The Fastest, Wildest, Craziest, Oddest cars ever
by STEPHEN VOKINS Foreword by Nick Mason
Publication date: OUT NOW!
RRP: £14.99, hardback, ISBN: 1 84425 225 6
Many cars are distinctly humdrum and mediocre, blending into a dull and nondescript cityscape with consummate ease. Fortunately, there will always be some that stand out from the crowd and demand a double take from passers-by. Extreme Cars, by Stephen Vokins, the author of the acclaimed Weird Cars, celebrates 250 of the world's costliest, thirstiest, ugliest, thriftiest, fastest and smallest.
As rock star and avid car collector Nick Mason says in his foreword: ‘This is, I believe, a book that will appeal equally to lovers of fast cars and the casually interested. It features a number of true classics – a word often used unwisely to describe any car over 15 years old, but here it applies to genuine machinery of timeless quality – as well as some truly daft cars and a few real horrors’.
How about the Blastolene Special powered by a Patton tank engine? Or the Saint Horse Angel ‘grandfather car’ from China? Are they more or less extreme than the Tiger T100, with its two Kawasaki ZX900 motorcycle engines? Some entries, such as the McLaren F1, Ferrari Enzo and Porsche 959, will be familiar to many readers. But few will have heard of the Ventun Fetish, will know what an Scamp Rowfant looks like, could picture a Lightburn Zeta or begin to describe a Fubar Factory Hoppa.
Stephen Vokins, who has worked at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, since 1982, displays his incredible depth and breadth of knowledge in every one of the 144 pages of Extreme Cars. The eleven chapters group the cars according to their particular features – in many cases, their abnormalities. This allows the reader to feast on elegance, dream of unbelievable speeds, wonder at sheer foolishness or be disgusted by aesthetic monstrosities. For each featured car, Vokins provides an illuminating description, supplies fascinating background information and, where possible, adds a rationale for its existence. His narrative is complemented by 250 photographs, which highlight the extremeness of the featured cars.
Not a book you'll read from cover to cover, Extreme Cars is, instead, a fascinating volume that you'll pick up repeatedly and refer to frequently – if only to convince yourself and your friends that, yes, these cars do (or did) really exist.
Also available by the same author WEIRD CARD
RRP: £14.99, Hardback, ISBN: 1 84425 098 9
A celebration of eccentric cars in all shapes and sizes – some of the most ugly, crazily designed and downright awkward of all time.
Haynes titles are available from all good bookshops, specialists or direct Tel: 01963 442030, .haynes.co.uk
