Archive for Author 'John Aston', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

The Car: The Rise and Fall of the Machine that Made the Modern World 

by Bryan Appleyard

The car is dead. Long live the car. A new era is almost here and the days of the current one are definitely numbered. The modern world is unimaginable without the car, so let’s take a look at how it all played out.

MAX: The Dutch Master

by Andre Hoogeboom

Verstappen won the 2021 F1 World Championship and right away a book comes out. Coincidence? Yes, because it was started six years ago, a mere year after he had become the youngest driver to compete in F1.

Lola: The T70 and Can-Am Cars

by Gordon Jones

Go to a big-name vintage race and chances are you’ll see a T70 in action, one of the best-looking race cars of its time. Decades in the making, this book explains the success of the lithe British car with the brawny American motors.

Mike Spence: Out of the Shadows

by Richard Jenkins

He was a man on the move both on the track and in his career but overshadowed by others in both. At his very peak, with a win in reach, he suffered a fatal crash during practice. At long last here is a proper biography to give Spence his due recognition.

Clive’s USA Road Trip

by David James Smitheram

Dave and Clive went on a trip . . . Dave being a British motorsports figure and Clive the Little Red Corvette he bought in California. Dave even went there to collect it in person which of course spells road trip. His little son was too small to go along so dad wrote him this book.

Sam’s Scrapbook: My Motorsports Memories

by Sam Posey with John Posey

Pictures no one has seen and stories no one has heard” says the press release, and it’s mostly true. Pro racer for 17 seasons, broadcaster, raconteur, painter Sam “the Mouth” Posey holds forth once more. He’s 77 and still tearing around his property on his Hammerhead dune buggy. Expect to be entertained.

The Boy: Stirling Moss, A Life in 60 Laps

by Richard Williams

The era-defining British racing driver died in 2020, which will surely spawn a plethora of commemorative books. Williams’ is the first, and, taking a fresh approach, it sets a high bar.

Admission 7/6 – E.V. Starr Snaps the 60s Speed Merchants

by Tim Beavis and Guy Loveridge

If you have boxes of vintage photos gathering dust in the attic, off with your head. The ones in this book were almost lost to posterity, then someone bought them at auction. As the reviewer says, one look at the cover and you’ll be hooked.

A Race with Love and Death

by Richard Williams

A young English aristocrat won the 1938 German Grand Prix—as a works driver for Mercedes-Benz, selected by Hitler himself—and became a Nazi hero! There’s plenty of drama right there, and that’s not even scratching the surface.

Tom Pryce: Memories of a Welsh F1 Star by Those Who Knew Him

by Darren Banks and Kevin Guthrie 

The Welsh Dragon was active in F1 only a few years and was thought to have the makings of a future world champion, and then a grotesquely bizarre chain of events claimed his life on the track. He was missed then, and as this book shows, is more so now.

Lights Out, Full Throttle

by Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill

Reflections on pro racing by two guys who were there and who nowadays ply their trade as TV commentators. They have opinions, no surprise, and they are all over the place.

Porsche Boxster

by Robert McGowan

The 911 faithful had still not fully embraced the 928 let alone the 944 when Porsche unveiled a mid-engined concept car in 1993. A quarter century later and now in its second generation (fourth if you count the Cayman) the Boxster is doing just fine.