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...

Click HERE – At the Checkout enter Discount code RETRO10  BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  Audi R8: The Autobiography of R8-405  I’m not sure about this book. It’s very subject specific, which in itself is okay. After all, Ian’s attention to detail is as always second to none. But to my mind, it’s about the wrong car. Chassis number R8-405 only won ...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  FERRARI 1960-1965: The hallowed years  This very collectible book is as much a testament to the outstanding ability of motorsport photographer Bernard Cahier, as it is the ongoing talent and determination of the late Enzo Ferrari and the book’s author, French journalist William Huon. Bernard possessed not only the canny knack of being in the rig...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  JACKY ICKX: His authorised competition history  In 1963, a well-established importer of BMW into Belgium decided to support a young 18-year-old aspiring race driver. The underpowered BMW 700 Coupe produced a meagre 44bhp, just enough to learn on. The teenager went on to drive for Ferrari, finishing runner-up in the F1 World Championship and winning at ...

BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker  Driven To Crime: True stories of wrongdoing in motor racing  Just the job for those looking to keep hubby quiet during the forthcoming festivities. Whether he’s worth £40.00 after wasting so much of the family fortune on rusted out classics during 2022 is another thing all together. Here we have the best part of 500 pages given over to man...

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 forma...

BOOK REVIEW  By Ken Davies  Every Picture Tells a Story: The 1958 Monaco Grand Prix  Proving every picture tells a story, Welsh motorsport author Richard Jones has self-published a fascinating book from an idea provided by an evocative painting that captures just a brief snapshot from a hot and sunny May afternoon in the tiny Mediterranean principality of Monaco. In fact, the origi...