A Life Behind the Wheel

When he was at his desk, you would usually find him reading airfreighted copies of Auto Express, studying the first reviews of the latest cars. Colin had to be up to speed on the latest industry trends. For his entire life, the big motor shows were an annual highlight; he told us in 2020, “I still like going to motor shows to see the latest and greatest cars. Going to Geneva or Paris to get the first look at the next season’s cars – if you were using a fashion term – still excites me. We always want to sell the latest and greatest; that’s what keeps the business going.

Cars really are like fashion, and the fashion now is electric vehicles.”

Having first met Colin on the pit lane of the Paul Ricard Circuit in France, where the ear-splitting noise of an unmuffled race engine, combined with the aroma of freshly burnt racing fuel seemed to ignite in him a whole new level of enthusiasm.

So I was a little surprised when he left the A1GP test day early, missing the all-important timed run of the full grid, the first real chance to discover who was the fastest nation. I then received a phone call from Colin, instructing me to bring the timesheet from the session to his yacht, moored in Bandol on the Côte d’Azur.

He’d left to host a business meeting between Fisher & Paykel bosses and A1GP founder Sheikh Maktoum to improve the Kiwi brand’s foothold in Dubai. But dish drawers were quickly forgotten when Colin got his hands on the lap times, which showed New Zealand were second quickest; the only nation faster was Brazil.

Few things made Colin smile more than a screaming race engine, especially if one of his drivers was behind the wheel. Although in recent years, he had also developed a soft spot for the relative silence offered by EV’s.

“Believe it or not, I’ve fallen in love with electric cars,” he told us. “If you’d asked me two years ago, I’d have said not a chance. But after driving a Jaguar I-Pace in London and then an Audi e-Tron in Auckland, I’m absolutely sold on them. They are so good around town. The quietness, everything; it’s quite an advancement.

Everybody has to be a bit green today; we have to look after the planet for future generations.”

Being “a bit green” was a big thing for Colin over the last few years, and both the Giltrap Group’s new parts distribution centre near Auckland Airport and the company’s flagship HQ, 119GNR, were designed to achieve the highest possible Green-Star rating.

“We were very keen to have a top-rated green building. We’re selling cars designed to have the lowest possible emissions, so it’s good to have a green building for the future. This is built for the long term.”

Cars were a lifetime love for Giltrap, who was in the business a decade before co-founding Monaco Motors on Hamilton’s Victoria Street in 1966. 

He started trading cars while still at New Plymouth Boys High School, beginning with Morris Minors.

“Since I was a young lad going to school, I was keen on luxury cars. When I was 18, I would buy used Jags’ – the Mark 1 2.4’s. I bought every one of them I could in Auckland and sold them in the Taranaki. 

“My father had an agricultural equipment showroom that I would use to put the occasional special car on display in. His business did well, and he moved on to Hamilton. So, when he retired and sold the business, it gave me the opportunity to concentrate on good cars.”

In 1970, he acquired Matamata Motors and began a four-decade-long run as one of New Zealand’s leading Holden dealers. However, the move to Auckland twelve months later, when Colin bought Coutts & Company on Great North Road, laid the foundations for today’s Giltrap Group.

The established dealership included “a lump of import licences”.

In the days of strict import restrictions, building his allocation was crucial for bringing in the cars he was passionate about.

That passion has been paralleled by good fortune. The perfect example was the purchase of Coutts’ which included the distribution of what was then a boutique brand: Audi.

“Audi grew to Volkswagen, Bentley and all the great cars that are part of that Group today,” he said.

1975 was a hallmark year for Colin when he became the New Zealand distributor for Porsche, a brand he had loved since the 1950s

It is easier to list the automotive brands that Colin hasn’t been involved with, such was his influence on the industry in this country.

He once owned New Zealand’s biggest Toyota and Mercedes-Benz dealerships, along with Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Mazda, BMW, and Ford franchises.

Some called his ability to spot the next big brand a ‘sixth sense’; whether it was gut feeling, intuition, luck, industry knowledge…or all of those, Colin made some incredibly prescient decisions. The perfect example was in 1984 when he became the importer of Hyundai, a brand virtually unknown outside South Korea. At the time, Venezuela was the only country with a Hyundai distributor.

Today, Hyundai is one of New Zealand’s and the world’s top automakers.

Colin’s passion for performance, especially in its ultimate form, motorsport, was hand in hand with the love of luxury cars.

“I get a kick out of watching a young Kiwi driver like Liam Lawson come up and take on the world. It’s been great watching New Zealand drivers come to the attention of the big teams.”

Over and over again, the lines have converged in an almost poetic nature. Fifty years after he became friends with the late Bruce McLaren, Colin would open the world’s 50th McLaren dealership. 

From running Denny Hulme and Stirling Moss in endurance events to owning the race car Scott Dixon drove to victory in Indy Lights, Giltrap has been inextricably linked to Kiwi motorsport success. Make that Kiwi success, because the most successful racers Colin supported, are the Olympic, World and America’s Cup Champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.

His link with motorsport is inextricable. It’s a 62-year love affair that started when he was pit crew for his mate Tony Shelly at the 1962 NZGP. That day at Ardmore was when he decided that New Zealanders could take on and beat the world.

Before the advent of A1GP in 2005, Giltrap’s support was mainly low-key. Once his ‘Black Beauty’ started winning in A1GP, however, the black and white Giltrap Group logo displayed across the car’s flanks and then on helmet visors became synonymous with success. Racers like GP3 World Champion Mitch Evans, V8 Supercar Champion and NASCAR driver Shane van Gisbergen, Le Mans winners Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber, and, of course, both Hartley and Lawson in Formula One all sported the Giltrap Group logo.

Colin seldom missed a race, either on TV or in person.

If you wanted to see how big his smile could be, you only needed to bump into him on a pre-race grid at Le Mans, Indianapolis or Monaco, where he was almost giddy with excitement at seeing a Kiwi driver taking on the world. 

But if Giltrap was at the heart of motorsport, it is because motorsport was in his heart. 

The romance blossomed in the 1960s when Giltrap joined the Formula One jet set, which spent European winters racing in New Zealand. 

“One of my favourite times was the Tasman Series when we had (Sir) Jackie Stewart, Jimmy Clark, Bruce (McLaren), Graham Hill and Phil Hill here. We used to go water skiing at Lake Karapiro and Lake Taupo, all together as friends. Jackie Stewart is still a very good friend and a terrific guy.”

Those enduring friendships, whether with Formula One legends or customers of several decades, arguably define Colin. He loved people as much as he loved the deal. He seldom forgot a name or, in some cases, the colour of the car he sold someone’s grandmother 50 years ago. In a complex business, he was uncomplicated.

Wealthy, yes, but also unbelievably humble, even unassuming.

Most of all, he did what he loved.

“I’ve never wanted or thought of doing anything else. I’m so happy that the path I have been lucky enough to take has gone so well for us all.”