"British Sports Cars Since the War"
By Martyn Watkins. 208 pp. 8.1/2 in. x 5 in. (B. T. Batsford Ltd., 4, Fitzhardinge Street, London, WIH OAR. £2.50).
The motoring historian is a fortunate being in these times of the prolific publication of reference works. There have been several books about the evolution of the sports car, and now Martyn Watkins takes the story a step further, with concise but useful data on British postwar models. He divides this information into cars of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, with adequate pictorial support. As he also discusses the works-teams of that era, the latest sporting saloons, the very-small-output sports and sporting cars, and how the cars for sportsmen are likely to shape in the future, this can be rated a useful book.—W.B.
The Olyslager Auto Library, represented here by Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., 40, Bedford Square, London, WCIB 3HE, has issued another of those pleasing pictorial depictions of the older cars, this one covering “British Cars of the Late Forties”. It is edited by Bart Vanderveen and costs £2.45.
The Batsford book “Racing and Sports Car Chassis Design” by Michael Costin and David Phipps has gone into a further reprint, priced at £3.00. It first appeared in 1961 and was reissued four times thereafter.
Pearson’s Illustrated Car Series now takes in the Hillman Hunter and the Hillman Minx from 1967, in a book priced it 75p and published by the Hamlyn Group.
The Glasgow School of Art, 167, Renfrew Street, Glasgow has issued, in a limited edition of 115 numbered copies, a book of charcoal drawings of 16 pre-war sports cars, some excellent, some indifferent, called “Replicas and Blowers”. If any are left the price is £1.90.
The “FIA Year Book of Automobile Sport”, which is an essential reference work for all actively associated with the Sport, is available in its usual format and 1974 edition from PSL, Bar Hill, Cambridge, for £2.95. It contains 772 pages, 225 photographs and 166 drawings, no mean feat during three-day working, and includes the 1974 Sporting Code with Appendices H and J, and the 1974 Championship rules.—W.B.