Book Reviews, March 1984, March 1984

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“The Mustangs” by Richard Langworth
144 pp, 7½ x 9¼ in. (Motor Racing Publications Ltd, 28 Devonshire Road, London, W4 2HD. £8.95).

Having given us a book all about the Chevrolet Corvettes, the American author has followed it with a similarly low-price but erudite and comprehensive study of that decidedly energetic sports-car, the versatile Ford Mustang. The book is aimed at American readers but is presented in MRP’s standardised “Collector’s Guide” series, and whereas Langworth was able to bring his Corvette story up to 1984, this Mustang voyage ends in 1973.

It is all there, as one expects from one-model books of this calibre — the origins, the development story from Mustang 1 and XT-bird to the Shelby Mustangs and the final models, with masses of intriguing pictures and no fewer than eight appendices. How to buy a used Mustang, production data, performance figures, values to consider when buying, even how to de-code the Mustang serial numbers, the Clubs and a bibliography are included, at the right price, as in others in this MRP series. — W.B.

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Weidenfeld & Nicolson offer a large landscape-size 128 page book, written by Stephen Bayley, about “Harley Earl And The Dream Machine” at £8.50. In popular style and Americanese, the idea is to have pictures of the many cars Earl styled for General Motors and others, from the 1927 La Salle, through the Cadillacs, Chevrolets and Buicks up to the early 1960s and on to his “dream cars” like the Y-Job, the Firebirds and others. There are plenty of illustrations, reproduced advertisements, etc, and five new paintings by airbrush artist Philip Castle, for depicting those ugly rear fins Earl used on 1550s GM automobiles, based on the tailbooms of a Lockheed F38. Earl’s non-motor products are included and there are a few pictures for vintage-car folk, like the American beach scene around 1924, crowded with cars, when in England the roads were almost empty at that time, and four new Model-A Fords on a Ford articulated truck, etc. — W.B.

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Osprey Publishing have come up with a book rather honestly entitled “A Incomplete Guide To The Many — And Marvellous — Cars Of Carlo Abarth”, this being Pat Breden’s and Greg Schmidt’s “Abarth”, giving an account of the Abarth versions of Fiat / Simca / Porsche cars and their “street and race record”. Among lots of fine pictures I liked the full-page portrait of Tazio Nuvolari sitting in a car at the Abarth works in 1949. The book is aimed at maintaining existing Abarth cars and apart from their history, it looks at buying and owning, rebuilding engines, converting to Fiat 850 power, etc, and has a list of interchangeable parts and guide to spares sources. It runs to 160 11 in by 8½ in art-pages and costs £14.95. — W.B.

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The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust has brought out No. 2 in its Historical Series of quite fascinating booklets, this being “The Merlin In Perspective” by Alec Harvey-Bailey. It is a sort of intimate look-back to many facets of the R-R Merlin aero engine, by one who knew it intimately during the pre-war development years and the crucial war period. It looks at its production, mechanical, developmental and installation problems, leavened with Alex’s own reminiscences, warts and all. It can be obtained by non-Trust applicants for £4.50, post free, from Richard Hough, Librarian, Rolls-Royce Ltd, PO Box 31, Derby DE2 8BJ. Or you can join the Trust for a subscription of £2 (or £20 for life) and get a 75p reduction on this publication. — W.B.

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The February issue of The Stationary Engine was Tenth Anniversary Issue of this specialist monthly publication, so that it contains many “looking back” items. It costs 70p and is published by PPC Publishing Ltd, 5 Rectory Road, Beckenham, Kent.

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For DIYers Haynes have there “MG Midget & Austin-Healey Sprite” manual giving a guide to purchasing used cars and restoration information, this large 234-page book by Lindsay Porter costing only £8.95. — W.B.

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The 750 MC has produced its 1984 Year Book which incorporates its January 750 Bulletin, a 102-page issue packed with everything the keen Austin Seven follower or those concerned with Austin Seven Championships and inexpensive racing under the various formulae the Club fosters, such as Formula 1300, Formula 4, Formula Ford, Formula Vee, the Dellorto Reliant 750 Formula, and the Midget Series, while trial matters are also covered. Regulations for these events, reviews of them over the 1983 season and results tables are included, along with fixture lists for competitive events and Centre meetings. This useful publication is available to non-members on application to Dave Bradley, 16 Woodstock Road, Witney, Oxon OX8 6DT, mentioning MOTOR SPORT. — W.B.

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The Transport Publishing Co of Pikes Lane, Glossop, Derbyshire has published the second in its series of books covering “British Bus Systems”, this being devoted to the very well-known Ribble Motor Services concern, formed in 1919 and now one of the largest NBC subsidiaries. The book is full of interest, as these books have been for many years. Full of fascinating pictures and information covering 98 magazine size large pages, the “Ribble” book by Eric Ogden, with backing from the series editor Alan Townsin, is available in soft cover form for as little as £7.00, or for £8.50, case-bound. The foreword is by Mr. I. A. K. Chapman, general manager of the extensive Ribble Motor Services, which is so well-respected in the North-West of England, running mainly red Leyland vehicles, some of the older examples of which it has preserved, including a Leyland Lion single-decker withdrawn from service in 1938. Incidentally, a Ribble AEC ‘bus was used by the JCC as a time-keepers’ vehicle at the top of the Finishing straight at Brooklands during the 1292 “Double Twelve”-hour race and the company is curious to know how it got there.

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Other titles in the Transport Publishing Co’s series are those covering the Crossville, Aldershot & District, Barton, Cumberland, East Yorkshire, Northampton, Preston and Warrington ‘bus services, interesting even to car folk for the often interesting road and town scenes and old vehicles forming the background to the very clear ‘bus pictures. In addition, this publisher has books on the Northern Counties and the North Western Road Car operations, the latter a two-volume work, and individual histories on AEC Regal, and Regent, Leyland Titan, Leyland Tiger, Leyland Lion and other public-service vehicles. — W.B.

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Finally, for this month, Brookland Books have three MG titles, covering the TC, TD and TF models by reproducing old motor journal pages (including those of MOTOR SPORT), a riveting collection costing £5.50 each, and Autodata have a £5.75 repair manual for Volvo 340 / 360 models from 1976, which is number 300 in this DIY series. — W.B.