"The Lotus Elan and Europa"
“The Lotus Elan and Europa” by John Bolster. 128 pp. 7’/2″ x 9″ (Motor Racing Publicanons Ltd., 28 &32 Devonshire Road, London W4 2110. £6.95).
To their earlier landscape-style books, which they term “Collector’s Guides”. MRP have added this well presented and illustrated book about two specific Lotus models vvhich are becoming rather rare, only 25,000 Elans, P2s and Europas having been built up to 1975. Previous volumes in the series have covered the Tritunph TRs. the MG A. B and C models, and the Jaguar E-type, while there are titles about thc Porsche 911, the Jaguar XKs, the T-Series MGs (by Guess-Who?) and the Sprites and Midgets, in the publisher’s pipeline. In thc present work John Bolster has done a commendably good job of telling all that mattcrs about these fascinating Lotus models, with an .additional bonus in the form of a chapter by his friend “Jabby” Crombac about the two Lotus Elans he has owned and which he has used in France, after acquiring one of them sad as rather dramatic circumstances. As one who still recalls the great fun had from a road-test Elan with its very-advanced road-clinging qualities, over tenuous Welsh mountain-roads, I find this little books vcry good “refresher course” on the backbone-chassis, fibre-glass coupe and subsequent models, well endowed with very detailed technical data and drawings, tabulated specifications. and abase all interesting and provocative pictures.
Those seeking information about record-breaking and racing at Daytona beyond oi,t the already well-chronicled Land Speed Records established there, will find thc big soft-cover work by William Neely of value. It charts the progress of racing there from 1903 to 1979, when the blinked Speedway was lapped at over 187 m.p.h. Listing all the Daytona records, well illustrated. although many of thc pictures from the early days have been published previously. and doing for the Daytona Speedway what other books have done for Brooklands. Montlhery and Monza, this official history of Daytona and Ormond Beach racing and today’s NASCAR speedways is available from Patrick Stephens Ltd., Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB3 8EL, for £10.95, or in casebound form for £15.95. Its 211 pages measure 10.1/4′ x 81/4′, and contain 353 black .d white and 12 colour pictures (some depicting horrific accident scenes), not counting diagrams, but the text is in popular or Americanised idism. — W.B.
A Full Suzuki hist,, aimed at both motorcycle and car readership. has been completed by Jeff Clew, after a high-pressure visit to Japan. Called simply “Suzuki-, thc book comes from the Haynes Publishing Group (address abovel,runs to 2356’/s” x 9./4″ pages, and sells for E8.50. W.B. I would have thought that quite enough bad been written about Morgans and MGs. for the time being. But if you do not agree. I suppose I should draw your attention to two more such books. One is a rather pointless landscaped thing in the Survivors’. series called “Postwar MG and Morgan” by John Blakemore and Henry Rassmussch, that originates from Picturama Publications of California but can be obtained here from PSL of Cambridge if you rate a miscellaneous picture study of these cars worth
£19.95. The other, purely Morgan, offering some rather sick humour in the form of cartoons and verses by Terry Quirk, dubbed “The Morgan Car Toon Bwk”. It has a most uncharacteristic Forcword by Peter Morgan and is published by Quills Publishing, 63 Wood Street, Barnet. Herts. — W.B.
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Published in association with the RAC by Macdonald Se Evans Ltd.. the “Driver’s Guide 10 the Law” paperback, running to 176 pages. is a very useful guide to motoring law, made more attractive by a fictitious account of what happened in Court to a lorry driver convicted of several offences and defended under the Legal Aid scheme. If you want to know him Court cases are conducted, for which motoring offences your licence can be endorsed or disqualification imposed, or what legal terms mean. this is the book w buy. It costs £2.91.— W.B.