Formula Junior: Made In Italy

By Alessandro Silva, £48, negri.it, ISBN 978 88 89108 43 7

The fact that Duncan Rabagliati terms this new, hefty tome the

‘bible of Formula Junior’ says everything you need to know about its comprehensiveness, accuracy and authoritativeness. Writer Silva alternates between telling the chronological history of the innovative low-cost singleseater formula created by Count Giovanni Lurani, and thorough technical investigations of the cars involved. Each season is detailed in full too.

There is, perhaps unavoidably, a heavy Italian bias. More emphasis is given to the likes of De Tomaso, De Sanctis and Stanguellini than Lotus, Elva and Lola; and the dominance of British talent and the ultimate replacement of FJ with F3 seen as a dreadful shame rather than the evolution of the form. Still, you’ll struggle to find a more complete work on such an influential period.

Lamborghini Countach By Thillainathan Pathmanathan & Anne Christina Reck, £60, evropublishing.com,

ISBN 978 1 910505 63 2

You’re 50 pages into Pathmanathan and Reck’s 336-page heavyweight before the Countach finally enters the stage, but this underlines the thoroughness to which they’ve gone. A long-term Countach owner, Pathmanathan lamented the lack of definitive books on his car, so dedicated years to putting that right. He’s befriended everyone involved, from the Lamborghini family itself to the likes of Paolo Stanzani and the late Bob Wallace, and accessed long-unseen documents, including Marcello Gandini’s original sketches.

The Countach story is told not only in dizzying depth here, but also with impressive candour. Pathmanathan isn’t beholden to the firm’s reputation and is frank about the car’s shortcomings. The result is excellent, although it’s a shame certain elements (Walter Wolf’s involvement, for example) have been downplayed. That said, the family involvement means this is the closest you’ll get to Ferruccio himself assessing his most famous creation.

A Century of Car Aerodynamics By Julian Edgar, £36, julianedgar1@ gmail.com, ISBN 9 798506 846901 This book might have been so technical that only engineers would be interested. Instead we get a fascinating history of the car told from a vital perspective.

After thoroughly explaining the science, Edgar picks out the major advancements in car aerodynamics from 1921 (the advent of Paul Jaray’s streamlining revolution) to the present. Cars like the Vauxhall Calibra contribute in a way that the Lancia Delta Integrale might in a book on rallying. An amazing book that will change the way you look at cars.