My Dad Raced One of Those: The Joys of Classic Motorsport
by Alan Anderson
“A brief look back at how motorsport evolved since the Second World War, its different categories, today’s classic scene, and individual drivers’ memories from the golden days of racing and rallying only adds to the fun reading.”
—Gregor Marshall, son of Gerry Marshall of “Baby Bertha” fame
The author’s dad probably did not actually race “one of those” but the idea here is that dads in general could have, certainly in those simpler postwar days of British motorsport when competing was far more affordable and accessible.
The book covers the 1950s to the 1990s and begins with a brief tour around the key disciplines such as racing, rallying, and speed hill climbs. While the prevailing mood is one of nostalgia not everything was as rosy as it is made out here. I did raise an eyebrow at the mention of Southern Organs, a ubiquitous sponsor of the mid seventies. As Crispian Besley wrote in Driven to Crime, the brains behind this operation were two lay preacher con men and it didn’t end well for either.
The core of this book is a list of “50 Racing Certainties” with a brief introduction to each car, plus an accompanying picture. The cars included are a combination of the usual suspects—Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 911—supplemented by some lesser-known stars of track and special stage, such as the Moskvich 412 (bottom photo) and Skoda S130. Two hundred words or so doesn’t allow anything more than a brief description, but many readers will probably be aware of most, if not all, of the information anyway. While there won’t be anything new to say in half a page of text, the basics are here.
The pictures are largely unremarkable, with a surprising number being taken at recent historic events such as Race Retro, in the case of various rally cars. A Mustang with a license plate saying “1967” is clearly not of that vintage car but a resto mod. There are some period pictures, including one of an airborne Morris Marina which (presumably on the grounds of its subject matter being so rare) appears twice. I confess I did smile at the unfortunate misspelling of legendary Alfa Romeo engine designer Carlo Chiti as Chitty (maybe the author’s mind was still on flying cars).
This 160-page softback was written by Alan Anderson, a name familiar to readers of the British motoring press since the eighties. There are also short contributions from other journalists, notably Terry Grimwood, Paul Davies and Rex Greenslade, all of whom have competed in mainly club level motorsport in the seventies. Davies and Grimwood were both writers for Cars and Car Conversions, the now defunct monthly magazine that was targeted at enthusiasts of amateur motorsport, rallying especially. Greenslade wrote for the more establishment Motor, and had a decent racing career, notably in Triumph Dolomites and Rover SD1s.
As a basic primer for someone with no prior knowledge of motorsport, ancient or modern, this book could be a useful starting point but readers who already have some knowledge of the subject are unlikely to learn a great deal new. Considering that Anderson has decades of automobile writing under his belt (the Guild of Motoring Writers recognized him as Consumer Journalist of the Year in 1998) and the publisher is firmly grounded in unfrivolous topics (a backlist of over 8000 titles!), this must be a book that ticks all the boxes for them.
Copyright John Aston, 2025 (speedreaders.info)
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