Videos

Classic Car Greats. PP Publishing, £10.99.

Videos are a booming business, and this compilation draws attention to the PP Publishing range. In 50 minutes it effectively trails some 15 other videos, but offers a well-chosen and well-knitted together selection of highlights which makes one interesting package.

Starting with some pre-WWI racing, it goes on to feature Bentleys at Brooklands (1930) and Le Mans (1929), Jaguars at Le Mans in the ’50s, GTO Ferraris and E-types scrapping in the ’60s. . . Salvadori and Sears, Hill, Moss in a C at Dundrod, Clark flinging a 356 Porsche around in pouring rain; a wide variety of action.

And that’s the first half! It goes on to some marque profiles (Morgan, 911, MGB) and some “historic historic” racing: PP also offer ’60s and ’70s vintage action on tape. Highlights for me were seeing in action at Le Mans in 1929 the Stutz I drove for Motor Sport some years back, the Embiricos Bentley competing there in 1950, and footage of Jaguar’s E1A prototype on test.

Editing, commentary and technical quality are good, except for some very dim interwar footage. It made me want to investigate their other titles, which is of course the intention, though I don’t think I’ll bother with Ferrari Frenzy, in which incompetent owners spin off during a parade, or charade, around the Nurburgring in their 328s.

Videovision’s 1991 Shell British Open Rally Chamionship. Duke Marketing, £10.99.

The rapid maturity of Colin McRae is the centrepiece of this video. Coverage of five of the seven rounds in the 1991 Open shows his successful challenge to Russell Brookes, who eventually had to settle for being runner-up to Britain’s new rally star in his Subaru. Well-produced, with a clear commentary and some in-car footage from Mark Higgins’ Nova.