Friday 11th June 2021

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BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker

AUTOMOTIVE ART PROJECT: FEATURING THE N COLLECTION

This is a large, coffee table-sized book published in limited numbers by Porter Press International on behalf of Claude Nahum, the 208 pages highlighting 25 important cars from his N Collection, each nicely photographed and well described.

So far then, pretty normal. But now comes the twist.


Nahum asked six artists: Guy Allen, Tim Layzell, Yahn Janou, Psyko (Stephane Grenet), Anna-Louise Felstead and Jean-Jacques Francois, to provide their own interpretations. The result? Everything from Layzell's well-known, semi-conventional, but very appealing clear-cut style, to the really weird, and in my mind, pointless, dreamlike (nightmare?) work of Anna-Louise Felstead. Of course, to some, strange looking, near naked women, dancing around a poorly sketched Jaguar E-type might appeal. The splendid, well-written text represents the combined efforts of Steve Rendle and James Page.

To fully understand the reasoning behind this unusual publication, it's essential to know the facts. Claude Nahum's father, Bernar, created the successful Anadol brand in Turkey and passed his enthusiasm on to Claude who, after completing his engineering studies returned to Turkey, and with the help of Ford's Bill Meade, founded the Anadol Rally Team. Obviously not short of money, by the age of 40 he owned several important cars, including the first of four GT40s, two of which are recreations. Others include the David Piper continuation Ford P68 and a pair of original 'works' Ford MkI Escorts, PVX400K as rallied by Roger Clark and Timo Makinen and RWC155K, winner of the 1972 East African Safari Rally with Hannu Mikkola/Gunnar Palm.

His very nice 1963, ex-works Lotus Cortina was driven in period by Jack Sears, Trevor Taylor and Sir John Whitmore, and has since appeared at Goodwood with Claude himself driving. In fact, Claude has become an established part of the international historic motorsport scene, having raced his E-type, for example, across Europe in Peter Auto's Sixties Endurance Series.


My favourite from the collection has to be the Ferrari 250 LM, raced by Paul Hawkins and David Prophet, a truly wonderful specimen that appeared everywhere, from Spa and Daytona, to Kyalami and Sicily. With regard to artistic licence, I can just accept this valuable car depicted as an ignored heap of scrap left to rot, less palatable is the daft 'Safari Escort' picture presented by Felstead, but hey, what do I know?

It would be unkind to describe this book as the last word in vanity publishing, because it is a class act, with just a few exceptions. And it's beautifully published and lovely to handle. In fact, as a limited edition selling for a reasonable £100, it might turn out to be a very shrewd investment. Better hurry.

AUTOMOTIVE ART PROJECT: FEATURING THE N COLLECTION
Text by Steve Rendle and James Page
ISBN 978-1 913089-26-9
Available from Porter Press International
Price £100.00