BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker The Essential Buyer’s Guide – FIAT & PININFARINA: 124 SPIDER & AZZURA SPIDER (AS-DS) 1966 TO 1985 As a serial classic car buyer I love these non-patronising, compact guides by Veloce, written by marque experts and available for just £13.99. There are no wasted words and no emotion. Just plenty of pictures highlighting the advantages, a...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker quattro – THE RACE AND RALLY STORY: 1980-2004 It might seem odd beginning this review talking about Lancia. But never mind. With the introduction of Group B, rallying suddenly became much more aggressive, and very competitive. Even so, in 1983 Audi could easily have won the World Championship of Makes. Unfortunately, because of Lancia, they didn’t...

Click HERE – At the Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10  BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker Exceptional Cars 10: Alfa Romeo T33/TT/3 – The remarkable story of 115.72.002 When Ian Wagstaff needs to concentrate he avoids distraction by retreating to his small island cottage located off the west Scottish coast. When I met him a couple of months ago Ian had just returned, claspin...

BOOK REVIEW  By Ken Davies. Images courtesy Christabel Carlisle. Christabel Carlisle ‘Mini Virtuoso’ In truth, this stranger than fiction story is a potential blockbuster film script in the making! It’s the tale of a demure, gentile and determined piano teacher from Kensington who tastes the infectious excitement of motor racing while on a day trip to Brands Hatch with f...

BOOK REVIEW  By Ken Davies. Images by Ken Davies Brian Culcheth – Global Travels of a Rally Champion Written by Pablo Raybould in close collaboration with Brian Culcheth, this book meticulously charts Brian’s career as a professional competition driver from his formative years – duly inspired by a proactive Harrow Car Club – to becoming one of the most successful fa...

CLICK HERE – At Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker ROFGO Collection This is a very difficult book to categorise. On first glance I thought of it as no more than a glorified and exclusive, I nearly said expensive, auction catalogue, albeit one without prices. And even now, after carefully re-reading, that initial thought still lingers. Sorry if this sou...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker JOCHEN RINDT – UNCROWNED KING OF FORMULA 1 Four-hundred-and-eighty pages, plus plenty of pictures, all wrapped up in a paperback costing just £14.99. A genuine bargain. Some say Rindt was a madman, others that, had he not died at Monza in 1970, he would have gone on to repeat his World Champion status several times. Both are probably true. I watched...

BOOK REVIEW  By Ken Davies Gilbern – A Dragon’s Tale: The Definitive History of Wales’ only Production Car During Gilbern Cars existence – 1960 to 1974 – the marque had the distinction of being Wales’ only production car manufacturer. Esteemed motoring author Martin Morgan-Jones has captured the capricious history of the low volume Welsh car maker in his...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker SHADOW – The magnificent machines of a man of mystery  The quality of this book is outstanding, even by EVRO standards. It tells the story of Donald (Don) Robert Nichols, a complex personality, and his Formula One, Can-Am and Formula 5000 Shadow race cars, nicely blended together by well-respected historian and ex-race reporter Pete Lyons. Four hundre...

CLICK HERE – At Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker The All-American Hero and Jaguar’s Racing E-types – Briggs Cunningham’s Le Mans Dream, US road racing and the legendary Jaguar E-type I’ve noticed that recently book titles are becoming increasingly, almost as long as the book itself. However, in this case the extension is more t...

Click HERE – At the Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker Exceptional Cars 9: Ferrari 857S – The remarkable history of 0578M There are two very good reasons for buying this book, even before reading it. Firstly, it’s written by my Guild of Motoring Writers colleague, Ian Wagstaff, so you’re guaranteed a good story, well written and with a...

BOOK REVIEW  BY Peter Baker Formula 1: Car by Car 1950-59 We all know that in Grand Prix racing money talks, but here in Peter Higham’s superlative reference work it seems nothing is further from the truth. During the seasons 1950-59, private teams, even individuals, were circulating toe-to-toe with top professionals in a wide mix of cars. HWM, Connaught, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo. Moss,...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker TAKE RISK! – The amazing story of the people who made possible Richard Noble’s extreme projects on land, at sea and in the air Not much bigger than a paperback, but nicely bound with some great images, TAKE RISK! is a terrific read and possibly one of the best books of 2020. Richard tells a gripping story that blends dreams with reality, success with...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker Brooklands - The Sports Car Endurance Races It’s inevitable that Brooklands – The Sports Car Endurance Races, written by school master and enthusiast David Blumlein, as an informative work, be compared with William Boddy’s exhaustive History of the Brooklands Motor Course, which perhaps is a little unfair. After all, this was Boddy’s life ...

CLICK HERE – At Checkout enter Discount code: RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker Great Cars 14: Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe – The Autobiography of CSX2300 If ever a racer merited the title Great Car, it is the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. Very special in 1964, some of us will recall Jack Sears making the headlines when he exceeded 180mph during late night testing on the M1 mo...

CLICK HERE – At Checkout enter Discount Code: RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter BakerPorter Profiles: Jaguar D-type – The story of XKD 526 This book, retailing at just £20.00, shares the same build quality as Porter Press International top end products, but with only 98 pages, including index, there is just less to enjoy.Only three Jaguar D-types went to Aust...

CLICK HERE – Discount code RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker Exceptional Cars 8: FerrarI 250 GT SWB – The remarkable history of 2689GT  Any book about Ferrari published by Porter Press International, and written by our friend Richard Heseltine, is worth adding to one’s collection, especially when it costs just £30.00 (or less when ordered through Retro-Speed ...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  KTM X-BOW The KTM X-BOW, dramatic in appearance and packed with advanced technology, is the quintessential 21st century race car, built for the road. This intensely enthusiastic volume, written by Dr Thillainathan Pathmanathan and Dr. Anne Christina Reck, will provide the enthusiast of such projectiles with hours of entertainment, although I suspect they ...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker Niki Lauda: His competition history For those of you thinking: ‘Oh no, not another book about Niki Lauda’, stay with me, because this latest title from EVRO Publishing ignores the obvious, and instead concentrates on Niki’s surprisingly varied race career. John Watson MBE provides the foreword, Doug Nye the preface and, in conclusion, long ter...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker The Great British Rally: RAC to Rally GB – The Complete Story Winter in the early 1900s, even in Torquay, was traditionally a quiet time for hotels and restaurants, most putting the shutters up at the end of the season, reopening only when the next year’s first cuckoo appeared. In fact, it’s fair to say, the whole country west of Bournemouth t...