Books for the armchair racer

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 2 (Supplement)

Books for the armchair racer

Car rallies and formula racing attract the interest of many fathers, whose participation in the sports rarely goes beyond the armchair.

Appropriately for Fathers’ Day, there are books to cater for this interest. Some only the true devotee will appreciate as they expound on the advantages of bigger carburettors and chassis improvements in successive racing models. Others will simply fill another slot in the library bookshelf, to be picked out and dipped into on Sunday afternoons. Others, still, with their racey texts and superb illustrations will appeal to almost any reader who has the merest smattering of interest in motors.

But all contain those details essential to any good car book: photographs that can be admired for their action, daring, humour or historical interest.

Technical details vary according to the market the author has chosen. But the texts tell much the same story, whatever the car model, and are often secondary to the pictures and captions. An exception would have to be Rob Golding’s “Mini,” the biography of one of the most popular cars ever to come off the production line. Golding has taken as much effort in styling his account as Sir Alec Issijonis took in styling his first Mini more than 20 years ago. His book contains a wealth of detail, written in a relaxed, readable style, well-supported by excellent action pictures.

The more mechanically-

minded reader will find enough technical details to satisfy his curiosity, from a chronology of model development, to engine data and production figures.

Rob Golding's entertaining account is not limited to the familiar two-door, second-family-car model so popular all over the world. He devotes chapters to competition and rally vehicles, to luxury models and cu-riosity-pieces that never went into production.

Two books aimed at a more specialised audience are Jeremy Walton’s “Unbeatable 8.M.W.” and Chris Harvey’s “Jaguars in Competition.” Like its German subject,

Walton’s book is a masterpiece of thoroughness, given a somewhat regimented appearance by its concentrated text and large type. This is a reference book to dip into, a detailed history narrative for the initiated. Walton tells of the factory cars — of their racing and technical development. The development of the B.M.W. 700, the versatile four-cylinder single overhead camshaft engine originally in the 1500 saloon, the 1800 and 2000 four-doors, the 2002 series, and the 320 are all described in detail. Personalities like Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson, Chris Amon and Jackie Ickx help fill out this

analytical study of one of racing’s famous cars. “Jaguars in Competition” is another story, but related in a similar manner. Readers interested in technical developments which have changed the world of racing in the last 60 years will find the photographs absorbing, as they trace intricate changes in styling. Curiously absent are the action pictures which one expects of a racing book, and readers may be disappointed with a text which lacks some of the cars’ distinctive class. If fathers cannot devote themselves actively to motor sports, they can at least enjoy another man’s appreciation through books on Fathers’ Day.