DEREK WARWICK: Never look back - The racing life of Britain’s double World Champion   Book review by Peter Baker Derek Warwick and Derek Bell have a lot in common, both proved great long distance ‘sloggers’, with multiple appearances at Le Mans and both becoming World Sportscar Champions, Warwick in 1992 just one year after his younger brother, Paul, died at Oulton Par...

CLICK HERE  - At the Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10  Book review by Peter Baker Great Cars 17: Subaru Impreza WRC - The autobiography of P8 WRC If I was to write a book about famous rally cars I would include more than one, probably make it a round dozen, maybe even more. After all, the wider the appeal, the more copies you’re likely to sell. Which goes to show that auth...

Formula 1: Car By Car 2000-2009  Book review by Peter Baker This is a very good book. I could leave it at that but, although it sums the book up nicely, I’m not sure the publishers would feel I was giving them value-for-money. And talking of value, this in depth, sixth in the series, race team analysis, with each year given its own chapter, each written by acknowledged expert Peter Hi...

How to Win a Grand Prix: From Pitlane to Podium - The Inside Track  By Bernie Collins Book Review By Ken Davies  Written in alliance with redoubtable motor racing journalist and author Maurice Hamilton, Bernie Collins’ book takes the reader through the complexities of winning in modern Grand Prix racing, where success is the sum of many parts. To put things into perspective, th...

Racing with Rich Energy - How a rogue sponsor took Formula One for a ride By Alanis King & Elizabeth Blackstock Book Review by Ken Davies     Motor racing attracts a glamorous aura together with some dubious characters! Some that spring to mind include Sidney Miller, one of several aliases of Southern Organs fame who sponsored anything that moved in national motor racing during t...

Goldie - The Amazing story of Alfred 'Goldie Gardner, the world's most successful speed-record driver. By John Mayhead Book Review by Ken Davies     Just like a story taken straight from the bushel of ripping Yarns adventure tales, Goldie charts the fascinating life of Alfred Thomas ‘Goldie’ Garner OBE, MC, arguably, the world’s most successful speed-record driver...

INSIDE OSCA: The Bolognese Miracle That Amazed The World  Book review by Peter Baker It might be that I’ve just taken ownership of my first Maserati, or it could just be my love of everything Italian, but this book pulls all the right strings. It concerns, in some depth, how the three Maserati brothers, Bindo, Ettore and Ernesto, after losing their trademark brand, created a small, th...

DRAWN TO THE WHEEL - The rallying biography of Margaret Mackenzie  Review by Peter Barker Pablo Raybould is a remarkable person. Unaided and seemingly self-motivated he has sought out some of the characters of mid-20th century British production car motorsport, researched their stories and published a number of wonderfully engaging biographies as a result. The list of personalities featured...

Fast Fords: 50 Years up close and personal with Ford’s finest  Book review By Peter Baker Author Jeremy Walton and I have a lot in common. To start with, we both peaked between 1966 and 1980, launch time for some exciting cars that could still be driven with verve on UK’s less restricted public roads. And again, something else we had in common, we both were involved, one way or ...

24h Le Mans: 1923-2023 - 100 Years of Legends – The official celebration of the Le Mans 24 Hours  Book review by Peter BakerWhen this book arrived, I naturally thought: ‘Oh no, not another one! Is there really enough room on the bookshelf for yet another glossy Le Mans ramble?’ But I was wrong. This book is different. Billed as ‘The Official Celebration of the Le Man...

Click HERE – At the Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10  BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  Exceptional Cars Series 11 - SS Jaguar 100: The remarkable history of 18008  Any car that survives 80 years can be counted a rarity. When, during that time the same car has been used consistently in competition, certainly up until September 2022, when it finished 7th in the Pre-War rac...

50 Years With Ferraris: Photographer Neill Bruce’s story of a lifetime working with Maranello Concessionaires  Book review by Peter Baker Not many photographers can claim to have worked first with ‘Woman’s Own’ magazine before joining Ferrari, or to be more precise, Maranello Concessionaires. Neill started on 1 January 1971, and stayed until ‘booted out’...

Book review by Peter Baker  PORSCHE - Boxter & Cayman: THE 981 SERIES 2012-2016  If you want to win ‘Mastermind’, pick Porsche Boxster/Cayman as your chosen subject, then go out and buy this book by long standing author Brian Long. If you can only digest half the facts within, you’ll still walk away at the series end clutching the famous glass bowl. Or, being mor...

Book review by Peter Barker The Atlas of Car Design - The world’s most iconic cars A sumptuous 568-page survey of the 65-plus most iconic cars made in the world to date (2023). Handsomely published by Phaidon with foreword and text by Jason Barlow with Guy Bird and an essay on the US car industry from Brett Berk, this book is the result of a great deal of work by an editorial team which i...

Tyrrell: The Story of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation Book review by Peter Baker Why anybody should want to run a race team I have no idea. Except no other occupation, except perhaps three-card brag, can give you so many highs, and lows, compressed into such a short space of time. Up one minute, down the next. A dozen second places, that nobody remembers, equals one win. Maybe. But ask, and they...

Book Review  By Ken Davies The Metro 6R4 Diaries Author Wynne Mitchell is a seasoned automotive engineer with considerable competition experience, having started his career as a student apprentice with the Rootes Group before studying mechanical engineering at Birmingham University. Wynne joined Austin Rover Group (ARG) July 1984 to work on the company’s sensational offering for the...

Click HERE – At the Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10 BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker SUPERBEARS: THE STORY OF HESKETH RACING Rich kid starts Formula 1 team. Strikes lucky. Wins a couple of races. Then runs out of money and fades into obscurity. Boring. Only, in the case of rich kid Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, along with his public school pals, the very word boredom was anath...

BOOK REVIEW  By Ken Davies  Memory Lanes.… rally tales - Stories about rallying from the 1960s and 1970s  The latest volume of Peter Robinson’s Memory Lanes…. rally tales series has just been released and the hexad of this popular double trilogy is possibly his best so far. Providing stories about rallying from the 1960s and 1970s, Peter’s latest high qua...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  FORMULA 1 TECHNOLOGY: The engineering explained  It would be easy to criticise this book, after all, since Steve committed his words to paper, the ever-evolving world of Formula One has changed, in some areas quite considerably. So, I’m thinking: Why write an out-of-date book, when the subject matter is primarily social media material. This is th...

BOOK REVIEW  by Ken Davies    Life on the Wilds side! - My half century-plus as a professional racing driver  It seems that Mike Wilds’ face has been a familiar sight in motorsport forever and the versatile driver has grown into a motor racing treasure. Back in May 2019 I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike for Castle Combe Talk and he was a delight to work with; frien...