Can You Help With SuperFinds?

We need your help, please!

As mentioned in my Welcome, SuperFinds is an extraordinary book, compiled by Michael Kliebenstein. It is truly unique: nearly 900 photographs of historic racers, sports, GT and saloon (sedans) cars as found in the ‘60s and ‘70s around the world - in scrapyards, abandoned, in sheds, on top of buildings… And many are very serious cars, make no mistake - lots of Ferraris including three GTOs!

We have engaged with many marque and model specialists to pick their brains in trying to identify the cars, and in some cases, the actual car. A number of our authors, such as Richard Heseltine, Keith Bluemel and James Page, have been having fun helping us, and it is fun.

Richard Heseltine Column - Steady On!

Richard Heseltine recalls legendary journalist Ronald ‘Steady’ Barker, an amusing and learned man to the last.

A recent conversation with a 70-something enthusiast wasn’t anything of the sort. It was more of a haranguing. Apparently, motoring writers these days are not up to snuff. I attempted to land a few counter punches but it soon dawned on me that I was only prolonging the misery. I then opted for the easy option and got on with my life. That, and being ‘…not like George Bishop, “Steady” Barker and LJK Setright’.

He had a point. I am nothing like any of those gentlemen. For starters, unlike my illustrious forebears, I have never been sacked from a magazine. Nor have I ever sold someone else’s long-termer for that matter. I am not terribly au fait with Latin proverbs, either...

A Little of The Goode Life

Richard Goode’s entertaining autobiography - LIving The Goode Life, at Full Throttle - covers the many fascinating periods of his life: as a child in Africa, playing with cars while at Cambridge, the varied facets to his business career and the many aspects of his involvement in aviation, including being a member of the British Aerobatic Team. To give a flavour, here is an early extract from the book.

It was during our third term at Cambridge that the idea arose, not for the first time over several pints of beer, of going on a road trip through eastern Europe during the forthcoming long vacation.

Five of us made up the party… Adrian Parker ... undertook the laboriously intricate work of organising all the visas, permits and the carnet de passage that we needed to travel behind the Iron Curtain. There was a great deal of red tape for him to deal with.

Swiss Role 

By Philip Porter

In the year 2000, a good friend and member of our International Jaguar XK Club was driving his 150 Drop Head in Switzerland when he had a slight overheating problem. In search of assistance, he called into a nearby Land Rover garage. This was to set in motion a quite remarkable train of events.

The garage was run by a brother and sister, and their aging father. Realising that David was very much an English gentleman (actually an ex-Army General), they felt they could take him into their confidence. The daughter explained that they had a collection of cars that required restoration, cars their father had acquired, mainly, in the ‘60s and ‘70s. There was, though, a slight catch - many of the more ‘serious’ cars had been crashed and never repaired. Others had simply broken down, presumably with serious ailments.

Read more »

Dan Wheldon

By Ian Wagstaff

From 2005 to 2012, British drivers dominated the results at the Indianapolis 500, winning outright on five occasions. Two of those victories, as well as a pair of seconds, a third and a fourth fell to the late Dan Wheldon. A couple of days after his 2011 win, Dan’s race engineer, Todd Malloy told Ian Wagstaff how they had achieved Victory Circle that year. Tragically, Dan was to die in an accident at the Las Vegas Speedway a few months later.

. . . . .

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway the day after the annual ‘500’ race is a relatively quiet place. The vast majority of the over a quarter of a million crowd has gone home, although a few, perhaps reluctant to let go, have returned to wander through the track’s museum. Over by the ‘yard of bricks’ start line, a group of photographers and journalists gather for the winner’s morning-after photo shoot.

Fast-Feed-Back

'Whenever I glance at our book, I still smile with great satisfaction.' Martin Brundle
 
'Philip
'I wanted to buy a couple of your books anyway so I thought I would test out your distribution system to the USA. So I ordered two books on Tuesday and they arrived yesterday (Thursday)! That is a quite remarkable turn around so full marks to everyone involved.'
David W.

 

Sport Auto, Germany, March 2020

'The definitive history of the Porsche 956? The title seems almost understated after reading the book. Serge Vanbockryck, both as a fan and as a journalistically accomplished historian, has written a standard work that will hardly ever be topped.'

The superb ROFGO Collection book is due in the next fortnight. Written by the great Doug Nye, it recounts the history of every one of the 35 Gulf-sponsored vehicles in the collection. There are no less than nine McLarens, five Aston Martins, three Mirages, four Porsches (including a mighty 917) and two Brabhams, plus Ford GT40, Howmet TX, Audi R8 LMP900, Lola-Aston Martin, Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 and a Mercedes transporter. Superb mix of period and stunning new photography complements Doug’s fascinating text. Limited to just 900 copies, more than a third are pre-sold.

Another limited edition book is the Definitive story of the 250 GTE, Ferrari’s iconic V12 Grand Touring Four-seat Coupé. Limited to just 750 copies and due in late August. 

SuperFinds, mentioned elsewhere in this Newsletter, will probably be launched in late September. It is rather intoxicating as we keep discovering more information about the cars and keep delving.

Ultimate McLaren F1 GTR is nearly there. Exceptional Cars Alfa T33 will be out in late August/early September. The Rocket book is with Gordon Murray for a final check and he is always desperately busy.

Also in the pipeline: Ferrari Breadvan, Ultimate 250 GTO, La Voiture Noire, The Michael Turner Christmas Card Collection, First Production Land Rover, XK 120 Profile, JCB Scrapbook, Ultimate Works Porsche 962s, Original E-type, Make Your Classic Car Work Perfectly, Trans-Africa Land Rover, Ultimate Bugatti Type 59 and more! The passion is not cooling!