"The Classic Single-Seaters"

“The Classic Single-Seaters” by Doug Nye. I43pp. I If in. x 8 in. (Macmillan Administration (Basingstoke) Ltd., Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 2XS. £4.95). This is really a picture book to set off the Donington Collection of Tom Wheatcroft and as such it contains some of the finest colour pictures of racing cars ever—so that it is a pity that the larger ones have had to be split across two pages. To link this excellent book with Donington, where it is hoped that racing will soon be resumed, Raymond Mays recalls what

it was like to race there before the war and Denis Jenkinson how the German teams of Mercedes-Benz and victorious Auto-Union invaded that circuit in 1937 and 1938, as this reviewer well remembers. Otherwise, the book is about cars in the Donington Collection, from mono posto Alfa Romeo to Tyrrell 006/2, and half-a-dozen non-single-seaters, 73 in all, which, as has been said, are beautifully illustrated in colour, also in black-and-white as historic, often action, supporting pictures, of which five are from MOTOR SPORT. Each car is fully described as well as illustrated, with a brief specification, and the book concludes with lists of the World Championship Drivers down the years, backed up by head-and-shoulder portraits of them, and the Manufacturers’ Championship (although, curiously, as this is a history book, no mention is made of the pre-war admittedly short-lived Championship of Makes). There is a potted history of racing between the years

1894 and 1949, and case-histories of all the Collectors’ cars, with more pictures, and the GP Formulae of 1906-1975 arc outlined. The book is indexed and altogether makes a fine souvenir for those who have enjoyed the unique Donington Collection to take home or for others to study before visiting Tom

Wheatcroft’s mouth-watering racing-car museum.—W.B.

Two pieces of one-make history have been reprinted recently in America and are available here from Transport I3ookman Ltd., Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 133F. They are Carroll Shelby’s “The Cobra Story”, first published in 1965, which runs to 272 pages measuring 4f in x 5 in., which tells the race and development story of this fierce and famous sports-car, up to the 427. The other book is Charles T. Pearson’s “The Indomitable Tin Goose”, all about the advanced automobiles of Preston Tucker and the man behind them. This book first appeared in 1960 and is a personal as well as an engineering treatise, which runs to 285 pages matching in size those of the Cobra book. • The publishers of Autocar have bound much of their Jaguar material into one softcover book which costs 85p and is fascinating to a degree which full-scale histories of this illustrious make will find hard to combat. Fine big cut-away drawings of the more famous Jaguar cars and engines, reprints of road-tests ranging from that relating to the

1937 SS100 to V12 E-type roadster, plenty of action and historic pictures of Jaguar racing and production models, etc., make this very good value and a “must” for all Jaguar fans. * *

There is absolutely no need to tell readers of MOTOR SPORT that the FM. “yellow book” is essential to them if they follow or take part in any form of motoring sport. The 1975 edition is now available from PSL, Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB3 8EL, who charge £3.95 for this 812-page 51 in. x 4 in. book which is packed with essential information. It has a durable plastic binding, contains 186 photographs of competition cars and drivers, and 173 drawings. Early orders are advised. * *

Something refreshingly new is provided for tourists in the Jarrold “White Horse” Series of By Car and Best Of guides to England, Scotland and Wales. Each covers a comparatively small area of country and is thus able to give a route-card tour of it, with pictures of beauty spots or interesting aspects, details of when stately homes, narrow-gauge railways, etc., are open and so on. This is an easy way to follow a worthwhile route, read as a rally navigator reads a route card. Many titles are already available, such as “South Snowdonia By Car”, “The Scott Country and the Borders By Car”, “Dorset Coast and Country By Car”, “Wye Valley By Car”, “West Wales By Car—Book 1” and “The South West Coast By Car”. Sizes vary and prices with them, from 35p each to 95p. The covers are gay and durable, the route instructions clear, backed by strip maps as part of a page, and altogether the impression is most favourable. We hope later to check local routes with one of these guides-. They should be available from good sellers and the publishers are Jarrold & Sons Ltd., of Norwich, the contents and pictures being the work of the Titchmarsh family. Pearson’s 99p RAC-approved Car Handbooks now include “Car Faults and Repairs”, “Car Body Repair and Maintenance” and the “Car Electrical Handbook”. The publishers

are the prolific Hamlyn Group, Astronaut House, Hounslow Road, Feltham, Middlesex, TW14 9AR.