Reviews, June 2016

Formula 1 The Knowledge – Records and trivia since 1950

David Hayhoe

Very few people will know precisely that, having annexed his maiden Formula 1 pole, Mario Andretti waited eight years and 19 days for his second. Lewis Hamilton? His first two were but seven days apart, during his rookie summer of 2007. Both are records, for different reasons.

And that is the essence of David Hayhoe’s latest work. He has in the past produced excellent reference books combining world championship Grand Prix results and trivia, but they were conceived before the internet became a natural resource for statisticians.

His latest offering differs significantly, in that the detailed results section has been ditched (although there’s an abbreviated version at the back, covering 1950-2015 inclusive) to make way for more than 1000 topics (and sub-topics), covering everything from consecutive fastest laps at the same venue to French F3 champions and the lowest race number never to have been used in a Grand Prix (said to be 47, although that piece of information is already out of date thanks to Stoffel Vandoorne in Bahrain).

It’s not the kind of thing you’d read in one sitting, but it’s engaging to browse and mind-bogglingly thorough. SA 

Published by DH

ISBN: 978-0-9935329-0-0, £35

Augie Pabst – Behind the Wheel

Robert Birmingham

This might seem a heavy tome for a racing career of just 10 years, but Augie’s story is interesting and worth telling.

Combining his activities with garage ownership, before working for the family Pabst Brewing Company, Augie began racing sports cars in 1956, in Wisconsin. He later competed nationally with success, winning the USAC championship and driving for Briggs Cunningham as well as racing a Scarab – a marque with which he would become linked.

There are interesting tales, such as a trip to Botswana with team owner John Mecom and a meeting with Enzo Ferrari in Modena, where Augie and Walt Hansgen guaranteed their 275 LM would win at Road America… as it did.

The appendices contain detailed race results, a nice piece on a trip with Pabst to the 1984 Mille Miglia and clippings from his career.

While the price might seem steep and the target audience small, it is a lovingly compiled tome with great photographs. JH

Published by Dalton Watson

ISBN: 978-1-85443-277-3, $79 

The Jowett Jupiter – The Car That Leaped to Fame

Edmund Nankivell

It is more than 60 years since Jowett – an oft-forgotten outpost of the UK car industry, in Bradford – produced its last Jupiter, and 35 since author Nankivell wrote the original version of his comprehensive model history.

The text has been extensively revised for this new edition, which celebrates a car whose diverse sporting achievements include class wins in both the 1950 Le Mans 24 Hours and 1951 Monte Carlo Rally. There are some lovely photos of competing Jupiters and some interesting graphic asides – not least a map of the Silverstone layout for the Third National Six-Hour Handicap Relay in 1953, when the triangular club circuit featured a runway extension leading to a hairpin by Club Corner.

Motor Sport has a connection of sorts with Jowett, in that the magazine’s former owner Wesley J Tee – famed for crashing rather than cherishing his cars – was something of a Jupiter aficionado and owned a couple of them during the 1950s. One marque website even lists him as a notable former owner, alongside such as John Surtees, rugby player Budge Rogers, speedway star Peter Craven and Peter Ustinov…

It’s an interesting tale – which ended in
1954, when problems sourcing car bodies triggered the company’s demise – and it is here diligently relayed. SA

Published by Veloce

ISBN: 978-1-845849-12-2, £50

Dino – The V6 Ferrari

Brian Long

There’s no question that the 246 Dino remains one of the prettiest cars ever to have poked its nose beyond the exit gate at Maranello. Would it be sacrilegious to suggest that its close relation, the Fiat Dino, was actually more elegant, even if it did have a cheaper badge on its snout?

Both feature in a paean that covers almost every rivet of the Dino’s six-year production cycle, though the accent is very much on the more celebrated of the two. The text is beyond thorough and well supported by technical illustrations and images, the only pity being that many of the latter look like period press shots and are thus lacking a little dynamism – but then car photography had still to morph into an art form at that stage.

The presentation isn’t quite as stylish as the subject, but then very few things are… SA

Published by Veloce

ISBN: 978-1-904788-39-3, £40

Let Them Stare!

Michael Hipperson

A self-published book about nice cars that have passed through the author’s tenure? If that sounds like an ego trip too far, think again.

Former racer Hipperson’s recollections cover the cars he owned during a more parsimonious era, when buying a barn-find E-type didn’t require a seven-figure bank balance. At various times he paid £1100 for a fully functioning E-type, a lofty £4600 for a Ford GT40, £3000 for a McLaren M10 Formula 5000 chassis, £2800 for a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona and £4000 for a Lamborghini Miura P400S – a different world that existed only 30-40 years ago. These are his reflections on the joys – or otherwise – of owning these and many others.

As well as its alternative slant from books that celebrate such cars’ present exclusivity, this is printed in a good cause. Hipperson has long worked to raise funds for Little Havens Hospice, which provides free care for terminally ill children and their families. This charity receives a percentage of all proceeds. SA

Published by iStudio21

ISBN: 978-0-9575016-4-5, £15
(from letthemstare.co.uk)

The Essential Guide to Driving in Europe

Julian Parish

“Worried about driving abroad?” That’s the big question on the back cover, but there’s an argument that anyone who feels that way should perhaps not be on the road at all…

This is not so much preoccupied with the simple task of switching from left to right, or vice versa, but covers often overlooked details. Most countries list mandatory equipment drivers must carry – warning triangles, hi-viz jackets, breathalysers and so on – but the rules vary from border to border. Such information is widely available on the web, but this wraps it up neatly in something that will fit in the door pocket of anybody planning a tour of European racing circuits or similar this summer. Pau (May 21-23), the Le Mans Classic  (July 8-10), the Nürburgring (August 12-14), Zandvoort (Sept 2-4) and Spa (Sept 16-18) are sensible targets.

One question remains, though. Why do some nations insist on the carriage of spare bulbs, when many modern cars seem designed to prevent motorists making such changes? SA

Published by Veloce

ISBN: 978-1-845847-86-3, £9.99