ISBN0947981373
BRM, The Saga of BRM Vol 1 £70.00
weight 2.3kg by Doug Nye with Tony Rudd
Following the release of the 2nd volume in Doug Nye's epic tale of British Racing Motors, the publishers have made the controversial decision to re-issue the first, long out of print, tome. We say controversial because this original was a numbered limited edition of just 2,500 copies and these have been much in demand on the second hand book market. Demand has been high because this is a fine book. The opening chapter charts the life and early career of the company's founder Raymond Mays before we move on to an in-depth look at the spectacular V16 and the other, rather more successful, front engined GP cars. With so much conflicting information about the team it took Doug Nye 15 years to complete this first volume and the result is a great read that is also very well illustrated. If you don't have a copy of the original print in your library, now's the chance as, although this isn't a numbered re-print it won't be a huge run..

ISBN1844250164
Forza Amon £17.99
weight 1kg by Eoin Young
It is often said the Stirling Moss was the greatest driver never to be World Champion and it is generally acknowledged by his peers that New Zealander Chris Amon was the best to never win a GP. Plagued by bad luck he managed 6 podium finishes during his three seasons as Ferrari team leader but for some mysterious reason never made it to the top step. The book tells the story of Amon's life and career from the early days racing in NZ against the likes of McLaren and Hulme, through F1 and to his life now where he is continuing the family business farming in a remote part of his native country. Eoin Young's writing is easy going and makes for a fascinating story and the few photos that are included capture the atmosphere of racing in the 1960's and 70's superbly. The last word is left to the man himself; 'They always said I was unlucky, but I suppose, at the end of the day, I'm luckier than many of them. I'm still here'.

ISBN3898801152
Porsche 904, Die Komplette Dokument £54.99
weight 2.1kg by Jurgen Barth, Patrick Albinet & Bernhard Weigel
As you may have guessed from the title, this excellent volume is written entirely in German but don't let that put you off. The production quality is superb and there are excellent illustrations throughout. These include clear reproductions of owners and service manuals, diagrams of the various cam profiles , exhausts, cooling system, the lot. Then there are the excellent photos of the factory and various components as well as complete cars and this is before we get to the individual chassis histories. Each of these includes several shots of the cars, both period and restored in most cases, brief ownership records and competition histories.



ISBN1903706289
Porsche 911, Vol 1 1963 to 1971 £29.99
weight 1.3kg by Brian Long
Subtitled 'The definitive history' this is the first of five proposed volumes charting the amazing success on both road and track of Porsche's icon. Over 230 photos tell the story of the development and early production of the 911 along with the early competition successes. The author has received considerable assistance from Porsche and many of the illustrations are from the factory archives. There's plenty of well written text too along with data charts, production figures, engine specifications and model designations. Once completed the series looks like it will indeed offer a very detailed history of these great cars.



ISBN1859609511
Porsche 956-962, The Enduring Champions £30.00
weight 1.5kg by Peter Morgan
Isn't it strange how the same thing seems to happen with books as with models? For several years an important subject will be forgotten about and then suddenly there are several releases on the same subject! Following on the heels of the massive Cotton/Upeitz volume we recently received, well known Porsche historian Peter Morgan joins the fray. This goes nowhere near covering as many individual cars as the other publication and the quality of the photos is somewhat variable, some are great and others very much less so. Where this volume does win is in the text which is informed, comprehensive and reader friendly. In the closing data sections there are detailed results sections, brief individual chassis histories and simplified copies of the Group C and IMSA rules.

ISBN0837602351
Porsche, Excellence was Expected £159.99
weight 10kg by Karl Ludvigsen
The original edition of this title has been a much used part of the GPM library for many years, but Porsche have achieved and awful lot of excellence since the 1977 publication and it has been long overdue for updating. The end result of that update and the Stuttgart marques success is that three huge volumes are now necessary! Volume 1 takes us from Ferdinand Porsche's first designs at the turn of the last century, through the founding of the company and on to 1970. There are chronological overlaps between the volumes as they tackle specific models and Volume 2 takes us from the 914 and 917 right through to the 944, visiting the immense competition successes of the 1970s and 1980s along the way. Volume 3 introduces the versatile 959 and brings us bang up to date with another 4WD, the new Cayenne, though of course the other road cars and the various GT racing entrants are not neglected. Our only disappointment is that apart from the dust jackets and images that were included in the original 26 year old edition, all of the photographs are in black and white. We can understand this with the early years but Volume 3 especially we hoped would be packed with colour. Good but we were expecting excellence!

ISBN0873494970
Standard Catalogue of Ferrari £16.99
weight 1.1kg by Mike Covello
As an introduction to Ferraris this is great, with over 200 lavish colour photos of all the production models from 166 to Enzo, but it's rather shallow for the serious Ferrari enthusiast. With one or two exceptions the photos are of the cars as they stand today which is maybe not of much use to modellers. The text is fairly brief though there are plenty of stats. How accurate these all are is questionable as a random dip found us reading that the 308 was '.... the first non-V12 vehicle to wear the prancing horse on its nose'. Errrm....