| For
a Classic Car Lover it should come with an "18" certificate
Who would have thought it - a
book full of rust!
In "Rust in Peace",
author Malcolm Tucker delves into the photographic archives of the
motoring historian Michael Worthington-Williams. Michael has for
years published photographs of cars in scrapyards, barns and
hedgerows in several of the magazines for which he writes. The
cars are either waiting for someone to rescue them or, more often,
beyond all hope of economic repair. You might remember the sort of
thing - a mighty oak growing through the sunroof. Its rarely seen
today. In his own words "Sadly, the days of the traditional
scrapyard, where a vehicle might lie undisturbed for upwards of
forty years, are fast coming to an end as a result of
environmental pressures and EU regulation. Nowadays, if a vehicle
survives more than 6 weeks before being crushed, it is
exceptional."
Exceptional it would be if any of
the cars featured here have survived.
Beautiful, this subject could
never be, but the quality of this endeavour really has to be seen
to be appreciated . This is an enormous work of over 250 glossy
heavyweight pages, over 450 colour photos and 50 more in black and
white, Its divided into seven chapters, from "Breakers
Yard" to "Barn Finds" and features approaching 100
different marques, most of them British and most of them vanished.
Many Standards have ended their lives this way and plenty of them
are recorded here. Disappointing then that the author dismisses
what is potentially a Flying VEight by describing the 1920's
Renault beside it as "something more interesting". Its
as if he's seen another Flying VEight?
By the time I had reached one of
the last pages, my eyes welled up. The caption said "circa
1934 Standard 12 - Corroded beyond hope, a defiant headlamp
remains unbowed." I could see no more and had to shut the book. For a Classic Car
lover it should come with an "18" certificate.
Rust - its a killer!
The dustcover completes a worthy
work by coming in a familiar shade of Ferric Oxide. A nice touch.
Rust in Peace
ISBN-10 1-85433-225-7
ISBN-13 978-1-85443-225-4
256 Pages, 230 x 260mm Hardbound
with dustjacket
UK£ 27/ US$ 49
published by Dalton Watson Fine
Books, Deerfield, Illinois.
Can be purchased from www.daltonwatson.com
I am aware that there are other cars
and information that could be added to this site to make it more comprehensive, so if you
have material and photographs, please let me know. Please send me, Phil Homer, a
message at: Phil Homer
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