Not just one book for Touring Car fans – there’s three available to order right now from Motor Racing UK!

A new title – ‘Tales from the Tin Tops’ is joined by reprints of the Motor Racing UK 2019 and 2021 season review annuals.

‘Tales from the Tin Tops’ comes as a 136 page Hardback A5 (148 x 210mm) book that features six stories from Tin Top Racing from around the globe.

The 1997 Bathurst 1000, a race that was ‘taken over’ by the BTCC as a TV rights war between Bathurst and the V8 Supercars Championship banished the native series from competing in the ‘official’ 1000 km race. But who went down under, and what happened to them?

Staying with the Bathurst theme, the switch from 500 miles of racing to 1000km in 1973 saw a raft of technical changes, and the end of drivers tackling the race alone. The race was a classic that launched Peter Brock and Allan Moffat into the Australian national lexicon.

In the seventies the Audi brand was a poor performing marque in the UK for VW struggling to sell 15,000 units a year. Bringing racing legend Stirling Moss out of retirement in 1980 – and into the BTCC – after 19 years away, was meant to boost sales for the company. It didn’t work. But would a second bite at the BTCC in the nineties change that?

The 1986 ETCC delivered some of the best Touring Car racing of the decade. It had the cars and the drivers, but what it didn’t have was competent governance. FISA threw disqualifications around like confetti, then accidentally crowned the wrong champion – until they read their own rulebook a month later.

Over in the USA the Tin Top category has only ever meant one thing – NASCAR. In 1985 Bill Elliot, and the car built and developed by his brothers, was the fastest thing the sport had ever seen. There were speed records, 11 wins, and a shot at winning a $1Million bonus. The only real threat to it all was an ultra consistent Darrell Waltrip.

In 1976 Britain was motor racing mad. James Hunt took the F1 World Championship and Barry Sheene took the two-wheeled world title, but at home for their fans it was a disaster. Hunt received a British GP DSQ and Sheene boycotted his home round. It was unexpectedly down to John Fitzpatrick, Tom Walkinshaw and a BMW to fly the Union Flag on home soil in the Silverstone 6 Hour race.

’Tales from the Tin Tops’ delves into to details from each story that are not too well known. The wrongly ground cams on the Ford of Alan Moffat, the Australian engine blocks used by the Elliot NASCAR entry, Stirling Moss having his exclusive caravan or Tom Walkinshaw also racing at Snetterton during the Silverstone 6 hours, tidbits and facts alongside intriguing tales that are sure to interest fans of Tin Top Racing.

Also available are two reprinted season review books covering Touring Car Racing in 2019 and 2021.

The 2019 book features an in depth review of the 2019 BTCC season along with a driver-by-driver section. Also included is coverage of the TCR UK/TCT season and the TOCA support package. A4 in size the hardback features 100 pages and 218 photographs.

The 2021 edition is also A4 in size but comes in massive, at more than double the size of the 2019 edition with 228 pages and over 330 photographs, covering the season in depth for the same championships as the 2019 review.

The reprint of the 2022 Touring Car Review and the first edition of the 2023 edition are due first quarter 2024.

These books are available as print on demand from Mixam via the links below.

For print and P&P details contact:

care@mixam.com

Tales From the Tin Tops – £11.35 (including P&P)

https://mixam.co.uk/print-on-demand/656201e6a99cad6f49a5c70b

2019 Season Review – £25.85 (including P&P)

https://mixam.co.uk/print-on-demand/65631ef1a99cad6f49a5d731

2021 Season Review – £43.99 (including P&P)

https://mixam.co.uk/print-on-demand/656321d8a99cad6f49a5d746

Author Mick Palmer is a fully accredited journalist and photographer who has covered TCR racing in the UK since it launched in 2018, and has been a regular in the BTCC paddock since 2019. A former F1 manufacturing engineer, he made the switch to motorsport journalism in 2015 and has edited magazines and websites before launching Motor Racing UK magazine in 2019. In 2023 the publication re-branded as Touring Car magazine to cover UK Tin Top racing. He is a qualified journalist/sports journalist with two degrees in printed and broadcast sports journalism, and is currently researching a PhD that covers the evolution of motorsport journalism in the digital age.