MOTOR

104 march 2015 motormag.com.au

A diehard petrolhead, Alistair Lee likes nothing better than tinkering with

cars or going for a drive – but, as Paul Cockburn found, there’s a slight catch

t all began with a mutual

friend’s assumption that

Alistair Lee and I would

bond. And why not? We both

have endless appetites for

automotive adventure and, in

the all-important matter of

motoring taste, share a love

of Classic Britannia in cars,

a willingness to forgive the

mechanical informalities (let’s

be kind) of the breed and, in

choosing to use rather than roost the

things, a readiness to rebuild them as

often as is cruelly necessary.

Neither of us is much inhibited by

the constraints of originality and

accordingly modify our mounts to suit

our needs... to the extent of complete

donk-out stripdowns in pursuit of

perfection. We differ in detail, though.

While I choose to engage the skills

of others with the messy bits, Alistair

prefers the hands-on approach, fearlessly

undertaking full engine rebuilds and

all the subsequent fine-tuning. This

mechanical intimacy, however, is the

lesser of our differences. Considerably

more profound is the one that underlines

each of this extraordinary man’s

accomplishments.

Thirty-four-year-old Alistair Lee has

been blind since birth.

Automotive achievements are by no

means the limit of Alistair’s talents.

Keyboard and stringed instrument skills

reflect his academic degree in music

and the man has represented Australia

in both swimming and athletics. His

work in the voice-over industry reflects

genuine commercial skill but above

all these things towers Alistair Lee’s

principal accomplishment: the triumph

of what he can do over any limitation of

what he can’t. And nothing illustrates

this uncommon life better than its

interplay with cars.

So, where others recognise cars

visually, Alistair uses touch to identify

and adjudge each and every of his 1000-

plus collection of matchbox models.

These are his pictures. And where the

reading of instruments might inform

others of mechanical achievement, our

man’s extraordinary hearing is every

bit as graphic. So much so that, with