Motor Sport Fiction

[crunch]

Still got my hard covered Biggles books, but the dust jackets look a bit tatty.
Dinky Toys....who would have thought whilst playing with them in the garden all those years ago; that I should have put them all back in the box and stored them in a dark place for 40 years...then I to could own an XA Coupe! I guess I got my monetary value from the Dinky Toys by playing and imagining with them for countless hours.......

Again; a bit off thread; but what would you collect/store now for 40 years time as a $$$ earner?

[ERC]

Good point Crunch - start a new thread!

[John McKechnie]

Crunch-Biggles books with covers- tatty or otherwise.-Dinky toys with boxes-not hot wheels, Donald Duck comics. Falcon XA Coupes, HK Monaro Coupes, Kawasaki 500 Mach 3s and 750 Mach 4s.............I have mine, we can talk again in 40 years time.
Hey AMCO 72 ,Gerald what have you had stashed away as an investment for all these years .And dont ay a Mini......
Milans library has definitely been a good investment for the benefit of all of us , and thats no fiction.

[AMCO72]

John, Ive got collections of books like us all I suppose. I used to collect anything and everything with a Motoring theme, but it all got out of hand and I started to slim things down to 1 or 2 subjects.

We had, in Hamilton way back, a dealer in Antiquarian books, and he, unlike many old book dealers also had an interest in car books.......Crows Nest Books.....gone now I'm afraid. Once a year he held an auction of books with a sporting nature, cricket, rugby, golf, etc etc and Motoring and Motorsport. I unloaded box's full of general motoring titles to his auctions. I have to say I didnt make a fortune out of these, so they could hardly be called investments, but they provided a bit of cash to re-buy stuff that I was interested in.

I already had a good number of publications on the LeMans 24hr race so decided to only buy in more of them. Did a lot of dealing with book sellers in England, and even did some trades from stuff I had bought here in NZ. There was a particularly interesting book shop in Devonport which occaisionally had some gems, so I was a sucker for those, and managed to pick up some rare-ish titles.

In conjunction with the LeMans stuff I also purchased books on, and by racing drivers......SCH Davis being the most prolific, but have a number of others...Fangio, Hawthorne,Frere,Setright,Nye, Moss, etc etc etc......and stuff with mainly photographs......Frostick, Klemantaski, Skilleter, Moity, again etc etc etc.........

Jaguar and Bentley are my first loves in vintage and post vintage titles, and have a few well thumbed copies of these marques and also a few rather nice signed limited edition prints of these and others, mostly with LeMans as a background.

My other place of interest is the Titanic, and have been collecting all sorts of stuff about that stricken liner for years....memorabilia, videos, books, puzzles,models, calendars and again etc etc etc.

Whether any of this will turn out to be 'colllectable' in the future, I dont know, but my two children are both keen on books so I think that the rather weighty collection is in safe hands, if not as a big money spinner for them.

I have to say I did not by them with their future value uppermost in my mind, but mearly because I wanted to read and keep them, rather than borrow from the library, or from friends........sometimes NOT a good idea.

See I didnt even mention the Mini!!!!!!!

[John McKechnie]

Gerald- Fine imput , that probably sums us all up. We get books to read, research , enjoy and like to think it will have kept its worth when we sell it. Titanic never goes out of fashion. Hard to find bookshop in Devonport is still going.
In keeping with this thread, I read an Alister McLean book-Road to Dusty Death.Was in 70s, set in F1, however did not see anything technical, known Teams, tyres or anything.Only thing interesting was that the villains carried drugs from country to country. Sounds like a well known English team that used to test on in Europe and got busted for drug carrying.
Also I can remember Boys own illustrated books (early 60s) where the heroes zoomed around tracks and roads in open sports cars-English of course-and the cars had a fin up behind the 2 occupants.
Would that have been a Lister, C type,D type?
Oh, yes car had a stripe.

[Milan Fistonic]

"Grand Prix" was released as novel. Remember reading it years ago. I assume it was published after the movie, essentially a re-written screenplay as I can find no record of an original novel

You are correct. The novel, written by Manning Lee Stokes, was based on the screen story and screenplay written by Robert Alan Aurthur.

In the book it is stated: "This novelization arranged by Lyle Kenyon Engel."

[Milan Fistonic]

Two novels supposedly written by World Champions.

[ian]

Here is another by Bruce Carter.

[Michael Clark]

Has 'Braking Point' been mentioned?

[Milan Fistonic]

Not so far Michael.

I've got four books by Andrew Neilson.

Braking Point

Dead Straight

White Death

The Monza Protest.

It's been a while since I read those but I seem to remember they weren't too bad.

[Michael Clark]

I bought Braking Point from a second hand bookshop in Kerikeri about 18 yrs ago..Neilson is described on the cover as 'the Dick Francis of Motor Racing'

Perhaps I should re-read it!

I also see 'Montezuma's Ferrari' by B.S.Levy and a 1988 'Green Helmet' with a different dust cover completely to those shown. I once had 'Monza' by Bob Judd (?) - I also once had a book called something like 'Stirling's favourite car stories' with extracts from various car related books - I haven't seen that for a very long time but I am sure the opening chapter came from 'the red MG'.

[Michael Clark]

Ooops, I see it is in fact called 'The red car' - I subsequently read the entire book and seem to recall really enjoying it.

I've also remembered a book I borrowed from the local library about 40 years ago based on Le Mans and a young mechanic getting upgraded to driver status..maybe?

[Shoreboy57]

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You are correct. The novel, written by Manning Lee Stokes, was based on the screen story and screenplay written by Robert Alan Aurthur.

In the book it is stated: "This novelization arranged by Lyle Kenyon Engel."

Thanks Milan - I was too young for the movie on first release. The book was quite "racy" in its time for a youngster as I recall. Great to now be able to watch the movie on DVD. it was quite a feat for 1966 filming technology

[stubuchanan]

Two novels supposedly written by World Champions.


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I could believe that the two Hawthorn books were written by him. They seem to be aimed at a young teenager market and are at best unremarkable.

On the other hand, I started reading yesterday "The Green Helmet" - the Fontana paperback with Sid James on the cover, picked up probably for 50c at a Lions Club book sale a year or 2 ago. Jon Cleary was a skilful writer, and his description of a '50's Le Mans 24 hour race has a genuine air. I remember the movie from way back then, cameo appearances from Roy Salvadori and Jack Brabham (who even mumbled a few words!)

Apart from a couple of Nevil Shute books with motor racing references, that is the extent of my motor racing fiction collection, although I have read some non-fiction that was so inaccurate it probably qualified!

Stu

[Steve Holmes]

Here is a contribution from Grant Ellwood:

"I found this book in a local (South Boston) antique shop recently. The book was published in USA in 1909 by the Saalfield Publishing Company, a departure in genre for the author who mostly wrote cowboy stories (no cowboys in motorsport of course!)".

[tonttu]

And not forgetting the children's books all written by NZ authors in recent years:
The Roaring River Rally by Moni Graham
Roger the Rally Car by Dick Oliver
Go Murph by Hamilton West School Students

[Milan Fistonic]

And not forgetting the children's books all written by NZ authors in recent years:
The Roaring River Rally by Moni Graham
Roger the Rally Car by Dick Oliver
Go Murph by Hamilton West School Students

And you could add to that list Slide the Corner by Fleur Beale published in 1993.

[Powder]

And not forgetting the children's books all written by NZ authors in recent years:
The Roaring River Rally by Moni Graham

Monica Graham is rally driver Emma Gilmour's sister, and also used to do a bit of rallying herself. I don't think she was quite in the league of Mike Hawthorn and Graham Hill, but as drivers who have authored motorsport fiction I guess they have something in common.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I have a few copies of Auto Action. Do they count. lol

If it's the April 1 1988 edition (check the date...) with the story about Dick Johnson driving a third McLaren Honda at Adelaide for the Grand Prix in it, then yes it counts as fiction!!!!!
Quote from DJ "I guess thats why it's called 'Auto Fiction', then..."

[Malcolm McLeod]

Interesting topic....I have found the Andrew Neilson books great, and the Douglas Rutherford books not bad either. In fact, I have The Gunshot Grand Prix on my bookshelf, but lost (and want!) Rally to the Death.
I also have Breaking Point, and Dead Straight, but found White Death not so good. Incidently, the Dart racing car described in Breaking Point was said to be designed by a brilliant New Zealand designer...but I forget his name!!!!!

You left off your list books by "W.E.B. Griffin"...he wrote several under the name "W.E. Butterworth", including Yankee Driver, several under the pseudonym of "James McM. Douglas", and 4 or 5 under the pseudonym of "Patrick J Williams". He also wrote several M*A*S*H books with Richard Hooker...