Four Small Wheels 2/2003

new books

ISBN3893659609 Tourenwagen Story 2002 £18.95
weight 1.5kg by Thomas Voigt (German text)

Following on from last month’s huge quantity of annuals, we have another that will go straight into our library. Tourenwagen Story covers in lavish colour, all of the major tin-top racing activity in Germany. All of the entrants for the DTM and V8-Star series’ are featured in colour and introductory sections to both championships offer plenty of detail photography. Especially handy for superdetailing Tamiya’s DTM kits. Brief summaries are also included for all of the major one make saloon series in Germany. These include the VW Beetle series and Porsche Cup, both of which feature some very colourful liveries which would be ideal subject for transkits on Tamiya base kits. Detailed statistics sections are also included and this is a must for any Touring Car enthusiasts.

ISBN3928540351
Porsche Sport 2002 £34.99
weight 1.9kg by Ulrich Upietz

As it says on the fly-leaf this is a must for all Porsche fans. We would say it is a must for all sportscar racing fans. 2002 saw the 40th anniversary for sportscars at Daytona and 50 years of the Sebring track. Both of which are celebrated with brief histories illustrated with some of the most famous Porsche entrants. We then move on to a review of the 2002 season with all of the major series that included Porsche participation. That means full colour photography and reports from the ALMS, Speed GT World Series, FIA GT, JGTC and various Porsche Cup series around the world. Then there are the great long distance events at Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans, Spa and the Nurburgring. Throughout we find very colourful liveries, ideal as modelling subjects for the enterprising manufacturer or very confident home builder. Just take the ‘Celebrity’ car from the Pirelli Supercup shown on the book cover for example.

ISBN0760308756
Holman-Moody, Competition Proven £29.99
weight 1.8kg by Tom Cotter & Al Pearce

Packed with period photographs this attempts to tell the complex story of Holman-Moody, one of the most famous names in the history of American motorsport. John Holman and Ralph Moody’s company was responsible for many of the most successful stock-cars seen on the American ovals, especially in the 1950’s and 60’s. They were jointly responsible (with Carroll Shelby) for the preparation and running of the Ford GT40 project, effectively becoming Ford’s works team in the 1960’s, and also entered cars on the Carrera Panamericana and built the famous Honker II Can-Am machine. This isn’t quite a ‘warts and all’ expose, but it does offer a great insight into this highly successful and versatile team. Great stuff and a must for all those who like to feel the noise of a big V8!

ISBNX000011835
Car Design 02 2002 £14.99
weight 1kg Carlo Ludovico Russo

We must first apologise that we didn’t find this series of excellent books until we’d missed the first issue. The 300+ page paperback format is packed with all of the best and most imaginative new designs from the major manufacturers. Interviews are included, in Italian and English, with the directors of design for BMW, Seat and Renault and there are looks behind the scenes at three of the worlds leading design schools, giving an idea of what the future might hold. We then move on to some of the most notable concepts of the past couple of years. Some subjects have already been modelled, such as the Fioravanti Vola and BMW Z9, but there is plenty more subject matter here for model manufacturers. How about the Ital Design 20/20 for example?

ISBN1841555118
Ferrari 125/126C/155/156/ 246/312 £15.95
weight 800g

ISBN1841555134
Lotus 70/72/77/78/79/95T/
107B £14.95
weight 700g

The latest in Unique Motor Books collections of magazine articles should be of particular interest to many modellers as they are packed with cutaway drawings of some of the greatest racing cars produced by Ferrari and Lotus. The articles date right back to the early 1950’s in the Ferrari volume and offer period race reports mixed in with the technical articles. These always make fascinating reading from an historic point of view as many more recently written histories often gloss over the less than glorious results.
The bulk of the articles in the Lotus issue are about the 72 in its various forms and in both books here the articles do manage to cover the subjects in chronological order, something Unique haven’t always managed to do. Some of the photo reproduction in this one isn’t quite as clear as in the Ferrari version, largely we think because predominantly black subjects never show up well on dark backgrounds, especially when we are talking about black and white photocopies! Still the drawings are pretty clear and will be useful.

ISBNX000000012
Ferrari 312B2 model guide £12.00
weight 300g by Paolo d’Alessio

Following the first in Meri Kits’ F1 Modelling guides, we have been inundated with calls and emails asking when the next edition was going to be released. Well, here it is! The 40 page magazine format is packed with period colour race photography showing the various bodywork variations seen between 1971 and 1973 on Ferrari’s F1 contender. Unlike the 126C2 magazine (the first in this series) the photographs in this one are limited to race action and so we don’t get under the skin and see all of the oily bits. Still, we certainly haven’t seen many of the photos before (and we have a fairly significant library) so there will still plenty here of interest and Paolo d’Alessio has included some of his excellent engineering drawings.

ISBN1903135176
Autocourse CART 2002/2003 £30.00
weight 1.7kg

We looked at the rest of Autocourse’s excellent annuals in the last issue, but their review of America’s premier single seater series arrived just too late. It was worth waiting for though. Each team is profiled, along with their drivers, and colour drawings are included to show every car. As in all Autocourse publications detailed reports are included for all 19 rounds of the championship with spectacular race photography and full results. This is a truly mixed championship in terms of circuits with the superfast ovals and very tight street circuits providing close and spectacular competition. Looking to the future there are also reviews of the two main single-seater feeder series in the USA, Toyota Atlantic and Barber-Dodge pro series, which will supply many of the drivers of the future..

A NEW rough guide to book weights & postages
GPM has negotiated with Royal Mail a special rate for books to our overseas customers. This works out at approximately:
50p per 100g to Europe - 60p per 100g to Rest of World.
This will enable our far distant customers to buy more books which previously the high cost of posting has prohibited.