Nigel Mansell and Niki Lauda

Nigel Mansell and Niki Lauda by David Tremayne and Alan Henry respectively. 10.1″ x 8″. Hazleton Publishing, 3 Richmond Hill, Richmond, Surrey TW10 6RE. 108 pages. £11.95 each.

When a couple of blue chip writers put pen to paper, you can be assured of a good result. Even though the biographies of both Lauda and Mansell are perforce perfunctory, with little to offer by being in-depth profiles, they answer a need.

Although 108 pages, the text in fact covers just 30 pages with the rest of the book made up of primarily black and white photographs, some of which are unwarrantedly large. Both books have a 16 page colour section, but the photographic choice is poor and not up to the usually high standards of Hazleton Publishing. At £11.95 they are priced a little on the high side, but nonetheless fill a gap in the library at that price. WPK

The Grand Prix Collection of postcards is a novel idea of selling contemporary photographs of racing cars. Altogether there are 80 postcards divided into eight packs of 10 cards representing a decade of either drivers or cars. Each successive winner of the Constructors’ Championship has been included so as are all the World Champions as well as several other well known drivers.

Many of the photographs have not been published before, but some old favourites are included, such as that of Farina on his way to victory in the British Grand Prix in 1950. While all the cards from the Sixties onwards are in colour, there are three colour photographs included in the Fifties pack as well, all of Fangio. The back of every postcard has a brief outline of the subject.

Without doubt, the packs of the Fifties and Sixties are considerably more interesting than those of the latter two decades, mainly because of the relative rarity value of the pictures.

Each pack, enclosed in an attractive wallet finished in British Racing Green, costs £5.00 with all eight sets discounted to £35.00. The Grand Prix Collection is only available directly from the publishers: The Card School Limited, PO Box 194, Peterborough, PE4 6FQ. WPK

Portobello Publishing of Dublin have produced a special limited edition of Brendan Lynch’s award-winning book Green Dust — Ireland’s Unique Motor Racing History 1900-1939, which we reviewed in February, 1989.50 copies have been signed by both the author and John Watson and are available from Portobello Publishing, 13 Kingsland Parade, Portobello, Dublin 8 for £40 (post free).

Following the success of their first U.S. exhibition at Lime Rock, Connecticut, the Guild of Motoring Artists have announced that their next exhibition will be housed within the Donington Collection from January 29-February 10, from 10 till 5.