04 Dec 06
Richard Hammond's Car Confidential
Richard Hammond and Andy Wilman
Weidenfeld & Nicholson £12.99
Another book custom-built for the Christmas petrolhead market, this is the Hamster's collection of car-related hints, tips, games and advice.
If you like the Top Gear style of humour, this book (co-written with the TV series' executive producer) will keep you chuckling until long after the in-laws have gone home.
TV Cars
Giles Chapman
Haynes £7.99
When it comes to motors on TV, you're either a 'You're nicked, slag' kind of chap or a 'I love it when a plan comes together' dude. Whichever one you are, this new book explores the world of cathode-ray cars, documenting the most famous examples.
Chapman shamelessly exploits the nostalgia felt by men of a certain age towards the cars that they lusted over in their spotty youth. TV Cars has everything from The Prisoner's Lotus Seven to Alan Partridge's Lexus (plural, Lexi). Read this book and you'll feel like you've gone back in time like John Simm's character in Life on Mars.
Haynes Desk Diary
Haynes £9.99
Haynes manuals have been indispensable companions to mechanics and amateur auto tinkerers for nearly half a century, their distinctive design becoming a car industry icon.
After branching out in recent years to include how-to guides to, among other subjects, women, babies and sex, the company is now publishing a rather cool desk diary. The year is set out with a week over two pages, with the start of each month illustrated by a cutaway drawing of a classic car (E-Type, Renault 5, Beetle, er, Volvo Daf 66). There's also a wealth of other useful features, such as year planners, address book and a complete list of all the UK number plate registration area identification letters - something I haven't seen the I-Spy Book of Cars that I used to have as a boy.
