Book reviews: Classic engines, modern fuel & Tom Hartley — the dealmaker

Classic engines, modern fuel

On the day this arrived, the government announced that pump fuel would soon include extra ethanol. Those of us with classic cars have reason to worry as ethanol is known to rot hoses and metalwork on older vehicles, so this small book, which has the promising word ‘solutions’ in its subtitle, is timely.

There’s nicely illustrated advice on tuning SU carburettors if you’re hands-on, but the rest is seriously scholarly, with charts and graphs aplenty and technical talk of things like ‘cyclic variability’. Ireland did really thorough testing to get his graphs, but whether you need to understand as much as he does is debatable. The info you want about how to cope is in there, but you’ll have to dig. GC

Paul Ireland, Veloce, £15.99 ISBN 978-1-7871-15-90-3

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Tom Hartley – the dealmaker

Any car fancier will know the name Tom Hartley, car salesman par excellence and millionaire, and his is quite a story. From leaving school at age 11 to then making his first million aged 17, he admits he was driven always by money and the next deal. Claiming the only book he ever read was Glass’s Guide, he tells us he bought his first Rolls-Royce aged 12. His youthful success soon made him a public figure, something he clearly relishes as he reprints plenty of press coverage in the book, and he’s equally proud of his notoriety.

As the first supercar trader, he reckons he altered the market, including being black-listed for selling on at a premium. Gleefully recounting being asked to leave the Ferrari stand at one show, he admits scaring many a driver by chasing them down to buy their car. He’s a formidable operator, but you don’t get this successful by being soft.

There were reverses; he lost it all at 19 but with his boundless self-confidence he quickly recovered. There’s a bit of name-dropping, but also his mantras for business success. Just don’t go into the same field… GC

Tom Hartley and Ken Gibson, Veloce, £19.99. ISBN 978-1-787115-67-5

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