Saturday 10th December 2022

BOOK REVIEW  By Ken Davies

CHRIS COBURN: Motorsport’s Iconic era from Mini to Dealer Team Vauxhall 

A comprehensive biography of the irrepressible Chris Coburn has just been published. Talented, versatile and multi-faceted driver, entrepreneur, engineer and skier, Coburn was a prolific mover and shaker in the world of motorsport during the 1960s/70s and instrumental in the formation of the legendary Dealer Team Vauxhall with the unmistakable DTV acronym, famous for turning ordinary rep-mobile Vauxhalls - Viva, Magnum and Firenz - into international race and rally winners.

Penned by Bryan Purves after several years of painstaking research and stone turning, the well-written 650-page hardbacked book contains more than 830 fascinating photographs - many unseen - as well as drawings, charts and technical specifications. Well indexed, the book records almost every event Chris was involved with in 1966-1976, plus features on cars and people. Although Chris provided a great deal of this content from his newspaper cuttings and records, he readily admits that these only accounted for around 15 percent of the total content, with the remainder sourced independently by the author.

Chris, together with former DTV Manager and international co-driver Rodney Spokes, who features in the book, met at the Classic Car Show at the NEC on 12 November 2022 alongside the Vauxhall Firenza in which they drove to success on the 1974 Tour of Mull. The car is currently in the distinctive livery of the 1976 Circuit of Ireland Rally, which Will Sparrow and Spokes were placed sixth. Twenty copies of the book which they took to sell on the NEC stand very quickly sold out to enthusiasts.


In 1969 Chris was one of the founder members of the International Rally Drivers Club and the 17th person to join, becoming an active member of the inaugural IRDC Committee. Chris and his partner Jackie now live near Goring on Thames, where he is just finishing the lengthy restoration of his HRG which was ‘written off’ in a road accident back in 1962. The pair spend the winter in Jackie’s home country of Switzerland where Chris still skis with aplomb, although he reckons, he is not as fast downhill as before he turned 80.

Sadly, the final pages of the book contain Chris’s own touching epitaph to author Bryan Purves who lost his battle with cancer and died just before the book was self-published by Brown Dog Books earlier this year. His widow Liz is now selling the initial, limited run of just 150 copies at £35.00, This unique and truly excellent motorsport book is worth at least double this in reading value alone as well as being a unique addition to any motorsport book collection.

CHRIS COBURN: Motorsport’s Iconic era from Mini to Dealer Team Vauxhall
Written by Bryan Purves
ISBN 978-1-83952-402-8
To order and receive payment instructions, email bryanpurvesstock@gmail.com
Price £35.00 plus UK P&P £5.00 (tracked and insured)