If I was to make a top five list of dream jobs as a kid it would largely consist of Race Car Driver, Top Gear Presenter, Space Man, Super Hero and as a kid who drew cars obsessively, Car Designer.
Sadly I am yet to achieve any of my top five, and other than a handful of race drivers, I have yet to even meet anyone who has any of those highly prized vocations.
This changed recently however, due to a chance meeting at a VW, Audi club meet when I met a new comer who had just returned from England where he had been working.
We chatted about his B5 Audi Wagon and how he had brought it over with him as he couldn’t bare to part ways with it and when the subject turned to what he had been up to in England, his answer took me by surprise. Alex was a car designer who had worked for, among other things, McLaren Automotive.
Obviously I was fascinated to learn his story of how he managed to go from a kid who liked to draw cars to working for an icon of NZ motor racing history, so one afternoon I meet up with Alex at his parents house to find out just how someone can achieve one of the top five.
Roger Baillie (@Rojn8r)
All concept images by Alex Schultz.