A masterpiece of a car book to enjoy

While staying at the DoubleTree Hilton at Milton Common near Oxford I found this glamorous looking book in the library. It was not a difficult choice to make between Macauley's History of England Volume 1 or this glamorous tome. How could any car lover not be tempted by that front cover picture of an Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato? I was, and enjoyed sitting in a quiet lounge at the hotel with a glass of malt doing just that.

The introduction narrates the history of the British car industry from when it was made up of hobbyists and enthusiasts in the late 19th and early 20th century. How ironic that it was German, Gottlieb Daimler, that the British car industry owes its origins to. In 1888 he came to Britain, met Frederick Richard Sims and formed what was to become the Daimler Motor Company. The irony of this being that although Daimler is synonymous with high end British cars that now one of the most British of British high end marques, Rolls Royce, is owned by BMW.

Richard Heseltine's description of the history of the British car industry narrates one of innovation, quality, entrepreneurship including a couple of free market mavericks as the industry developed from its hobbyist and enthusiasts stage to commercial factories. Then its demise caused by bad management, poor quality and the inability to look at what was happening in America with the advent of mass car production for the masses that Henry Ford was heading.

A sad story of missed opportunities.

The chapters are organised in year order starting in 1907 with the stroy of how the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost came into being and how it was responsible for a new word entering the English language. 'Waftability' . In the Autocar review the journalist who wrote it described the six cylinder 40-50HP 7 litre engine as:

' like being wafted through the countryside...the smoothest we have ever experienced'.

That is quite an achievement considering that the majority of miles of roads then were rural and largely unsurfaced. And it was only 11 years since the repeal of The Red Flag Act of 1865. This limited road speeds of powered vehicles to 2mph in town and 4mph in the country and making it compulsory for them to be preceded by some in front carrying a red flag.

Sixteen years late in 1922 the polar opposite of the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, weighing in at 3,020 lbs and 15 feet long appeared on the roads, the Austin Seven weighing in at only 794 lbs and wo inches short of nine feet long.

A true lightweight but what it lacked in heft it more than made up for in popularity and volumes sold.

Herbert Austin was probably the only man making cars who could see the threat to British car manufacturing fast coming across the Atlantic in the shape of the Model T Ford. Several of his senior team were not convinced by Morrison's strategy and it was only his threat to sell his concept and designs to a competitor that forced them to Change their minds. It wasn't until17 years later in 1939 at the advent of World War II that production of this masterpiece of design and engineering ceased after over 220,000 had been made.

On the back is a picture of a 1951 Jaguar C Type. (The 'C' stands for 'competition in case anyone was wondering.)

My favourite car race is the Le Mans 24 Hour. Having read that in the first sentence of the chapter on this car immediately drew me in to read the rest of it. The drivers Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead drove one of these to victory in that most gruelling of endurance races. And, this race was it's 'maiden race'. Their victory announced Jaguar's arrival on the motor sport scene. This car is truly a work of art sculpted around a two seater open cockpit and a 3.4 litre straight six engine.

To quote the short comment from Classic & Sport Car on the bak cover:

'Too good for the coffee table, too lovely to file away.'

Enjoy

For those of you that want to acquire this wonderful book here are the full details:

UK £29.95 US $49.95