AUTHOR PROFILE No.14: TERRY O'NEIL

Terry O'Neil has written 4 books for Veloce, with another due to be published in 2015.



Born in the town of Ware, Hertfordshire, in the latter part of 1942, Terry O’Neil’s first memory was transport related – sitting in his pram in the back garden at his grandparents’ house in Buntingford, while his mother was working in a munitions factory helping with the war effort.

When Terry’s father returned home from duty in the Middle East,

the family moved to Coventry, his father’s home town. After attending a local grammar school, Terry took up employment at a tyre distributor before moving on to work in the general sales department of the Rootes Group, based at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry. Here he gained his first insight into the manufacture of cars, and had his first taste of public relations work: taking new cars for photographic shoots throughout the country, then working in the showroom at the Ryton factory, where he oversaw the factory visit programme for foreign guests.

After helping to conduct a dealer franchise review for the Rootes

Group, Terry moved to British Leyland, based at Longbridge, Birmingham, to help carry out a similar review for it, before being moved to Sussex to take up the position of sales area manager for the company.

A similar job soon saw Terry and his family move back to the Midlands,

to Stourbridge – and forty years later they are still living there. With the demise of British Leyland/Austin-Morris, Terry took up self employment, and in 1999 began researching what turned out to be his first book, although it was initially intended as an article for the Ferrari Owners Club ...

Terry had been fortunate enough to achieve his lifelong aim of owning

a Ferrari, and having done so joined the FOC. His interest in motor racing history led him to write articles for the club magazine, and also for the Cavallino magazine in America, so when the club secretary asked Terry for an article with a difference, he came up with the idea of looking at the Bahamas Speed Weeks.

The author with his Ferrari at Spa in the mid 90s.

With Sir Stirling Moss circa 2000.
Terry had taken on two roles for the FOC: club archivist, and classic car show organiser. The former role allowed him the scope to gather material for the archives over a number of years, and at the same time the opportunity to increase his material for the Bahamas Speed Weeks project, until it eventually snowballed into enough content for a book, which Veloce's Rod Grainger agreed to publish in 2006. A large proportion of the research and sourcing of photographs was done in the Bahamas and America, and Terry has been fortunate enough to return to the Bahamas to enjoy the Speed Week Revival meetings over the past two years.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!
Since then, three further books written by Terry have been published by Veloce. Runways and Racers covered the history of the Sports Car Club of America/Strategic Air Command sports car races in the early 1950s, Motor Racing at Nassau, part of Veloce’s ‘Those were the days’ series, and Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-59, which is the first book of an intended series covering sports car and formula racing in northeast America, mid-America, and the mid-Atlantic states.

The author signing copies of his Motor Racing at Nassau book at the Speed Week Revival Meeting 2012.

The author and Derek Bell (driving) take on the Fort Charlotte hillclimb.
A fifth book is now nearing completion, and should be published early in 2015. This title is different from Terry’s previous work, as it concentrates on the racing achievements of one particular car: the Ferrari 333 SP.

The Ferrari Club of America meeting at Laguna Seca 1994. The author poses next to a Ferrari 333 SP.
Click here to view all Veloce books by Terry O'Neil.

AUTHOR PROFILE No.13: LINDSAY PORTER

Lindsay Porter is sometimes referred to as the UK's top-selling motoring author, and he has been writing motoring books since Veloce Publishing's director, Rod Grainger, first commissioned him in 1981.

Lindsay was amoung the first to develop the photo-intensive style for

which his how-to publications are known. He currently has 5 books published by Veloce, with another due in 2015.



“My first published work was a magazine article on converting and building our house, for DIY Magazine in 1979, while my latest, a book for Veloce, is the Renewable Energy Home Handbook. In between, all of my books and articles have been on motoring, caravanning, and other related technical subjects, so, after all this time, I feel as if I’ve come full circle.

Lindsay’s Dad restored this for Lindsay's 3rd birthday. He was slightly pleased it seems.
“I was born in 1949 in the industrial West Midlands, the main centre of the British motor industry of the time. I well remember, as a small boy, hearing a bloke talking to Dad, on the shop floor at John Thompson Motor Pressings, in early 1958. The bloke had spent his life building traditional ladder-frame chassis: heavy, rigid and strong. He said to my dad, then a young accountant at the factory, 'Doug, just look at this bloody thing – it ay no good at all! Yow wouldn’t get me in one of them things!' as he shook and wobbled a newly-pressed floorpan for the yet-to-be-launched 'Frogeye' Sprite.

Half a century on, Lindsay restored his own ’59 2CV (see Lindsay's and Veloce’s 2CV Restoration Manual) and took it back to Quai André Citroën, adjacent to where it was built.
“Dad sympathised, probably thought something Scottish, and on we went to see ‘the biggest press in the world’ (as it then was), passing by badly-shielded canvas bays with their bitter smoke, unearthly, shadowy blue lights, and guttural growls of powerful arc welders at work. And my fascination with the way things were made was well under way.

“I became a school teacher in 1972. I found my time in the profession deeply rewarding, but left in the early '80s as my writing work began to take off, though I have done a little more work in the classroom in recent years, some of it voluntary. Along with rescuing a suffering dog or cat, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a child discover they can achieve things that they previously hadn’t thought possible.

“But back to publishing: that first piece of professional writing, in 1979, explained how my wife, Shan, and I built and extended our own country house – the one we still live in today. The article was produced after encouragement from our friend, publisher and leading Jaguar authority Paul Skilleter.

“I was still teaching when we became friends with Paul and June Skilleter. I had read in Thoroughbred & Classic Cars that they had moved to a house a few miles from ours, that his E-type – externally almost identical to the one we owned at the time – had broken down locally, and that he hadn’t known who to contact for help. We swapped E-type tales, discovered a shared interest in both mechanical and domestic cats (we ‘inherited’ a wonderful Siamese called Tigger from the Skilleters when ill-health forced a rehome), and became firm friends.

“Paul encouraged me to write that first article, and must have liked what he saw, because, when he launched Practical Classics magazine, he employed me to write for them as a freelance. I was already a keen photographer, but he also taught me how to take ‘proper’ car photographs. Incidentally, Shan – who has a great eye for picture composition – has always been on hand with the camera, and quite a number of ‘my’ pictures are actually hers!

“In 1980, Paul introduced me to Rod Grainger, then Managing Editor at Haynes Publishing, and the man responsible for a number of lasting innovations there. Rod was immediately helpful and encouraging, and as a result the MGB Restoration Manual – first published in 1982, and like most of my books still in print today – became the first, heavily-illustrated, step-by-step manual of its type, guiding the reader through every stage of the technical processes, using pictures in conjunction with friendly, helpful text.

“In 1985, I launched Porter Publishing Ltd, and produced the first commercial range of classic car videos, in association with Castrol, eventually building up to over 70 titles. The printed word soon followed, and Porter Publishing was commissioned by Fiat, Perkins Engines and Halfords, among others, to produce workshop manuals, including the first all-colour ones for modern cars. At the same time, I continued to write, including books and magazine articles on caravanning and motor caravanning. I was for many years the Technical Editor at Land Rover Monthly magazine.

Before getting to Paris, an enthusiastic local – and former Citroën employee – came out unbidden in his slippers to carry out essential adjustments.
“Now in our mid-sixties and around 50 years since we first met, Shan and I still live in the house in Herefordshire that sparked off the whole thing. My greatest passions, apart from Shan, of course, are our nine (last time I looked) ‘rescue’ dogs and cats; our small patch of woodland, and the classic, compact tractor I just had to buy to go with it; my immaculate, low mileage 1989 Audi 200 Turbo Quattro Avant – oh, that engine sound! – and then there’s my involvement in the whole area of renewable energy, which is where I’d like to concentrate most of my writing from now on. We’ve got some great nieces and nephews, and, in all probability, they’ll have children, too. We owe it to them – and to everyone else’s kids of the future – to do our best to pass on a more sustainable planet than the one we’re living on now.

“I am now involved in developing publications that will deal with the practicalities of eco-energy for the home and car owner. I'm still writing books, and am extremely happy to be published by Veloce’s Publisher, Rod Grainger, once again.”
Lindsay Porter

Fortunately, all of the Porters’ rescue dogs are keen classic car
enthusiasts, too.
Click here to view all Veloce books by Lindsay Porter.

AUTHOR PROFILE No.12: GRAHAM ROBSON

Graham Robson is a prolific motoring historian. He began his working life as a design engineer, got involved in rallying as a hobby, began writing about motorsport soon after that, and is now one of Veloce's most published authors, with no fewer than 16 titles to his name.

Born in Yorkshire to a father who was a great motorcycle enthusiast, Graham was a grammar school boy before entering Oxford, where he studied engineering. He joined Jaguar Cars in 1957, as the first of that company's Graduate Trainees. After the obligatory time in overalls, which involved everything from making prototype body parts for new models like the XK150, and wishing he could get his hands on an early E-yype, Graham moved up to the design offices, and worked on the Mk II, E-type and Mark X.

1959 RAC Rally.

1961 RAC Rally, works Rapier, plus Peter Procter and Paddy Hopkirk.

1964 Spitfire Le Mans testing, with David Hobbs and Peter Bolton.

1967 RAC Rally, with World F1 Champion Denis Hulme + Triumph 2.5PI.
This was the time when he joined the Godiva Car Club in Coventry, where he had some success as a co-driver, and was lucky enough to meet up with Norman and Lewis Garrad of the Sunbeam works rally team, which he joined in 1961. Early successes included Team Prizes on the RAC and Monte Carlo rallies

It was during this time that Graham joined Standard-Triumph,

in Coventry, as a Development Engineer, first on Vitesse, then on TR4 projects. He was soon asked to run the re-opened works motorsport department, which he did from 1962 to 1965, during which time he conceived and helped develop the careers of the Spitfire Le Mans cars, TR4s, Vitesses, Spitfires, and 2000 rally cars.

AUTOGLYM commentaries - which went on for ten years.
Own Jaguar X-Type.

I ran two Escort RS Cosworths in the mid-1990s.

In the study - a posed picture!

Home, with RS200 and wife's Escort XR3i outside, 1987.
In the meantime, Graham kept on rallying in the UK as a successful co-driver, often writing reports (for Autosport and Motoring News), which eventually led to him being invited to join Autocar magazine in its Coventry office, where he not only wrote new model analyses, but also carried out many road tests (MIRA was just up the road, near Nuneaton). It was at this time that he became fascinated by the history and heritage of the UK's famous car-makers.

Between 1965 and 1969, Graham reported on races and rallies all

around the world, including the East African Safari and the Indianapolis 500. Back then his only personal claim to fame was that he co-drove Britain's Roger Clark to victory in the Welsh International rally, but he had to stop competing in the late 1960s when he no longer seemed to have enough spare time.

Following this period, Graham was attracted back to industry,

joining the Rootes Group in Coventry (which became Chrysler UK) to run the Product Proving department. After a brief period in 1972 as Technical Director of a Carlisle-based safety belt company, he became an independent motoring writer. Since then, he has written for publications and publishers in most English-speaking countries.

In the last 40 years, Robson has lived by the pen and by the voice,

not only by writing literally thousands of features for magazines, and books for publishers in several continents, but increasingly by commentating, presenting, and organising events of all types. During this period, he rapidly became engrossed in the classic car scene, writing his first book (on the 1970 Daily Mirror World Cup Rally) as that event unfolded, as he was also acting as a travelling controller on the same event!

Over the years Graham (and some clients, it seems) discovered

that he was a fluent speaker and event organiser. He has not only completed many video commentaries, scripts, and video treatments, but has also advised radio and TV companies on their own productions, helped rescue projects abandoned by other authors, and has also carried out promotional tours for several British motor companies and their sponsors.

His first Veloce book was on the famous Ford Cortina, but many

more titles (including the renowned Rally Giants series) have followed. Although he has had to turn down many projects in the past (including the possibility of 'ghosting' more than one motorsport personality), he has published almost 160 books, with more pending. In recent years, Graham has participated as a keynote speaker and commentator for events as far flung as in North America and Australia, along with engagements at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the International Classic Motorsport Show (Race Retro), the Rally Show, the MSA Aviva Run, the Culzean Autoclassica in Scotland, the Wales Rally GB, and other major events in Britain and Northern Ireland.

Asked about his hobbies, Graham admits to a family passion for

owning British bulldogs. He loves fine wining and dining, but protests that he is still far too busy to take long holidays (they would turn into working trips, in any case). However, he also admits that he loves to travel to North America whenever possible.

Commentary at Beaulieu, in Sinclair C5. Hating it ...

Talking - Rosemary Smith and Peter Procter.

AUTHOR PROFILE No. 11: DES HAMMILL

New Zealander Des Hammill spent his childhood in Auckland surrounded by car enthusiasts, and took a keen interest in the subject from a very early age.

His first real thrill in a car was being taken for a spin around the block, aged 9, in a friend’s uncle’s 1.5-litre Brooklands Riley Nine-derived home-built sports car. The second was being taken for a ride in the same person’s 1956 D-Type Jaguar, aged 12.

Educated in Papatoetoe, South Auckland, Des went on to study engineering at Otahuhu College and the Auckland and Manukau Technical Institutes, while serving a four-year toolmaking apprenticeship at top Auckland contract Toolroom.

In his early twenties Des went travelling, staying for varying lengths of time in Australia, Asia, England, Southern Rhodesia, and South Africa, finally returning to New Zealand after seven years, where he settled into volume production factory work specialising in injection moulding phenolic products – plastic mould design, manufacture and maintenance. However, after about seven years he was no longer happy doing this type of factory work, and took the decision to turn his hobby of building racing engines into a business, concentrating on 'the difficult things to do,’ such as the precision machining of parts for different competitors over a wide range of racing machinery. This was soon expanded to include suspension work, which led to innovations for several regular customers’ off-road and speedway cars, all in the name of better vehicle handling.

In 1980, Des began building his own 221ci small block Ford V8-powered sports car, with which he eventually enjoyed some racing success and, above all, learned a lot about car design – specifically, what not to do! Over five years, this car went through several redesigns due to errors and discoveries. He intends to rebuild it a final time, and make it go better than ever!

In 1995, Des began writing automotive books for Veloce Publishing quite by chance, and now has a total of 25 titles to his name. His first publication, one of the 'How To' series on Weber and Dellorto side-draught carburettors, is now in its third edition, and remains a best seller. In the late 1990s he turned his attention to writing car history books, starting with Coventry Climax Formula One engines of the 1950s and 1960s, and within four years had compiled a very detailed account of Cyril Kieft, called The Definitive History Of Cyril Kieft And His Racing Cars 1949-1955 – an obscure study, perhaps, but interesting nonetheless. His BRM equivalent of the Coventry Climax book has recently been completed – a long, complicated, drawn-out research process if ever there was one.
Although he built many types of engine over his working life, two dominated his career and remain of great interest: the English Kent four-cylinder Fords, and the small block Ford V8. Over the last few years, as it has remained his favourite since his teens, Des has concentrated mainly on writing the history of the latter.

When not writing, Des enjoys nothing more than tinkering with his cars – which include a red 1995 SN95 Mustang GT convertible, a 1967 Ford Anglia, a 1976 Escort, and a 1983 Thunderbird V8/John McKenna Thunderbird lookalike – and assisting friends with their similar projects in New Zealand and the UK.

Des Hammill's Ford Falcon.Click here to view all Veloce books by Des Hammill.

AUTHOR PROFILE No.10: ULI CLOESEN

Uli Cloesen has authored five books for Veloce, with another in the pipeline for 2014. A soft spot for ’70s flat twins resulted in him writing his first book about customised BMWs. This well-received publication led to a series of other titles about custom motorcycles and the café racer genre.

"Growing up near Stuttgart in Germany in the ’70s, locally-produced Kreidler mopeds were king among 16-year-olds. I couldn’t stretch to a revered Kreidler Florett RS, so instead settled for a Maico MD50 moped, bought with a year’s savings from a newspaper round.

1975: See the full Maico MD50 moped spec here.
"During my apprenticeship in 1976, a Yamaha RD 250 marked my introduction to real biking, and man, you could thrash it around the hills with gusto!
"Soon realising that being on full throttle wasn’t what I wanted long-term, my next bike was a red Kawasaki Z 440 Ltd twin. This soft chopper – with a more relaxed four-stroke engine, good looks, great sound and torque – made for an easier relationship (and a longer lifespan). It was even a reliable companion for touring Europe, but the small fuel tank and stepped seat weren’t ideal for long days in the saddle.

1980: On the Kawasaki Z440 Ltd somewhere in the Spanish Pyrenees.
"Soon after returning from the Pyrenees, and wanting something more suitable for touring, a BMW R45 became the next steed. My dad had a BMW sidecar in the ’50s, in which I was a regular passenger on my mother’s lap from the age of one, which must have surely steered me towards BMWs.
"After a few years spent in Berlin I moved to the Black Forest region in Germany, and a more nimble Yamaha SR500 replaced the R45 BMW, which, although nice, had proved somewhat underpowered for its weight. But what can I say? Once into BMWs, always into BMWs, and from the mid ’80s I was the proud owner of a BMW R80ST: a bike that didn’t really sell that well in its day, even though it was as flickable as a 250cc bike, and, despite its 800cc displacement, not too heavy, torquey, and with an honest 50hp.

1985: On a trip through Ireland. It rained 2 weeks out of 2 and a half, but I loved the place.
"The late ’80s saw me moving to New Zealand to start a family, and for some time I rode only a mortgage, but a trip to India brought me back to biking. Smitten by the Royal Enfields that roamed the streets of the subcontinent, I had a used 350cc RE Bullet shipped to New Zealand for some Bulleteering on home turf.

2004: Come on, start up! About to head off, with my daughter’s school friend keen to come for a ride.
"Did I say I contracted the BMW bug? Won over by a blue 1977 R75/7 I spotted in the local buy, sell & exchange paper, I continued the BMW chapter. What a mistake to sell her some years later.

2005: This R75/7 had near 200,000km on the clock, but never missed a beat, never let me down. It was a great companion on fabulous New Zealand back roads.
"I always liked the engine of the early Yamaha Viragos, and in 2009 an ’81 Yamaha XV 750 (with its unfortunate starting problems) ended up in my garage. This bike was my last from the land of the rising sun – so far.
A spontaneous click on eBay during a one-year stay in the UK won me a BMW R60/7 in need of TLC. This is the latest Beemer I have bought, and it won’t be the last.
"My lifelong passion for motorcycles, together with redundancy from a teaching job, prompted me in 2009 to begin writing about bikes. I have an investigative mind, which leads me to write books on subjects where others haven’t gone before, and Veloce Publishing has been the perfect partner for such endeavours. New titles for 2014 will be British Custom Motorcycles, followed by Italian Café Racers. I am also working on a book about Italian sidecars for a German publisher, entitled Italienische Gespanne."

Click here to view all books by Uli Cloesen.

AUTHOR PROFILE No.9: ADRIAN STREATHER

The story of Adrian Streather, Porsche specialist, and author of no fewer than 15 Veloce books, so far ...

Adrian Graham Streather was born on December 25, 1958 in Basingstoke Hampshire. His earliest memory of a car is riding on his mum’s lap whilst his father drove around the block in an old 1938 Ford Prefect. Aged about four, Adrian remembers sitting with his father and building their first Airfix model, a Le Mans-winning Bentley. However, Adrian’s interest soon turned to aircraft. In 1975, aged 16, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an apprentice, serving 12 years until 1987 as an Instrument Fitter (Scientific Instrument Maker).

It was during Adrian’s military service that he found his niche in research and writing. Technical publication duties always seemed to land in his lap. It was also around this time that his interest in cars was reignited. Firstly, he purchased a Fiat 124 1800S Coupé with dreams of installing an Abarth kit, then one day in 1978 he was overtaken on the freeway by a pair of brand new Porsche 911SCs. He didn’t see them for long, but he certainly remembers yelling out: “I’ve got to get me one of those!”
With his interest in the automotive world reawakened, Adrian took up motorsports. He joined a local car club (becoming its Confederation of Australian Motorsports (CAMS) representative) and went racing. And not just in cars – he also dabbled in motorcycle racing. After a very short racing career, a Suzuki GS1000S motorcycle even became Adrian’s personal riding machine.
Adrian and a friend built a Ford RS2000 rally car with a lot of help from rally and racing legend Colin Bond, and he progressed a little further with the Ford brand, but truthfully, the less said about Adrian’s short motorsport career the better! Adrian loved the racing, the gladiatorial contest, but was put off by the politics and pecking order that dominated the period. In the end, the ever-increasing financial cost, marriage and children brought his racing career to an end, thank goodness!
After leaving the Air Force in 1987, Adrian found his way into civil aviation, but the desire to own a Porsche was still there. During Christmas 1992 Adrian was invited to join an Austrian airline that had its main base in Switzerland. He accepted, and in April 1993 he left for Switzerland, where on arrival he was appointed the airline’s Engineering Manager. His family followed in July 1993. In May 1993, Adrian purchased his first Porsche: a model year 1979 924. Adrian progressed onto a 944, and finally in 1998 he purchased his first 911, a 964 series Carrera 4. He was hooked for life.

The 911 bug totally consumed Adrian, and almost became a way of life. However, Adrian quickly discovered that the sum of technical knowledge about the 964 series was extremely limited, and filled with many myths. Having a problem on his own C4 that nobody could diagnose or repair, he set himself the task of finding out everything he could about the inner workings of the C4. Within a year Adrian found himself instructing the mechanics at his local repair facility on how the 964 C4 worked. His experiences and running of technical sessions on the 964 series led him to write his first Porsche book, solely dedicated to the 964 series of 911s. Titled Porsche 911: The Enthusiast’s Companion, it was published by Bentley Publishers of Cambridge Massachusetts, USA.

Other 911s followed, but the 964 Carrera 4, with its mechanical gear, shaft and differential-driven all-wheel-drive system, remains Adrian's favourite of all the Carrera 4s across the five model series. Adrian still runs Porsche 911 technical sessions, with a whole 2014/2015 programme planned for 'down under.'

It was during the time of writing this first book that tragedy struck the Streather family. On March 29th 2002, Gail and Adrian’s daughter, Natalie Louise Streather, aged 17 years and 9 months, died in Zürich. The outpouring of support for the Streather family from the Porsche community worldwide was overwhelming. Natalie’s name was carried to victory on the front of the class winning The Racer’s Group Porsche 911 GT-3 at Le Mans in 2002. Her name was also carried to outright victory at the Daytona 24 hour race in 2003 by the same team.

In June 2005 Adrian and Gail hosted special guests and Porsche enthusiasts from the USA and Europe at the Chateau de la Voloniere. Proceeds from this event were donated to the Natalie Louise Streather Memorial Fund founded by Gail and Adrian in the UK, and transferred to Rennwish in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA. The donated funds were used to help construct a new school for young women in Haiti. Previous donations to the fund were used to establish an 'Excellence in Art' award for outstanding art students at Gail’s old school, Salisbury High.
Adrian's second Porsche book was on the 911SC series, and was the first of the Essential Companion series published by Veloce. It was quickly followed by the Porsche 911 (993) and Porsche 911 (996) Essential Companions. Veloce has also published numerous other Porsche-related books authored by Adrian, including the Porsche 964, 993 & 996 Data Plate Code Breaker, and eight Porsche Essential Buyer's Guides. Veloce also published Adrian’s Ford GT: Then and Now book, which included photos of a tour of Essex in the real thing.

Some of Adrian’s published books have been licensed by Veloce for publication in Germany and France.

Veloce created the Battle Cry series and published two of Adrian’s books on Soviet military uniforms, of which he is a collector.

Adrian has also written an automotive-related biography for another publisher, released in English and Turkish. His next contracted book with Veloce is another Essential Companion, this time covering the first generation of the 997 series. He will also be writing an Essential Buyer’s Guide on the same series. In October 2013, Adrian and his wife Gail relocated from Switzerland back home to Adelaide, Australia, which for the moment has left him Porscheless. He’s not without wheels, and he has an Adelaide Metrocard, but it’s a major change from the good old days.

Click here to view all Veloce books by Adrian Streather.

AUTHOR PROFILE No.8: JOHNNY TIPLER

Motoring journalist & author Johnny Tipler has a new book published this month. He's no stranger to scribbling about cars – here's his story ...

Driving a Porsche 356 Carrera Cabriolet.
Driving Porsches for a living? It’s tough, but someone’s got to do it. And one of Veloce Publishing’s original authors, Johnny Tipler, does just that: writing for three of the UK’s independent Porsche titles, 911 & Porsche World, Total 911 and Classic Porsche. Topics include interviews with famous names who’ve raced or rallied Porsches – aces like Walter Röhrl, Bjorn Waldegård, Hans Stuck, Jürgen Barth and Vic Elford – and the specialists who tune them, such as Alois Ruf, Willy Brombacher, Josh Sadler and Duel’s Ed Poland, with reviews of important and specially-commissioned cars offered by the likes of Paul Stephens, Lee Maxted-Page, Specialist Cars of Malton, MCP Motorsport, and Adrian Crawford.

Owned for eight years, Johnny’s own car is a Porsche 964, affectionately dubbed The Peppermint Pig, thanks to its original mint green hue. This vehicle also provides Johnny with a fund of stories, since he drives it when following events like the Monte Carlo Historic Rally, Mille Miglia and Roger Albert Clark (RAC) Rally, or when covering meetings such as Le Mans Classic, Spa Six Hours, Nürburgring Old Timer and the Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix. It serves as transport when he visits defunct racetracks like Berlin’s Avus, Reims, Rouen, and Porto. In February 2013, when it had logged 315,000km, the 3.6-litre flat-six was rebuilt at Kontich-based 911Motorsport near Antwerp, and in November it carried Johnny to Portugal and back while he put his Douro holiday home on the market.

'Peppermint Pig' in Portugal.
With some 35 books published over the last 25 years, including driver biographies of Graham Hill, Ronnie Peterson and Ayrton Senna, Johnny’s first tome was also Veloce Publishing’s inaugural title, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT and GTA, just re-printed in a new large format third edition. He’s written three books on Alfas – another Veloce title, now out of print, was Alfa Romeo Berlinas; other marque and model books cover Morgan, Jensen, Caterham, TVR, Fiat (124 Spyder), Land Rover, Mini-Cooper, Triumph Motorcycles, and Harley-Davidson, as well as more general tomes on heavy equipment, racing cars, automobile stylists, and trucks.

The first ever Veloce book! From 1991, (part number V000): Alfa Romeo Giulia Coupé GT & GTA by Johnny Tipler.
Johnny verges on the prolific when writing about Lotus, with eight titles published, mostly on racing cars like the Types 25/33 and 78/79, plus the Elise, and the gestation and construction of the Evora. For six years (from 2005 to 2011) Johnny wrote most of the features for Lotus Cars’ in-house Lotus Club International quarterly magazine, in the course of which he travelled to locations as far-flung as Las Vegas, Marrakech, Indianapolis, Stockholm, Lake Garda, Daytona, Morzine (Geneva), Monticello (New York), Route Napoleon (Grasse), Route 66 (Arizona), The Ice Hotel (Kiruna), Porto, and Lime Rock (Connecticut). He composed drive stories at the wheel of various Elises, Exiges, Europa, 2-Eleven and Evoras, and interviewed aces associated with the marque, such as Mario Andretti, Sir Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Johnny Herbert, Jackie Oliver and Emerson Fittipaldi, plus Lotus affiliated stars like Jay Leno, Rick Wakeman and Chis Rea. As well as key factory personnel, Johnny also established an amiable rapport with Clive Chapman, who provided access to legendary Lotus racing cars, present-day drivers like Duncan Dayton, James King, Dan Collins, Katsu Kubota and Chris Locke, as well as the CTL mechanics, some of whom, like Bob Dance, Eddie Dennis and Chris Dinnage, Johnny knew when he was JPS Motorsport Press Officer, an era spent mostly living at racetracks during the ’70s and ’80s.
Johnny puts his vehicular passion down to his father’s job as a commercial traveller, having spent a great deal of his school holidays as passenger in dad’s cars: an Austin Westminster and VW Beetle are fondly remembered, and it was his father’s pirouette into a hedge in a Porsche 356 that kindled his childhood obsession with the Zuffenhausen marque. The most exotic Porsches he’s driven – for features in 911 & Porsche World magazine – include the 906 and 910 prototype sports-racing cars, and the Ruf RT12S, probably the most evolved example of the 911. As well as a 3.2 Carrera, other notable cars Johnny’s owned over the years include a 1340cc Ford Anglia, a trio of MGBs and an MGC, Lotus Elan S4 and BMW 1602. There has been a glut of Alfa Romeos, including a Giulia 1300Ti (upped to 2.0-litres), a 1750 Berlina, two Alfetta GTVs and a GTV6 – converted into a race car for the AROC series in 1989 and then back again – and an Alfa 75 3.0 and a 155 V6. Current family hack is an Alfa 156.

Johnny’s previous Veloce offering is La Carrera Panamericana, subtitled ‘the world’s greatest road race,' which he covered as a journalist in ’06 and ’07, and then wrote up as a book in 2008. He went back in 2011 to drive the event as a competitor, spending seven days and 2000 hair-raising and hilarious miles travelling the length of Mexico in company with 115 other gung-ho racers, which he regards as his ultimate motoring experience. The tale is soon to been reissued by Veloce as an eBook, and includes a new chapter on Johnny, and co-driver Sarah Bennett-Baggs’ exciting experiences in their Porsche 914/4 GT, as well as some video clips. It was so good he vows to go back and do it again. And then another chapter can be added!

Johnny Tipler and Sarah Bennett-Baggs,with Porsche 914:GT4 in Oaxaca, at La Carrera Panamericana, 2011.

Alfa Romeo Giulia GT & GTA – Enlarged & revised 3rd edition (Limited to 1500 copies) by Johnny Tipler. Coming soon! Click here for more info.