past three to four years and leasing to own, which he finances people into, is much more acceptable.

"In fact it's the norm," he says. "People are enjoying their money while they're younger.

"What's my secret? More so than ever today, the biggest thing is looking after the customers we've got. We're pretty good at that."

He and Jenny met in Hamilton when she was 17. They married in 1968. They have two sons, Michael and Richard, who work in the family business in Auckland.

For around 20 years the family lived in Monteray, a Pete Bosley-designed, waterfront home in Herne Bay. The section was large, the views across the harbour spectacular. Last year they sold for $7.2 million and moved to a penthouse apartment at Lighter Quay on the Viaduct.

Although he loved the old place and the dogs and kids that went with it, Giltrap is well pleased with the new apartment with its garaging for the Porsche and park for a smaller boat (the big one won't fit).

"The thing is, we're overseas quite a lot, we can leave, turn the key and walk away at a moment's notice, without having to organise pool sweepers, gardeners, housekeepers and so on."

As his career matured, Giltrap became a favoured mentor for the car dealing and racing industries, answering questions, helping with problems, coming up with money when it was most needed.

Drivers who got behind the wheel of his cars included Larry Perkins and Danny Sullivan (who drove Giltrap's March-racing car in the New Zealand Grand Prix 1977-78 series), Peter Brock, Stirling Moss and Danny Hulme.

Four years ago he bought a car for Scott Dixon who went on to win the Indy Lights championship and then the IRL. Says Giltrap, who promptly framed the helmet Dixon gave him after winning the Indycar series, "He'll be driving our car for selected races."

Although, he adds, "It would be ironical if our two young ones [Reid and Halliday] are even better. They bloody could be, you know. They've been amazing in testing."

He and Jenny also became involved in substantial, and varied, charity work. "I'm especially proud of what my wife and I have done for the Starship for the past 15 years," he says.

"She was particularly involved in the early days." They have been involved with Sky City in sponsoring the Symphony in the Park, whose proceeds go to breast cancer work. "It's a substantial investment. Well over six figures spent every year ... all [the profit] goes to charity."

Twenty years ago, when Giltrap acquired a large Mercedes dealership in London, they bought the Belgravia flat. The company is now sold and has become a public company, HR Owen, says Giltrap, who is still substantially involved.

It's also an easy hop to the Monaco Grand Prix and their yacht, which they sailed to Valencia for the America's Cup trials. "We had a great time with the New Zealand team, celebrating their wins. We hope to be down with them in Sicily in October."

Back home Richard, 32, who is married with a daughter and son, and Michael, 30 and engaged, are joint managing directors of the family company, Giltrap Holdings.

Richard is also president of the Motor Industry Association.

"They're not interested in [living in] the UK at the moment, they've got too much to occupy them in New Zealand," says Giltrap.

They are, however, breaking their necks to get here for the next two A1GP races.

They also keep a watchful eye on their father. "The family said if I didn't have someone to run it for me I wasn't allowed to do it," says Giltrap, who promptly employed Bob McMurray as CEO.

A New Zealander who had spent 30 years with McLaren, McMurray heads a 90 per cent New Zealand team including Dick Bennetts, "one of the best team managers in the world".

McMurray's office is the Giltraps' old ground-floor flat where they lived before they bought the penthouse. Giltrap moves between both, counting down to the first race at Brands Hatch.

He plainly can't wait until the 25 identical racing machines line up, led by the pace car in its United Nations colours, Kofi Annan drops the flag and the starter proclaims: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the pride of your nations, start your engines.

"My whole aim - and I have this assurance from the Sheikh - if Hampton Downs is finished in Meremere, in year three we'll have a round in New Zealand."

He pauses and smiles at the thought of a dream come true. "We'll get a race in New Zealand."