BMW BOXER TWINS - HERE'S THE BIBLE!

-PRESS RELEASE-

The BMW Boxer Twins 1970-1996 Bible describes in great detail BMW's very significant air-cooled motorcycles of the 1970s through the 1990s: motorcycles which provided an unparalleled combination of comfort, reliability and performance which earned them a huge following internationally.

By way of introduction the book relates how, in the 1960s, before the /5 series, BMW had a reputation for producing expensive and idiosyncratic touring motorcycles. But the /5 changed all that. Although still expensive, BMW twins suddenly became desirable to a new world of riders, and during the 1970s the air-cooled boxer evolved into the ground-breaking R90S and R100RS sports and sports touring models. These were amongst the first motorcycles with factory-fitted fairings and they also offered class-leading performance. Even when BMW decided to discontinue the twins in favour of the new four-cylinder K-series in 1984, demand for the older boxers forced BMW to reconsider. The boxer was resurrected and continued for more than a decade.

The ultimate source of information on the BMW Boxer Twins of 1970 to 1996, this 'Bible' includes a full description of the model's stage-by-stage development along with analysis of the boxer twin engine. Year-by-year revisions to each model during the whole production run and all engine and frame numbers are included with a technical appraisal. The full racing history is another feature of the book.

One of the world’s foremost motorcycle historians, Ian Falloon brings the same passion to The BMW Boxer Twins as he does to his other over twenty books on motorcycles. These titles include the Original BMW Twins, BMW R90S, BMW Story, Ducati Story, Moto Guzzi Story, Honda Story and Veloce publications The Ducati 750 Bible, Ducati 900 Bible, Moto Guzzi Sport Bible and Laverda Twin and Triple Bible.

Author Ian Falloon has a small collection of classic sporting motorcycles, including a 1976 BMW R90S. He is a freelance contributor to a number of motorcycle magazines around the world and was born in New Zealand but currently lives in Australia with his wife Miriam, and sons Ben and Tim.

The BMW Boxer Twins 1970-1996 Bible is published by Veloce at ￡29.99 in hardback with 190 colour pictures.

R45, R65, G/S and GS models are not covered.




Click here for more info about the book.

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A GRAND PRIX DRIVER?

Ever dreamt of pitting your skills against reigning FIA Formula One World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton? Well now you can as Mobil 1 lubricants have teamed up with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to launch Will You Be The 1? an interactive, online game designed to provide the definitive Grand Prix test for any aspiring driver.

Grand Prix driver Lewis Hamilton is the first to have played the game and has set a 10,147 points score to head the leaderboard. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Mobil 1, the world’s leading engine lubricant, have combined their racing expertise and technical know-how to create the game. Free to join at www.mobil-1.co.uk, the game features four key challenges to provide an all-encompassing test for anyone who thinks they can match Lewis Hamilton.

Will You Be the 1? also provides UK gamers with the chance to meet Lewis Hamilton at the Mobil 1 Garden Party on Saturday 20th June and attend the British Grand Prix at Silverstone the very next day. The gamer at the top of the leaderboard at 23.59.59 on 4th June will also receive an exclusive trophy containing Mobil 1 oil from the very Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 car that helped Lewis Hamilton secure fifth place at the Brazilian GP and win the 2008 World Championship. So what are you waiting for?

The four tests cover a wide range of skills essential for Grand Prix Racing driving including: Technical knowledge, which tests users’ knowledge of a Mercedes-Benz engine; Memory, which challenges competitors to recall race tracks from around the world; Reactions, where the Lewis-hopefuls drive a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes off the grid when the lights go green; and of course a Driving Challenge where players get to drive the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 on Lewis Hamilton’s Mobil 1 Supercircuit – a selection of Lewis’ favourite corners from around the world. Once completed, users receive an overall score and ranking split according to region, group and against all other entrants.



Lewis Hamilton commented: “Formula One is a sport that demands high performance from its drivers through the ultimate mental and physical tests. It is only by collaborating with partners such as Mobil 1 that we can deliver peak performance on the track, race after race.”

ExxonMobil spokesperson, Otto Nijdam added: “Formula One is the ultimate testing ground for the driver, the car and the lubricant. ExxonMobil’s technology partnership with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is now entering its fifteenth year so to mark this we wanted to give fans the chance to experience a taste of the level of performance needed to be a success at the very top.”

The Will You Be The 1? game will be running on Mobil 1 sites across the world, and can also be added to Facebook through a downloadable application to allow you to compete easily with friends and showcase your current ranking.

The Mobil 1 range of lubricants is available from Exxon, Esso and Mobil service stations, leading franchised car dealerships, automotive stores and other independent retailers.
Source:MOBIL 1

THE PUMA POD

GM teams up with Segway to produce this PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) city vehicle.



The P.U.M.A is capable of speeds of up to 35MPH and has the ability to communicate with other vehicles via an ‘internet’ which means that bashing into each other should not be possible and the same system could actually drive the pod itself.

REVIEWS FROM DOWN UNDER

A couple of great reviews this month from Australian Classic Car!

Tinplate Toy Cars
By Andrew Ralston.
"I suspect many of us remember tinplate toy cars from the 1950s and early 1960s. I certainly do, but sadly each and every one I owned has gone to that large Bandai garage in the sky. Most were based on American vehicles. They tended to be larger than Dinky Toys or die-cast cars, ranging from eight to 16 inches and usually powered by friction-drive mechanisms or electric motors. With radio control still years away, the electrical examples were often operated via a remote control box that also contained the batteries.

The 150 or so tinplate cars featured in this book
are part of a single collection and each one still has its original box. (I’m always amazed when boxes have lasted for so long and I always imagine some poor deprived child who wasn’t allowed to play with the toy). While the collection and therefore the book predominantly features American cars, there are also a small number of European and Japanese cars, as well as a chapter covering tin plate cars made in China and Argentina.
I particularly like the range of tinplate Mercedes and Jaguars.

Each car is treated to a clear photo and informative text. There is also a chart detailing the cars’ estimated prices today, with categories ranging from the
highly affordable (US$50-$100) through to the almost unthinkable (US$5000 and up). An interesting and informative publication."

Click here for more info.

British Woodies from the 1920s to the 1950s
By Colin Peck
"When you think of ‘woodies’ you generally think of American cars, but there was a flourishing British industry as well. While many English woodies didn’t see their way through to the 1970s, they are now attracting real interest. This new publication in the Veloce ‘Those were the days…’ series describes how the shooting-brake evolved until it reached its
peak in the post WWII period, when steel was in short supply. It wasn’t limited to Morris Minor Travellers, either, as almost every manufacturer, large and small, offered a woodie in its order
books. Apart from the mainstream, manufacturers as diverse as Allard, Lea-Francis and Alvis offered woodies. There was also an industry in replacing rusted bodies with new timber bodywork, and
it was not unusual to
see a Rolls-Royce or Bentley so fitted. It was sobering to read that “the average recommended period between major re-varnishing was just two years if a decent level of weather protection for the wood was to be achieved”. Most woodie owners didn’t undertake the re-varnishing at all and sadly many woodie bodies rotted away in 10 years or less. This publication is as delightful as the cars themselves and contains a fascinating collection of period black-and-white photos as well as colour photos of restored examples. Highly recommended."

Click here for more info.

VELOCE AT MINI UNITED 2009

Pleased to announce that Veloce have been offered a trade stand at Mini United 2009 and we will be attending the whole weekend. The event takes place at Silverstone from 22-24th May and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the classic Mini. A star attraction performing at Mini United will be the iconic music legend Paul Weller!
Visit www.miniunited.com for more details about the event.



We will be selling all of our Mini related books at the event. Whether you are into classic Mini's or weird and wonderful Mini derivatives, Veloce will surely have something for you. Here's a small selection! More details to follow ...



Click covers for more info.

"NOT JUST ANOTHER MINI BOOK"

Here is a great review by Richard Porter from www.minimarcos.org.uk of the awesome Veloce book Maximum Mini by Jeroen Booij.

"Up to now I've regarded Peter Filby's Amazing Mini as the bible for Mini kits and variants. I don't think it's ever been surpassed for sheer comprehensive coverage of the Mini phenomenon, but Maximum Mini is THE book to have if your main interest is in Mini derivatives. This is more than just a book - it's been a labour of love for the author. It is not just very well researched: Booij has sought out examples af many extemely rare cars - some unique - from as far afield as Japan and New Zealand, photographed them and talked to the original designers in many cases.

This is a large size hardback (250x250mm) with 128 pages in colour. A full two-page spread is devoted each make, and sometimes to more than one mark. Our club cars are well represented, from the D.A.R.T and its recent reincarnation up to the Heritage Mk.VI, including the Mini Jem and Kingfisher Sprint. The Autocars Marcos estate, originally destined for Israel, also finds a place. This book is by no means a complete catalogue of Mini variants. Sportcars, coupés, racing cars and buggies there are a-plenty, but to the exclusion of three-wheelers and what I call the “Mock Mokes” - Cubs, Scouts, Scamps, Yaks and the like. None of William Towns’s creations made it either. What the author has done is dug up the fascinating history of some wierd and wonderful machines, very few of which were made in any number if they made it to production at all. I for one hope this book will be a great success and volume 2 will follow on in due course.

This is not just another Mini book. It's right up our street, and we are stocking it for sale to club members at a discount. The fact that my Mk.IV is included (unbeknown to me in advance) in no way affects my enthusiasm for it! A few other club members may also be pleasantly surprised to find their cars pictured".

Click here for more info about the book.

VELOCE IN LONDON

We've taken a little trip from our Dorset offices up to the big city this week for the all-important London Book Fair in Earls Court. If you haven't done so already, pop along and say hi and browse our books – we're on Stand R455 today and tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you!

FIRST SIGHT OF JAGUAR'S ALL-NEW XJ

An all-new Jaguar XJ will make its public debut this July – and today saw the preview and release of first information on this breathtaking new Jaguar.

Speaking at Auto Shanghai 2009, Jaguar Cars Managing Director, Mike O'Driscoll confirmed that:

-The all-new XJ will go on sale at the end of 2009 – but will officially be revealed on July 9th in London.
-The all-new XJ is the first car to feature the next-generation of Jaguar's aerospace-inspired aluminium body architecture.
-All of Jaguar's new ultra-efficient Gen III petrol and diesel engines will be available in the new XJ, including the already acclaimed V6 diesel and 510 bhp supercharged V8.
-There will be a choice of standard or long wheelbase models.
-The all-new XJ will introduce the highest standards of personal luxury and specification, including a panoramic glass roof.
Source:www.jaguar.com/allnewxj

For those Jaguar enthusiasts interested in the new XJ's predecessors check out these great Veloce books!



Click covers for more info!

HUGE INTEREST IN TINY TRUCKS

-PRESS RELEASE-

Micro Trucks – Tiny Utility Vehicles From Around The World is a new book by lifelong car enthusiast Norm Mort and is the first to fill this unusual niche. Norm has owned a 1922 Vauxhall and 1949 Allard, amongst others. His first micro car was a 1957 Berkeley S328, and he currently owns a 1935 Morgan F2, 1958 FriskySport, and 1967 Reliant Regal.

Published by Veloce at ￡14.99 in paperback and containing 100 colour pictures, this unique 96-page book describes in loving detail previously unknown production micro trucks. Featured are rare Iso utility vehicles and Topolino Fiat vans, as well as more common production micro trucks from Autobianchi, Moto Guzzi, Vespa Ape, New Map Solyto and Diahatsu. Old brochures printed by numerous micro car builders depict various truck versions: in the case of Iso, everything from hook (crane) and ladder to vans to pickups were featured, but few, if any, examples were thought to have been built beyond the prototype stage. However, Trucks – Tiny Utility Vehicles From Around The World is the first book dedicated to micro trucks and reveals actual production models even keen enthusiasts would never know existed.

The interest and fascination these novel vehicles generate have made tiny cars and trucks significant collectibles over the past decade, and yet information on micro trucks previously has been almost non-existent. Trucks – Tiny Utility Vehicles From Around The World brings them all together for the first time and presents them with a passion that only a lifetimes fascination for these distinctive vehicles can generate.

As Rum Car News said: "It is difficult to imagine anyone interested in small vehicles not finding room on the shelf for this book."

Norm Mort began publishing feature articles on collector cars over two decades ago, and his freelance columns and feature stories have since appeared in magazines and newspapers across North America and Britain. Currently, Norm is a senior columnist for Canada’s Old Autos newspaper, and Canadian Auction Analyst, and feature writer for Sports Car Market magazine in the US. He also owns and operates a collector vehicle appraisal company. Norm Mort commented: “For micro car enthusiasts wanting to expand their collection this volume includes the more commonly available micro trucks from Autobianchi, Vespa and Diahatsu along with helpful hints on restoration.”

Click here for more info.

500 FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER!

Veloce now has over 500 followers on our Twitter page!



Twitter is a great place for publishers, readers and automotive enthusiasts to interact so why not join us and get tweeting!

http://twitter.com/Velocebooks

288 GTO 25TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION UPDATE

Here is an update from Joe Sackey Classics on the Ferrari 288 GTO event later in the year. Joe Sackey is the author of the much acclaimed Veloce book The Lamborghini Miura Bible.

JSC is thrilled to announce that the 2009 Ferrari 288 GTO 25th Anniversary Reunion has partnered with Concorso Italiano 2009 and this reunion is now a two day event!

Friday August 14th, 2009:

Ferrari 288 GTO owners and one guest will receive complimentary entrance into the world-famous Concorso Italiano. This year marks the show returning to its original roots and glory. Please see www.concorso.com for complete details of the event and its new beautiful location ten minutes from downtown Carmel and Monterey.

288 GTO cars will be prominently displayed and featured, and owners and guests will be able to enjoy the comforts of the 288 GTO hospitality tent, complete with seating and refreshment, amidst beautiful Ferrari decor. As a Ferrari owner, you will also be invited to the Ferrari hospitality area as well.

To register for Concorso Italiano please contact www.concorso.com and indicate that your car is a 288 GTO display car. You will not be billed for your car entry fee.

Saturday, August 15th:

Meet and greet at a pre-determined location in Carmel at 9:15 am. Depart at 10:00 am sharp. *location to be announced closer to date

We will drive on CA - 1 North to CA - 17 N to Los Gatos. It is a 60 mile drive, and will take approximately 60 minutes. It is a freeway with a two lane highway in some hilly areas. A very beautiful coastal California drive both the driver and passenger will enjoy, as well as the GTO!

We will arrive at Campo di Bocce, an "Italian Ristorante, Bocce Facility and Full Bar" located in the quaint and historical town of Los Gatos, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The owners are enthusiastic Italians and are excited about welcoming our group. www.campodibocce.com. We will have full use of their private parking lot in the front of the restaurant and security guards will be provided to keep an eye on the cars.

We will enjoy outside dining alongside three reserved state-of-the-art Bocce courts amid vine covered arbors and Cypress trees. We will receive instruction in the game of Bocce for those that need it! Its fun and oh, so Italian!

The reunion will be photographed extensively, and it will be featured in Joe's upcoming book on the Ferrari 288 GTO, to be published by Veloce in 2010.

Visit the JLC website for more information and contact details.

FIAT 500: 2009 DESIGN CAR OF THE YEAR

The Fiat 500 has been elected 2009 Design Car of the Year by 59 journalists from around the world, beating 51 short listed cars from the world’s top car makers.

The Fiat 500, along with the Citroën C5 and the Jaguar XF, were selected as the finalists for the last round of judging at the New York International Motor Show, with Fiat’s chic and sophisticated small car taking the top design prize.

Four international design experts, namely Silvia Baruffali, Editorial Director of Auto & Design magazine, Robert Cumberford, design critic and journalist for Automobile and Auto & Design magazines, Akira Fujimoto, Editor-in-Chief of Car Styling magazine and Tom Matano, Executive Director of the School of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, voted the Fiat 500 absolute winner of this year’s award.
Press release source: Fiat

STOP! Don’t buy a Fiat 500 or 600 without buying this book first!
Fiat 500 & 600 – The Essential Buyer's Guide
By Malcolm Bobbitt
The essential guide to purchasing a baby Fiat, which allows both the novice and accustomed Fiat enthusiast to appraise a potential purchase with professional confidence, identifying what to look for in order to acquire the right car at the right price. With Malcolm Bobbitt’s concise and easy-to-follow guide, packed with sound advice and backed up by specially selected illustrations, the route through checking a car’s provenance is made so much easier. This is YOUR passport to joining the Fiat community and a must for any potential small Fiat owner. Clcik here for more info.

BALERS AND COMBINES HARVESTED TOGETHER!

-PRESS RELEASE-

The Pocket Guide to Britains Farm Model Balers & Combines 1967-2007 is a new book by David Pullen – a man with a life-long passion for farming and a life-long passion for collecting models. Farm model collecting is becoming increasingly popular with people of all ages and Britains are a leading manufacturer with a long and distinctive history of producing these models. This brightly illustrated book is the first comprehensive guide for those interested in collecting these miniatures.
Published by Veloce at £16.99 in hardback and containing almost 500 colour photographs including six on each model from different angles, Pocket Guide to Britains Farm Model Balers & Combines 1967-2007 describes all the baler and combine models produced by Britains since they were first added to its farm model range 40 years ago, and also provides details of their development in 176 carefully laid out pages.
As well as standard models, this includes details and photographs of prototype and rare models. The history is complemented by a catalogue describing the main features, differences, issue dates and codes of each model produced. Each is illustrated with six colour photographs showing the model from different angles and also showing the issue packaging.

Full of infectious enthusiasm for his subject, David Pullen describes how he has collected many of these models over the years and researched their development. The book includes a long section describing how the range developed, plus details of prototypes and some of the manufacturing background. Also, to allow the reader to identify different model variations, catalogues are included in which individual models are examined – giving for each colour photographs, their main features and issue packaging.
The Pocket Guide to Britains Farm Model Balers & Combines 1967-2007 is available now from bookshops or from www.veloce.co.uk.
As ToyCollector.com said: "... the book has it all, each item is photographed from different angles, it gives you information about the actual baler or combine and then lots of specifications. It is a very comprehensive work covering this subject that just seems to have exploded after the turn of the century."
Click here for more info about the book.

POWER DELIVERED!

Today (9th April) at 7:29am – a time which matches the technology-packed newcomer's Nürburgring lap time – the very first British buyers will take delivery of their GT-Rs from Nissan’s network of 11 High Performance Centres. Subsequent deliveries are planned for soon after although such is the demand for this halo model that those ordering one now can expect to wait at least a year.

Few vehicles have picked up so many accolades ahead of their on sale date as Nissan's GT-R and sports car enthusiasts are about to discover what makes this mighty performance flagship a multiple award winner.

The Nissan GT-R has picked up 12 accolades in the last 12 months including Auto Express Performance Car of the Year 2008, What Car? Performance Car of the Year 2009 and MSN Car of the Year 2009.

Since the order books opened on 2nd April 2008, Nissan has taken 1,250 deposits from buyers and for those who joined the GT-R queue at the beginning, the wait is almost over.

Source:Newspress/Nissan

Veloce is proud to announce two forthcoming Nissan GT-R books! Both are due to be published around September time.

Nissan GT-R Supercar: Born to race
By Dennis Gorodji.
Contains rare pictures, schematics and graphs detailing the many unique qualities of the Nissan GT-R, a car that revolutionised modern sports car dynamics. Analysis of the motorsport history of the GT-R provides an original view of development of the models, and comparison of them with other sports and racing cars. Features an original and critical analysis of the new GT-R R35, and the R35 Spec V, which will be launched at the start of 2009, is also represented in the book. With over 400 colour photographs, this is essential reading for sports car fans.
Click here for more info.

The Nissan GT-R High-performance Manual – An international guide to High-performance components
By Alex Gorodji.
There is not a car in the world that is equal to the Nissan GT-R in its popularity and unique handling characteristics. However, the Nissan GT-R was and still is a half-ready product. Therefore, modification of this car is crucial for realisation of its enormous potential.
This book explains the distinctive features of the GT-R and how they determine the car’s dynamics. It contains an original and critical analysis of the GT-R models, and reveals positive and negative features of different systems used in these cars. Modifications of all systems of the GT-R – by top British and Japanese tuners – are also covered.
Click here for more info.

SPEED LIMIT PETITION GATHERS PACE

A petition against a government proposal to reduce the national speed limit has gained over 20,000 signatures [1], and is currently the fourth largest petition on the website of the Prime Minister. [2]

The government have proposed reducing the national speed limit on single carriageway rural roads from 60MPH to 50MPH. this will be achieved at little cost by simply redefining the black diagonal on white circle sign on single carriageways to mean 50MPH instead of 60MPH.

The Association of British Drivers vehemently opposes the proposal as it serves no positive purpose whatsoever, and will act only to retard journeys, reduce attentiveness, and further increase contempt for the law. They believe the mindset that is driving this proposal is that of 'Friends of the Earth' who in 1998 said:

"Speed limits should be made very low and rigidly enforced to take all the glamour out of motoring".

ABD Spokesman Nigel Humphries said:

"This proposal has nothing to do with road safety, and nothing to do with protecting the environment, it is born of the anti-mobility ideology of new-age Luddites who don't even drive."

A recent plethora of speed limit reductions in Warwickshire were mostly opposed by the police who said they were not necessary and they didn't have the resources to enforce them anyway. Despite this Warwickshire County Council went ahead with the reductions. Needless to say they are treated with the contempt they deserve by many drivers.

ABD Chairman Brian Gregory said: "I call upon all of Britain's 33 million drivers to sign this petition to allow them to continue to be vigilant when driving, rather than be sent to sleep by these absurdly low speed limits."

1. The Petition

2. Petition Website Home Page

Source:ABD/Motoring4Media

REVIEW OF PORSCHE 928

Porsche 928 by Brian Long is reviewed in this month's Classic & Sports Car Magazine. Take a look at the review here. Click image to view full size.


Click here for more info.

SINISTER EU PLANS TO SPY ON EVERY CAR

The EU is planning to install sinister spy devices in all new cars that will constantly transmit the location, speed, and heading of the car to a central database.

ABD spokesman Nigel Humphries said: "This nightmarish level of intrusion into people's private lives was something even George Orwell did not imagine. It is something the secret police of communist and fascist countries would have relished, so why is it being proposed for a supposedly 'free' Europe?"

Officially known as the Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS) project, the plan is being supported by some car manufacturers and some telecomms companies. Why some car manufacturers are aiding and abetting such government spying in these times of financial difficulties is unclear, it is certainly going to discourage anyone in their right mind from buying a new car. Involved telecomms companies will, as usual, simply want to make money with scant regard to the consequences to society, including their own shareholders, employees, and customers.

The project is believed to be dependent upon the EU's hugely expensive 'Galileo' satellite navigation system. Although the world already has a perfectly good satellite navigation system, it is run by the USA, and that hurts the EU`s ego, so they`re spending 3 billion euros on their own (at the last count --- it's already 2 billion euros over budget). To recoup the cost of this you can be sure they intend to use it to introduce road charging and blanket speed enforcement. It is also tied in with a massive IT project that will link traffic lights and motorway gantries.

ABD Chairman Brian Gregory said "We all read frequent stories in the press about the level of government competence regarding IT projects and the safekeeping of personal data. With this project being Europe-wide it will be a dozen times worse, and in these times of financial crisis only a fool or a fanatic would refuse to scrap the whole idea immediately."
Source:ABD/Motoring4Media

CALLING ALL FERRARI 288 GTO OWNERS!

Ferrari 288 GTO owners are being invited to join what will be a truly unique and spectacular event, a gathering of Ferrari 288 GTOs to celebrate the model's 25th anniversary.

288 GTO specialist Joe Sackey is organizing the first-ever reunion of the cars in the USA, to be staged during the famed Monterey Historics & Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance Car Week in California during August 2009.

Interested 288 GTO owners and enthusiasts can find details and news of the event on Joe's website (www.joesackey.com). Don't miss it!

Successor to the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO. The "O" in 288 GTO stands for "Omologato" (homologation), showing that these cars with their period F1-based technology were intended for the world's racetracks. However, the premature end of the Group B race series meant that the 284 examples built were never raced and were instead sold as road cars with phenomenal performance to a lucky few owners. First of a series of iconic Ferrari Supercars in the modern era, the 288 GTO spawned the legendary F40, F50 and the Enzo models.

Joe Sackey, author of the much-acclaimed "The Lamborghini Miura Bible" (Veloce) is in the process of writing the ultimate book on the Ferrari 288 GTO for publication by Veloce sometime in 2010.

GORDON MURRAY’S OLDEST KNOWN CAR RESURFACED

Just prior to the unveiling of Gordon Murray’s new T25 (his 25th design) the eldest known car by the British design ace has come to the surface: the IGM Minbug. Murray: “Back in the early seventies, if, like me, you didn’t like ordinary cars, you just built your own. At least that is what I did. I bought a £60 scrap Mini Van and designed an incredibly strong spaceframe to bolt its 850cc engine and running gear on. It was 300lbs lighter than a Mini and bloody good fun, with 15% more weight on the rear wheels as I moved the petrol tank and driver rearwards, all with the result that it handled really well. Having just married, my wife and I had planned to drive it around Europe. However, a couple of friends decided they’d wanted one, too, so instead of the European holiday my wife was there helping drilling and riveting alongside me! I did 40,000 miles in mine and it was such fun and yet still practical. I never should have sold it.”

For over ten years Murray looked for one of the four surviving Minbugs, but had just about given up, when journalist Jeroen Booij rang saying he thought he’d found one during the researches for his book ‘Maximum Mini’. At first Murray was skeptical, but this soon changed when the Dutch journalist came over to Surrey to show him the car he’d bought only hours before. With chassis number ‘01’ the Minbug that Booij had found in a Berkshire scrap yard happened to be Murray’s personal car. Booij left the badly detoriated Minbug at Murrays premises, where it will be exhibited in the future. Murray doesn’t know yet whether he will restore the car or leave it in the state that it is now.

Gordon Murray supplied the foreword in the brand new Veloce book: Maximum Mini by Jeroen Booij.
BOOK OF THE MONTH – Classic & Sports Car
This book focuses solely on the cars derived from the classic Mini. Small GTs, sports cars, roadsters and fun cars: Mini derivatives that changed the specialist motoring market completely in the early sixties, and new designs kept it busy for nearly four decades. From the well known Mini Marcos and Unipower GT that raced at Le Mans, to the very obscure but as exciting Coldwell GT or Sarcon Scarab, almost 60 cars are thoroughly researched, described and photographed in this book.
Click here for more information or buy it now using paypal or credit card!

VELOCE AT THE LONDON BOOK FAIR 2009

From 20-22 April 2009 you can visit us at The London Book Fair in Earls Court. Come and have a chat, browse our books, and see what's new for Veloce in 2009. You'll find us at Stand R455. We hope to see you there!