Automotive

  • A History of Fairground Transport: From Horses to Artics

    08
    Travelling fairs hold a special place in English history and traditions. Once or twice a year local towns and villages are overwhelmed with a cacophony of sounds, sights and smells, bringing magic and excitement into peoples’ lives before, all too quickly, moving on. The transient nature of travelling fairs is part of their magic, and an integral part of that magic is the transport that carries the people and the rides. More than just vehicles however, fairground transport is often an integral part of the show, acting as homes for the showmen, a way of generating power and even converting into parts of the rides themselves. In short, they are part of the way of life. This book looks at the history of the travelling fair through its transport, beginning with how it has evolved from what a performer could carry on their back and simple horse-drawn caravans, through to steam-powered traction engines and war surplus petrol and electric vehicles, finally bringing the story up to date with today’s mega lorries and cranes.

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    £11.70£15.20
  • Britain’s Motorways

    02
    Motorways are found all over Britain, from Perth in Scotland to Exeter in Devon. In fact, there are now over 2,000 miles of motorway in England, Wales and Scotland. They are used by millions of us every day, yet how often do we ever think about these marvels of civil engineering that help to speed people and goods around Britain? In a first, transport historian Mark Chatterton has brought together information about the history, construction, routes and workings of every motorway that is found in Britain in one book. Britain’s Motorways looks at each of the main motorways, including the M1, M6 and the M25 plus the other A-designated motorways, such as the A1(M), giving details of their history, routes and characteristics in a subject that has never been covered in such detail before. In researching this book, Mark Chatterton has spent many years travelling the length and breadth of Great Britain, visiting each motorway and capturing photographs.

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    £11.70£15.20

    Britain’s Motorways

    £11.70£15.20
  • Camper Van Minimal: How to easily convert any small van into a fully off-grid campervan

    01
    Imagine travelling anywhere you like and spending there a week being completely self-sufficient using: power-free water system, composting toilet, full size bed with its spacious storage, small fridge, stove and solar energy for all your electric based needs. This is my vision of minimalistic life that I’ve realized by converting my old van into a Camper Van Minimal with simple tools, no special skills required and on a budget.

    This handbook contains over 80 pages of step-by-step instructions and illustrations on how to convert any small van into a self-sufficient tiny house on wheels, so you can skip months of reading and watching video tutorials and get right to it:

    1. Creating a comfortable passage between the living area and the passenger compartment.
    2. Adding a new layer of the floor that increases the square footage.
    3. Building a multifunctional cabinet.
    4. Mounting a simple plumbing system with a sink and a tap – no pump necessary (update: optional pump version added).
    5. Installation of the solar panel with a detailed description of its connection to the controller, battery and our devices.
    6. Constructing of a full-size bed (on which you can sit freely) with a huge storage compartment
    7. Simple implementation of a composting toilet with a ventilation system.
    8. Organization of the simplest method of heating and cooling.
    9. Implementation of lighting and dimming of the residential part.

    Have a great camper van conversion and see you on the road!
    Tom

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    £7.60£8.50
  • Cars We Loved in the 1980s

    08

    It was brash and it was loud – the 1980s put paid to the glumness of the ’70s and nowhere was that more obvious than in the cars we drove, which took a quantum leap in durability, performance, equipment and style. They had to: Japanese quality and European design were luring away ever more customers. Features such as fuel injection, turbochargers, computer-controlled systems and four-wheel drive became commonplace. This was also the decade that brought us the people-carrier and the off-roader, new classes of car that radically reshaped family transport. Meanwhile, seatbelt-wearing became law, the M25 opened, speed cameras appeared and ram-raiding was the new motoring nemesis. Relive everything car-related in Britain in the 1980s with Giles Chapman.

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    £8.30£9.50
  • Certificate of Professional Competence Road Haulage 2022 edition – A complete CPC Operators course

    01

    A complete training course for the Certificate of Professional Competence Operators Licence.

    Written by experts, this superb training course, prepared for the 2022 syllabus, has it all. A comprehensive and easy to follow course manual prepared by haulage industry professionals.

    If you wish to be licenced as a Transport Operator in Road Haulage, you must demonstrate your ‘professional competence’. This means passing the CPC examinations. These are R1, the multiple-choice question and answer test, and R2, based on case studies.

    This course will help prepare you for all aspects of the CPC Operator exams in a step-by-step manner. This enables you to study comfortably and easily, at your own pace and in your own time. You will learn at the best possible speed and take the examinations in as short a time as possible.

    Attaining a CPC qualification will give you prestige and the respect of your colleagues inside the haulage industry, both in the UK and Internationally. This applies equally to a career as an owner-driver of a heavy goods vehicle, or as a professional manager with an employer responsible for any number of vehicles. You will not need prior qualifications to pass the exam. To succeed, you just need to study this course material and when you are ready take the two-part exam.

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    £24.50£28.50
  • How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer

    05

    ‘Adrian has a unique gift for understanding drivers and racing cars. He is ultra competitive but never forgets to have fun. An immensely likeable man.’ Damon Hill

    The world s foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain s greatest engineers and this is his fascinating, powerful memoir.

    How to Build a Car explores the story of Adrian s unrivalled 35-year career in Formula One through the prism of the cars he has designed, the drivers he has worked alongside and the races in which he s been involved.

    A true engineering genius, even in adolescence Adrian s thoughts naturally emerged in shape and form he began sketching his own car designs at the age of 12 and took a welding course in his school summer holidays. From his early career in IndyCar racing and on to his unparalleled success in Formula One, we learn in comprehensive, engaging and highly entertaining detail how a car actually works. Adrian has designed for the likes of Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, always with a shark-like purity of purpose: to make the car go faster. And while his career has been marked by unbelievable triumphs, there have also been deep tragedies; most notably Ayrton Senna s death during his time at Williams in 1994.

    Beautifully illustrated with never-before-seen drawings, How to Build a Car encapsulates, through Adrian s remarkable life story, precisely what makes Formula One so thrilling its potential for the total synchronicity of man and machine, the perfect combination of style, efficiency and speed.

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    £21.40
  • Introduction to Maritime Safety

    An introduction to some of the core principles of maritime safety including common causes of accidents and maritime incidents, health and safety at sea, ship fires and maritime firefighting, collisions at sea, and ship abandonment.
    This book is ideal for Merchant Navy cadets, aspiring officers, industry professionals, trainers and instructors, and general readers with an interest in ship safety.

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    £14.30£21.80
  • Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World

    08

    Sunday Times Bestseller

    As quintessentially British as a plate of fish and chips or a British Bulldog, the boxy, utilitarian Land Rover Defender has become an iconic part of what it is to be British.

    It is said that for more than half the world’s population, the first car they ever saw was a Land Rover Defender. It mirrors many of our national traits, stiff upper-lipped and slightly eccentric. The car has remained relatively unchanged for nearly seven decades and has spawned an industry that includes dozens of publications, car shows, clubs, associations and even model car collectors who dedicate their lives to the Land Rover.

    To understand this national love affair, Ben has travelled the length of the British Isles in a Defender, spending time with fellow Land Rover enthusiasts: from visiting Colonel Blashford-Snell, who crossed the jungles of the Darien Gap, to patrolling the streets of Belfast with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Ben has met folk who have converted their beloved Defenders into everything from hearses and coffee shops to works of art and fire trucks. He has travelled from the Red Wharf in Anglesey, Wales onto the Western Isles of Scotland and Islay, the island used as a testing ground by Spencer Wilks in 1947 to put several of the early Series Land Rover prototypes through their paces.

    After 67 years and 2 million vehicles the Land Rover Defender has ceased production, and this book is a fitting tribute to this most British institution which has stood as a beacon of durability and Britishness across the world. Every Land Rover has its own unique story to tell. This is the story of the world’s favourite car.

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    £6.60£9.50
  • My Journey: Reflections on my life in the Bus and Coach Industry

    After a lifetime career in the Bus and Coach Industry, Austin has compiled some of his thoughts, musings and reflections of the industry, from his blog, into this book.

    Austin’s writing is wry, thought-provoking, humerous, observational and insightful. It highlights his passion for the bus industry, giving the reader an often unseen inside view.

    With the foreword written by Sir Peter Hendy CBE,

    this book will be a treasure for bus industry lovers everywhere.

    Ding ding; all aboard.

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    £23.80
  • North Sea Passage Pilot

    Under his authorship, this edition has been restructured to reflect the changing nature of passages across the North Sea. As well as a consideration of the various Traffic Separation Schemes, routes take into account the many new offshore windfarms and oil and gas extraction platforms. As its name suggests, the emphasis of this pilot is on the passage routes, whether taking a more direct line between the UK and the Continent or incorporating hops along the East Coast and the adjacent coasts of France, Belgium and Holland. Pilotage is included for a selection of key ports. Updated plans and numerous new photographs help to illustrate the key features to help guide you across this challenging yet rewarding stretch of water.

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    £25.50£30.90

    North Sea Passage Pilot

    £25.50£30.90
  • On-Board Guide: Electrical Safety for Small Craft: An IET Guide covering the safety of DC and AC electrical systems in small craft navigating on UK … sea areas (Electrical…

    Small craft have an ever-increasing amount of electrical equipment, systems, and associated power requirements. As a result, significantly more risks and safety concerns need to be considered in the design and testing of electrical installations on small recreational and commercial craft.

    This new On-Board Guide provides practical advice on the design, installation, testing, commissioning, and maintenance of electrical installations on small recreational and commercial craft. It summarises the existing standards and directives relevant to this sector and covers key areas such as electrical supplies (including batteries and AC power sources) as well as design guidance, cable requirements, electrical protection and testing.

    The full contents include:

    • Working safely and general requirements.
    • Types of electrical installations on-board small craft.
    • Electric power sources for small craft.
    • Protection against electric shock.
    • Earthing.
    • Distribution systems.
    • Cable installation, conductor terminations and identification.
    • Batteries.
    • Design guidance.
    • Inspection and testing of electrical installations.

    The primary readers of this guide are electrically skilled boat owners, marine electrical technicians, designers and installers of electrical systems, and small craft surveyors. The contents and coverage are applicable to the recreational and commercial small craft sectors.

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    £28.50
  • Reeds PBO Small Craft Almanac 2024 (Reed’s Almanac)

    In a practical handy format the Reeds PBO Small Craft Almanac, published in association with Practical Boat Owner, covers all of the UK and Ireland, as well as the North Atlantic coastline from Denmark to the Gironde.

    The Reeds PBO Small Craft Almanac may be more compact and concise than the Reeds Nautical Almanac but it contains a wealth of indispensable navigational data specially tailored for small craft sailors, presented in an easy-to-find, quick-reference manner for on-board use. Streamlined to focus on tidal data (tide tables, tidal streams and tidal curves) and lights, buoys and waypoints, the Small Craft Almanac covers the whole of the UK and Ireland and the west coast of Europe from Denmark to the Gironde.

    Published in association with Practical Boat Owner magazine, this practical handy Almanac boasts many unique features for small craft sailors and represents excellent value for money for those who don’t need the more comprehensive marina data, passage information and chartlets of the full Reeds Almanac.

    Meticulously researched, it includes a huge amount of information of value to small craft navigators: tide tables, tidal streams and tidal gates; secondary port differences; 2,500+ waypoints; radio data; light recognition; weather information; principal lights; IALA buoyage; international codes and flags; sun/moon rise/set times; emergency information.

    Also available: free supplements of up-to-date navigation changes from January to June at: www.reedsnauticalalmanac.co.uk

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    £20.90
  • Surviving to Drive: The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller

    08

    **THE INSTANT NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

    ‘Gripping to read. Funny, real, exciting. It’s a brilliant book.’ – Chris Evans

    ‘Fearless and candid… A gleeful guide to a bonkers sport from a loveable rogue insider.’ – The Times

    ‘People talk about football managers being under pressure. Trust me, that’s nothing. Pressure is watching one of your drivers hit a barrier at 190mph and exploding before your eyes…’

    Guenther Steiner is one of motor racing’s biggest and most celebrated characters, known to millions for his show-stealing appearances on Netflix’s hugely popular fly on the wall series, Drive to Survive.

    In Surviving to Drive, the Haas team principal takes readers inside his Formula 1 team for the entirety of the 2022 season, giving an unobstructed view of what really takes place behind the scenes. Through this unique lens, Guenther takes us on the thrilling rollercoaster of life at the heart of high stakes motor racing.

    Packed full of twists and turns, from hiring and firing drivers, balancing books, pre-season preparations, the design, launch and testing of a car – and of course, the race calendar itself – this is the first time that an F1 team has allowed an acting team principal to tell the full story of a whole season.

    Uncompromising and searingly honest, told in Steiner’s inimitable style, this is a fascinating and hugely entertaining account of the realities of running a Formula 1 team.

    ‘Very colourful. Like having a conversation with Steiner.’ – Radio 4, Today

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    £10.00£20.00
  • Surviving to Drive: The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller

    08

    **THE INSTANT NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

    ‘Gripping to read. Funny, real, exciting. It’s a brilliant book.’ – Chris Evans

    ‘Fearless and candid… A gleeful guide to a bonkers sport from a loveable rogue insider.’ – The Times

    ‘People talk about football managers being under pressure. Trust me, that’s nothing. Pressure is watching one of your drivers hit a barrier at 190mph and exploding before your eyes…’

    Guenther Steiner is one of motor racing’s biggest and most celebrated characters, known to millions for his show-stealing appearances on Netflix’s hugely popular fly on the wall series, Drive to Survive.

    In Surviving to Drive, the Haas team principal takes readers inside his Formula 1 team for the entirety of the 2022 season, giving an unobstructed view of what really takes place behind the scenes. Through this unique lens, Guenther takes us on the thrilling rollercoaster of life at the heart of high stakes motor racing.

    Packed full of twists and turns, from hiring and firing drivers, balancing books, pre-season preparations, the design, launch and testing of a car – and of course, the race calendar itself – this is the first time that an F1 team has allowed an acting team principal to tell the full story of a whole season.

    Uncompromising and searingly honest, told in Steiner’s inimitable style, this is a fascinating and hugely entertaining account of the realities of running a Formula 1 team.

    ‘Very colourful. Like having a conversation with Steiner.’ – Radio 4, Today

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    £7.10£19.00
  • The Beaten Track Volume 3: The Traction and Extremities of Britain’s Rail Network 1970-1985

    01
    The Beaten Track was first published in 2021. Its combination of outstanding colour photography from 1970–1985, featuring superseded motive power and long-lost extremities of the British railway network received widespread critical acclaim. Although originally intended to be a single volume, the success of The Beaten Track gave rise to a second volume, published in 2022, which continued in the same vein and received similar praise in reviews. We’re now proud to present The Beaten Track Volume 3 – a third selection of the best colour photography from 1970–1985. More than 250 high quality colour images illustrate an assortment of traction types, very few of which can still be seen on the main line, many at railway locations that have long since disappeared or have changed out of all recognition. All the photographs are accompanied by extensive captions, containing considerable historical and anecdotal information relating to the lines, stations and trains depicted. Hardback. A4 size. 176 pages.

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    £33.20
  • The Big Book of Car Trivia: More 1,200 funny stories and amazing facts about cars

    08
    What did George Michael crash into while driving past a Gay Pride parade? What percentage of Americans wash their car every week? Which car marque launched its own cotton branded face mask? How do you take a corner sideways? What supercar has ten radiators? During what motoring emergency are you advised to burn your CDs? Which part of a car contains more germs than a toilet seat?After breaking the world record for driving to the most countries in one day and driving from Land’s End to John O’Groats in a car that cost £50, former Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson backroom writer and researcher Simon Heptinstall has compiled one of the biggest and best collections of international car trivia ever collected by him.It’s the best way to discover more than 1,200 funny stories and amazing facts about cars, motoring and drivers across the world and through the ages. The other way is to spend years looking them up on the internet and in libraries.

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    £10.40
  • The Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century

    ‘An incredible and stirring story . . . a mix of competition, camaraderie as well as a larky sense of adventure . . . Down goes the flag. Smash goes the bottle. Shards of emerald glass and champagne spume catch the light. The race from Peking to Paris has begun’ Spectator

    ‘And it’s Go, Go, Go . . . A captivating history of a seemingly impossible journey and one of the most challenging endurance trials in the history of motoring . . . Skillful researcher and fine storyteller, St Clair’s narrative is full of surprises . . . Fabulous . . . she hopes to follow Prince Borghese on his heroic journey and – if you share my absorbed interest in her adventurous narrative you may want to emulate her. See you there?’ Miranda Seymour, Literary Review

    10 June 1907, Peking. Five cars set off in a desperate race across two continents on the verge of revolution.

    An Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a conman and various journalists battle over steep mountain ranges and across the arid vastness of the Gobi Desert. The contestants need teams of helpers to drag their primitive cars up narrow gorges, lift them over rough terrain and float them across rivers. Petrol is almost impossible to find, there are barely any roads, armed bandits and wolves lurk in the forests. Updates on their progress, sent by telegram, are eagerly devoured by millions in one of the first ever global news stories. Their destination: Paris.

    More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris provided the impetus for profound change. The world of 1907 is poised between the old and the new: communist regimes will replace imperial ones in China and Russia; the telegraph is transforming modern communication and the car will soon displace the horse. In this book bestselling author Kassia St Clair traces the fascinating stories of two interlocking races – setting the derring-do (and sometimes cheating) of one of the world’s first car races against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological rush to the future, as the rivalry grows between countries and empires, building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything – the First World War.

    The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that shaped the world we live in today.

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    £11.99
  • The Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century, Radio 4 Book of the Week (Father Anselm Novels)

    ‘An incredible and stirring story . . . a mix of competition, camaraderie as well as a larky sense of adventure . . . Down goes the flag. Smash goes the bottle. Shards of emerald glass and champagne spume catch the light. The race from Peking to Paris has begun’ Spectator

    ‘And it’s Go, Go, Go . . . A captivating history of a seemingly impossible journey and one of the most challenging endurance trials in the history of motoring . . . Skillful researcher and fine storyteller, St Clair’s narrative is full of surprises . . . Fabulous . . . she hopes to follow Prince Borghese on his heroic journey and – if you share my absorbed interest in her adventurous narrative you may want to emulate her. See you there?’ Miranda Seymour, Literary Review

    10 June 1907, Peking. Five cars set off in a desperate race across two continents on the verge of revolution.

    An Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a conman and various journalists battle over steep mountain ranges and across the arid vastness of the Gobi Desert. The contestants need teams of helpers to drag their primitive cars up narrow gorges, lift them over rough terrain and float them across rivers. Petrol is almost impossible to find, there are barely any roads, armed bandits and wolves lurk in the forests. Updates on their progress, sent by telegram, are eagerly devoured by millions in one of the first ever global news stories. Their destination: Paris.

    More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris provided the impetus for profound change. The world of 1907 is poised between the old and the new: communist regimes will replace imperial ones in China and Russia; the telegraph is transforming modern communication and the car will soon displace the horse. In this book bestselling author Kassia St Clair traces the fascinating stories of two interlocking races – setting the derring-do (and sometimes cheating) of one of the world’s first car races against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological rush to the future, as the rivalry grows between countries and empires, building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything – the First World War.

    The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that shaped the world we live in today.

    Read more

    £15.20£19.00
  • The Science of Supercars: The technology that powers the greatest cars in the world

    08

    Trace the evolution of the supercar through the technology that drives it.

    With an introduction by David Coulthard.

    This is the definitive story of the science behind the art of supercar design. Written by bestselling author Martin Roach and featuring bespoke technical illustrations from F1 insider Neil Waterman, plus contributions from the biggest names in the supercar world, including:

    • Adrian Newey – legend of Formula 1 design

    • Gordon Murray – creator of the McLaren F1

    • Achim Anscheidt – chief designer of the Bugatti Chiron

    • Tony Hatter – Porsche design guru

    • Horacio Pagani – founder of Pagani

    • Nigel Mansell – Formula 1 world champion

    • Christian von Koenigsegg – founder of Koenigsegg

    And many, many more.

    From the earliest supercharged monsters to the complex machines of today, The Science of Supercars traces the evolution of the supercar through the technology that powers it.

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    £20.00£24.70
  • The Worst Cars Ever Sold

    08

    They don’t make ‘bad’ cars any more, right? Well, maybe not, but there have been some real clunkers in years gone by, and this is the first book to celebrate them in all their awful glory. In this new edition, Giles Chapman presents to you “The Worst Cars Ever Sold”, containing hundreds of rare pictures of these unreliable, rusty, hideous-looking and just plain mad machines, and thousands of fascinating and entertaining facts about them – some will surprise you, others you’ll be all too familiar with. This book will take you back in time to when the family jalopy never failed to let you down, or that banger you bought from the local paper revealed its true character the moment you drove it – behold the worst cars ever sold and enjoy!

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    £10.40

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