Book reviews, June 1961, June 1961

Rodney Walkerley has written a motor-racing book primarily for the younger enthusiast—“Come Motor Racing With Me,” 208 pp., 71/2 in x 5 in (Frederick Muller Ltd., 110 Fleet Street, London, EC4, 10s 6d.), in the “Junior Sportsman’s Library” ‘series. It covers almost every aspect of racing and recordbreaking in brief and is illustrated with action drawings. Strongly recommended for intelligent children who pester you for passes to the circuits.

“The Strategy of Desire,” by Ernest Dichter, 320 pp., 87/16 in x 51/16 in, (TV Boardman & Co. Ltd, 16 Maddox Street, London, W1. 25s.), deals with social science as it applies to sales strategy. This is an interesting and revealing book which it may profit publicity consultants and advertising executives to read, especially Dichter’s assertions about how and why people-choose their cars. There is a complete appendix on motivational research study of the Plymouth car carried out by the author in 1939-40. Public preference for Ford (including model-T, Packard (not forgetting the Twin-Six), Buick, La Salle, Jordan, Chrysler, Studebaker, Hupmobile, Reo, Dodge. Stutz and De Soto are referred to and you are told how the Plymouth is made to seem more desirable than any of them. It’s not how Motor Sport readers can be expected to react but for selling bread-and-margarine motors it goes places, or so the “father of motivational research” would have us believe.