Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review: A-Z of Sports Cars

Title: A-Z of Sports Cars, Since 1945
Publisher: Bay View Book
Year Published: 1991
ISBN: 1 87097 23 0
Author: Mike Lawrence

This is a pretty old book to review, but it is one of my favorites books in my collection and it is still available new on Amazon.com.

A-Z of Sports Cars, Bay View Book, 1991
A-Z of Sports Cars, Bay View Book, 1991 – looks like the Triumph TR2 competition car #62 as entered by Edgar Wandsworth and driven by him and John Brown to 15th place overall and 5th in class at Le Mans in 1954

This is not an in depth technical book and doesn’t really give you much detail on driving impression and such.  What it does give you is an overview of the manufacturer from their inception and then a brief one or two paragraph description of that manufacturer’s major models.  The author uses a few adjectives, but not enough to really show basis.

Each model has a nice black and white photograph, the  production numbers and a little about the power plant.  The author usually describes the improvements from the previous models and adds just a bit of the technical details like engine size and BHP.   The book covers the most obscure cars, that based on looks seem sporting, but may in fact be a kit car or someone’s dream that barely became a reality with only one or two copies being produced.

A-Z of Sports Cars, typical pages
A-Z of Sports Cars, typical pages – the color plate of a 1955 Austin Healey 100s that was built to compete at Le Mans.

The book is sprinkled with full color plates of the better known sports cars like Lotus, Porsche, Ferrari, and the like.

While this book won’t satisfy every itch, it reminds me of my childhood as Christmas was approaching and mom gave me the Montgomery Ward’s catalog to make my wish list from.  If you are like me you will “study” every page and imagine yourself driving every one of them.

Happy Reading.