Half-ton Formula

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Half-Ton Formula, by Bernard Cowdray. Bookmarque, £24.99.

This book covers Grand Prix and F1 cars and racing from 1961 to 1965. Though only a short period, it was a significant one for the 1300/1500cc formula, for which many interesting racing cars were built, some of which tend to be overlooked. So here is an A-to-Z presentation of 83 of them. If you can recount the features of all of these, you are something of a genius. The Quadra, Realpha, Stebro and Vic are described with their accomplishments or otherwise, together with all the better remembered cars such as the Lotus brigade from types 7 to 33, the many variations of BRM, the Brabhams, Coopers, Porsche and Ferraris, etc. It is interesting to see the number of somewhat “improbable” cars which may riot have achieved much but which did not actually retire from the conflicts in which they engaged during the run of what Cowdrey calls the Half Ton Formula.

The drivers, some the champions from this era of racing, come through well, and the regulations and race results from 1961 to 1965 are listed. The pictures are fascinating and some period advertisements feature. Only 1000 copies of this book will be printed, so you have been warned. W B

Veloce have a book of use to those anxious to make their MGBs go faster or who are about to enter such cars for competition events. How To Power Tune MGB 4-Cylinder Engines by Peter Burgess, of the Derbyshire tuning business, costs £12.99, and covers chassis as well as engine tuning. One of Veloce’s Speed/Pro books, it has 112 pages and over 100 illustrations. W B