BO’NESS SPEED HILL CLIMB This slim hard cover book was a labour of love for Kenny Baird and though it has only 64 pages he has crammed in an awful lot of information on the history of Scotland’s first permanent speed venue which first opened in 1934 and hosted its last hill climb event in 1966. For the writer it was not only a book filled with nostalgia but with a lot of new information on the history of the climb and the drivers and cars that took part. For example all the leading hill climb drivers ran at the hill, Ken Wharton, Denis Poore, Mike Christie, David and Peter Boshier Jones, Tony Marsh and the like. Bo’ness was the venue for the first ever round of the RAC Hill Climb Championship back in 1947 and in May 2007 a sixtieth anniversary get-together was arranged and was even attended by Mirlees Chassels who competed in the 1947 event. |
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| By Peter McFadyen £12.99 or US$24.95 Veloce Publishing,33 Trinity Street, Dorchester,DT1 1TT.www.Veloce.co.uk This is one of a series of superb picture books produced by Veloce Publishing. Rod Grainger is to be congratulated for producing such a variety of books that fit into a niche market that is growing every year. It is growing because of the rise and rise of interest in historic motor racing events and the proliferation of such events all over Europe and America. This book, then, is not just for “oldies” who want to re-create their moments at Oulton Park, that lovely little circuit near Chester, but for younger enthusiasts who have had their eyes opened by the variety of cars that raced in the 1960’s and are still racing today. The author, Peter McFadyen, cut his teeth on race meetings at Oulton, Donington and Aintree as Autosport’s northern correspondent and so he lived through the period and took photographs not only of the contemporary cars in all classes racing but also of the drivers. It is a wonderful evocation of British club racing at the time with some reminders of forgotten elements such as Tom Walkinshaw driving a factory F3 March, Derek Bennett racing his own B8 Chevron, Alan Rollinson with the Lotus 70, its first British appearance and sadly, Paul Hawkins in the Lola T70 just before his tragic accident. This is very much a picture and caption book but McFadyen’s captions are well thought out and written so you don’t need to read a thousand words to describe the pictures. It is fantastic value for a modest price and thumbs up to Veloce for publishing it for present and future generations. It is not just for the nostalgia buffs. GG |
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| AUTODROME The Lost Race Circuits of Europe. By S S Collins and Gavin D Ireland Veloce Publishing: ISBN 1-904788-31-9 Autodrome is one of those books you either like or you find trivial. The author has chosen an interesting selection of former race circuits and with the photographer, Gavin Ireland, has produced a book with some excellent evocative pictures. It is, however, more than this. There is a lively story about each of the circuits with some superb black and white photographs from days gone bye so giving the reader a better idea of what the original circuits were like. I must say the choice of circuits was interesting particularly as every one of them is a circuit no longer in use save for Monza where, obviously, the interest and photographic evidence features the notorious banking which was both spectacular and rough. Many people called it dangerous and though it saw a few accidents, usually due to suspension breakage, its tally of victims was less horrendous than the circuit itself. The choice of such circuits as Brooklands, Crystal Palace and Avus is logical but I am sure circuits like Keimola and Masarykringn (Brno) are real surprises. As usual with Veloce publications, the printing, paper and binding is superb and makes the price of £34.99 very reasonable. |
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Here is another book that probably would not have been published 40 years ago not only because of its price but because it is entirely composed of fascinating and superb photographs with long and detailed captions. To understand the appeal of the book you must understand that there is a large audience out there who will gobble up anything to do with Ferrari. In this instance it is Ferrari in the earlier years and as Maurice Louche owns a number of photographic collections taken by professional photographers, particularly in his native France, he has plenty of Ferrari pictures we have never seen before. He has also enlisted one of the best guides through Ferrari folklore in Jean Sage, the former team manager of Renault in Formula 1 and later a historical consultant to Ferrari. This means that the captions are written in French and English and for the real Ferrari enthusiast Sage has incorporated all the chassis numbers of the racing cars. There are around 1000 photographs in this tome that tips the scales at over a kilo and Maurice Louche for some time now has published his own books so that he has a free hand to pick and choose his photographs. He has done well with this book and it is the kind of book you will keep dipping into regularly. As for price, in Europe it costs 125 Euros but if you are buying from one of the specialist motoring bookshops in Britain you should shop around as you can pay from £95 to £110 depending on which dealer you choose. GG |
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Valescure Concours - Here in the south of France there are a number of motoring events. .... read more
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