Badgering TimD again...

Here's another for you, Tim.

When I was about ... ooh ... 5 or 6 (1983/1984) my uncle gave my brother and I a huge green book (6cm thick) called :

The Complete Encyclopaedia of Motorcars 1885 - 1968
Ebury Press : 1968

It's dark green with a gold (not real gold) illustration of a vintage car in the bottom-right corner of the front cover. Nice-looking. The credits of contributors is reasonably long, but it's edited by G.N.Georgano. He he, I've just noticed one of the contributors is a "Cyril Posthumus" - what a name!

Anyway, it lists thousands of different makes and models from manufacturers around the world with many, many pics - three (sometimes four) on each page. The main body of pics are b&w but there's a colour gallery of pics at the start of cars from 1893 Benz to 1968 Pontiac.

Heard of it?

-----------------------

Also, that Doug Nye book is an ex-county library book which someone bought when it was chucked out. It was published in 1978 by Blandford Press in Poole, and is a description of motor racing in various eras, including flag signals and circuits and cars. The cover is orange at the top then a motion-blurred pic of what looks like a early-70's F1 Ferrari then orange again. There's stuff about Nascar, midgets, European sportscar, GP, ... with quite a few colour pics. It doesn't seem a rare book at all - good read though.

Graham, I don't know if you've ever seen the magazine "The Automobile", dedicated to cars and lorries prior to 1960.

Every time someone comes up with a reference to a car that no-one's heard of, the cry comes up from the contributors of "Where's the Georgano?"

They also have fun trying to find makes so obscure that they qualify for "Not in Georgano."

It's a monster, isn't it? I've got the 1982 edition myself, the most recent they did. I think they've been toying with a reprint for the last decade. Nothing concrete yet.

Again, Graham, you've got quite a sought after book. It is the only one I know of that has attempted thumbnail portraits of every make of car ever manufactured. Remember the Aurora Safety Sedan I described in the "Ugliest Car" thread? I found it in there, along with the Baughan, the Zwickau, the Aga, even the Unipower.

And there's a companion volume that does the same for motorsport. I've only ever seen one copy of that, and it wasn't mine. Curses!

Cyril Posthumus, the late Cyril Posthumus, was another highly respected writer, and contributed many pieces to Classic & Sportscar Magazine in its early years. I'd trust anything he sets down in print, as I would Doug Nye, Nigel Roebuck, Bill Boddy and Denis Jenkinson.

Approx resale price of the behemoth? More for the older - which I've got - than newer? Not selling, of course.

Never heard of the Doug Nye book, huh? Doesn't look particularly rare or anything.

The late "Cyril Posthumus"? Even better... I mean ... [cough]

Guess what... I've another book somewhere that I'll dig out. Ah, I remember the author name : P-O-M-E-R .... only joking! I'll find it sometime.

Thanks as always.

BTW : the Encyclo I've got has pics of some racing cars in it like Chevron, Cooper, etc...

Can't find the pic of the Aurora. Nearest I've got is a 1923 Aurea. What page?

Cheers.