RESTRICTED TO OPEN-MINDED READERS ONLY.

Strong thought-provoking content, myths debunked, facts only, no nudity. Written by Gavin Farmer.

was printed as a black-and-white book with three colour sections let in which was nice but it meant that the images were not connected to the text.

Those personal criticisms aside, they did not prevent the book from being a good seller. Once the word was out that there was a book on the Charger, and that it was a thoroughly well researched book, car enthusiasts flocked to the shops and purchased copies. There was even a very limited edition hard-cover version that I lobbied Reed Publishing for and got. One hundred copies were printed and were sold out virtually overnight!

Fast forward to 2014 and Ilinga Books has continued to have enthusiasts wanting a copy. However, by this time we had sold out. That got me thinking about doing a reprint. A discussion with Gary soon had the green light flashing.

The first thing we had to do was contact Penguin Books, who had taken over Reed Publishing, and ask if they were ever likely to do a reprint. No, they were not interested but for a fee Gary and I could purchase the rights to our book! Good, eh?

Once we had that sorted we went looking for Graeme Leather, the guy who laid out the original graphic art work. It seemed logical seeing as how he was able to decode the files that we were given off Penguin’s system, and he was available.

For me, doing a simple reprint of the original was never going to be enough. Certainly I wanted to raise the aesthetics of the book – I firmly believe that the appearance of a book is a big part of the decision to buy, or not. So any new edition was going to be printed on glossy art paper and the many, many colour images were going to be repositioned throughout the book and close to where they were being discussed in the text.

And it was going to be hard-covered with a stand-out dust jacket that would feature a coloured strip across it that instantly identified the book as an Ilinga Books publication.

There were some issues with the original text that required correction, none moreso than the chapter on the E55 engine option. In the original I had titled the chapter ‘The One That Got Away.’ People have been banging on about the 340 V8 engine option from Day One. From the available information that I had to hand when writing the original – some time in 1998/99 – it seemed that Chrysler was going to fit the 340 into the Charger and go racing.

However, in the intervening decade further