Grand Prix!

Rare images of the first 100 years
Quentin Spurring

One of our frustrations at Motor Sport is weeding down an article’s photo choice to a mere six or seven. It makes me jealous of Spurring who has been able to include hundreds of great pictures in this expansive large-format book. The more so as all the images, many not previously published, are from our archive LAT. Autosport veteran Spurring splits his century into the various grand prix formulae, a useful way to bracket things, and gives a succinct precis of each era before the next group of pictures, each accompanied by descriptive captions. For me it’s the black and white shots which are most captivating – the Alfa team refuelling Alfettas, Hermann Lang tearing up the Reims straight, a wonderful study of Caracciola in his SSKL on a rainy ’Ring, Jenatzy obscured by exhaust clouds on his Mercedes. Repro quality is superb; there’s even a Monaco angle I hadn’t seen before. GC

Published by David Bull Publishing, £29.99. ISBN 1 893618 67 6