Grant Baker’s first car was a Ford Cortina … his current ride is a different horse. Actually, nine of them.

GRANT Baker is serial entrepreneur with a string of success stories.

You surely know of 42 Below vodka (sold to Bacardi in 2006 for $138 million) and perhaps have heard of skincare brand Trilogy (sold to CITIC Group, a state-owned investment company in China, in 2018 for $211 million).

He’s also now running with another nice little earner, Turners Automotive Group. Yeah, where ‘Tina’ works.

He’s written a book about all that. Details below.

But that’s not why we’re having a wee chat.

Baker is also well-known for his love of fine motor vehicles, particularly those from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.

Who hasn’t heard of Modena and Maranello?

Baker must be one of the few people on Ferrari’s Christmas card list who isn’t a precious resources baron.

He’s seen red … by a factor of 50. With nine in current tenure.

So as much as the 68 year-old’s memoir ‘No Pit Stops’, lends insight into his successes, set-backs and learnings from those business enterprises, this being a car website, you know what we wanted to bend his ear about.

MotoringNZ: What was the very first car you owned and what was the impetus for buying it?

Grant Baker: A Mk1 Cortina. I was a big fan of Jim Clark who raced the Mk1 Lotus Cortina and wanted to be like him.

MNZ: What was the trigger for your interest in Ferrari? F1 fan, boyhood dream?

GB: I kind of graduated to Ferrari. I’d owned about 100 different cars before I bought my first Ferrari. Once I drove a Ferrari on a test drive I didn’t really want anything else. I really love them and have owned 50 in total.

MNZ: When you realised you could afford a Ferrari, what was your first buy and when; was it a brand new car or pre-owned and do you still have it?

GB: I bought a 550 Maranello (as above), brand new in 1999. I actually sold it after about four years, then bought it back and sold it again!

MNZ: How many Ferraris do you now own and where are they all kept?

GB: I own seven now - all of which I bought new, with two more on the way. I keep them in the man cave.

MNZ: Is there a theme/pattern to your Ferrari purchase decisions?

GB: I buy lots of the new cars to drive regularly. But that also gives me access to the special editions, which I tend to hang on to.

MNZ: How do you treat your cars - daily drivers, track hacks, carefully cotton-wooled in a temperate-controlled lair with low mileages?

GB: Generally I’m the cotton wool guy but I have taken cars to Europe on Ferrari tours (as above) on 10 different occasions. So they’ve all been driven as intended.

MNZ: Do you dare tinker under the bonnet?

GB: No.

MNZ: What’s your most memorable positive Ferrari experience?

GB: Probably when I took my Enzo to Tuscany for the Ferrari Cavalcade. Five days with another 100 Ferraris and the then chairman of Ferrari, Luca de Montezemolo, in the car in front.

MNZ: Any nightmares?

GB: No, I’ve loved every minute of it and despite what people might say, all my cars have been very reliable.

MNZ: Ferrari has gone electric - are you a fan?

GB: I’m definitely a fan of the hybrids - they are so fast!! I’ve yet to see what the full electric one is like.

MNZ: If you had one piece of advice to anyone buying a Ferrari for the first time, what would it be?

GB: My main advice? Just do it. You only live once.

No Pit Stops is published by Mary Egan Publishing and comes out on May 20.