It was the former editor of Ferrari World, World Sports Cars and Auto Italia magazines, Phil Ward, who suggested that I write the story of my magazine test driver work. I wanted the book to have a wider appeal than a re-run of countless magazine articles from a dozen titles. To give the book a wider appeal, it is deliberately not teccy. It is the story behind the stories. Skim-readers who may wish to bypass the carefully crafted 80,000 words can depend on the §hardback’s remarkable 500 photos.
To land the job of a magazine test driver, needs plenty of capability. Being able to write informative, thought-provoking, and amusing words is fundamental. Then there is experience with machines. For example: 2023 will be 57 years from my first motorsport event: the Production Car Finals at Wimbledon Stadium where I was pipped into second place by two thousandths of a second, but the racing bug had bitten; and still bites in the form of racing my own FIA pre-63 spec Jaguar E-Type. Magazine test driver work is backed up by engineering abilities, plus previous experience of running a classic car and race preparation business. Then there is race instructing, handling consultancy, building and/or preparing my own race cars. All the above activities are enormously time consuming and consequently overlapped with my personal life, which is why I briefly touched upon it. Anyone who writes a book, accepts that the reader will have an insight to the writer’s mind.
