Porsche progress - Stuttgart's modern development story

by Mike Cotton. 200pp. 9½” x 6½” (Thorsons Publishing Group Ltd, Denington Estate, Wellingborough, Northants NN8 2RO. £14.95)

Motor Sport has been impressed with Porsche cars and Porsche engineering from the days when we used to visit the factory and try the latest models. In recent times, new types have been added to the range to supplement the great 911 and, in the face of criticism of the cost of its products, the company has embarked on fresh outside consultancy ventures including Seat engines, NATO military projects, and fire-fighting and rescue equipment from the German Government.

Our MLC keeps the reader up to the minute with all such developments and practices, as he is well equipped to do, having been the British public relations officer for Porsche for seven years.
WB

Mike Taylor’s Jensen Interceptor (first published in 1983) has been re-issued with Mks I, II, III, IV, SP and FF, and I cannot see that much has been added except for eight lines or so about a new Interceptor ’83 being launched by Jensen Parts and Service at Motorfair five years ago.

An original caption error (suggesting the 541’s radiator flap was adjusted by the transmission whereas it was in fact driver-operated) remains, and the address of the JOC is also out of date – nit-picking maybe, but this is a revised edition. But history does not change, or should not, and there is much of Jensen-past here (with many good pictures) for those who missed the first book.
WB

The BMW Guide to French Hotels
edited by Christopher Milsome. 8½ x 6 in. 144 pp. (Telegraph Publications, Peterborough Court, Marsh Wall, London. £4.95)

Although its previous Off the Autoroute title has slipped down to become a sub-title, the usefulness of this new edition remains in picking out comfortable stops near the major routes across France.

Some 150 hotels, mainly of higher grade, are listed according to autoroute sections; all are illustrated, and the details are in simple text rather than little symbols. Assessment is by a small team of writers plus reader feedback, but the resulting coverage seems somewhat unbalanced: there are many restaurants mentioned in the south-east, between Dijon and Menton, but a mere handful in the opposite corner in the shade of the Pyrenees – not representative of the varied and interesting cuisine of the south-west.

Useful Channel ports information rounds off this handy guide, costing under five pounds.
GC