AUTHOR Meredith

   ENGLISH

    HARD

ISBN 10 1870979583

ISBN 13 9781870979580

OUT OF PRINT --  NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS

    SOFT

ISBN 10 0760317364

ISBN 13 9780760317365

OUT OF PRINT --  NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS

TITLE Porsche 356

AUTHOR Meredith

ISBN 10    0750927348

ISBN 13     9780750927345

OUT OF PRINT --  NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS

FROM MY REVIEWS IN THE PORSCHE 356 REGISTRY:

Laurence Meredith is something of an enigma:  I find myself agreeing with his conclusions and insights, but considered him factually the second worse English author – meaning the second worse author in the world writing in English about Porsches – then Chris Harvey died.  Meredith has come up with a great, if frequently practiced, system for writing a Porsche book.  He pulled several hundred photographs from Porsche Arkivs, added a few words, created a PORSCHE 356 (list $19.95).   Frequently, his insights are right on the mark:  He doesn’t like 356A bumper over riders either.  Occasionally they are just silly:  “Porsche purists never really accepted the Cabriolet because in modern parlance, it was likely to appeal to members of the noble profession of hairdressing.”  More to the point, the book is crammed with factual inaccuracies.  However, Meredith has managed to place several hundred of Herr Parr’s photographs in 160 pages.  Even better, he apparently started at the beginning (Arkiv photos are in file cabinets by year) and got tired early on.  Hence, also a third of the book is composed of preA photographs and probably more do to inadvertence than anything else the A, B, C chapters are sprinkled with preA photographs.  So many factory photos for on $19.95 is a fabulous bargain, just don’t pay too much attention to the words – unless you are extremely compulsive, in which case you can occupy yourself for additional hours.

AUTHOR     Meredith

   ENGLISH

ISBN 10     1861263465

ISBN 13      9781861263469

price             $20.00

OUT OF PRINT --  AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS

AUTHOR     Meredith

   ENGLISH

ISBN 10     1845841093

ISBN 13     9781845841096

OUT OF PRINTE -- NO LONGER AVAILABLE @BLOCKS BOOKS

FROM MY REVIEW IN THE 356 REGISTRY:

I am, in general not impressed by the scholarship of most English Porsche books.  I think Chris Harvey subtracted from the fund of Porsche knowledge every time he set pen to paper or pushed on a typewriter key, terminated only by his death.  Laurence Meredith combines a cavalier disregard of facts with boundless enthusiasm for Porsche, although I must admit I am usually in complete agreement with his conclusions and opinions.  However, I only need be told once that he disagrees with other English writers (read above) that a Porsche motor is at the wrong end, or that the Porsche is a triumph of development over design, not the half dozen or maybe even 10 reiterations found in the book.    Meredith’s latest book, Porsche the Rally Story is a peculiar combination of a short history of Porsche and a chatty year-by-year history of Porsche’s rally efforts.  As it turns out, at least during the 356 period, the history is spotty -- as Meredith points out Porsche was more interested in sports car racing.  Because there isn’t enough to write about actual rallies, Meredith covers open-road racing as well: the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamerica, on the basis that the last of the great open road races were basically high speed rallies. Thus we are treated to several pictures of Jaclyn Evans standing by her Gmünd coupe (not her Eva Peron car).  Amazingly, considering Porsche’s later rally history, 83 of about 250 pages are devoted to the 356 period.  The overwhelming saving grace:  photographs of 356s in action, including an astounding number of rare photographs of the VW 60 10K, Gmünds (mainly Otto Mathe’s), split and Knickscheibe PreAs.  It doesn’t even detract much from the photographs that many, if not most, are mis-captioned.  Especially egregious is the frequently printed photograph of a silver 1600 GS/GT 356B-T5 at the Tour de Corsica, with the caption that Porsche never won the East African Safari.

The best part of the book comes immediately after the 356 period with the early 911 and 904 Rally histories.  This is beautifully done with many photographs unfamiliar to me.  Color photographs become more prevalent.  A black and white photograph of the 1965 Monte Carlo 904 and 911 includes in the background a very light 901 with a provisional deck – probably the 1964 Paris show car – where the 901/911 was first shown.  Later chapters cover the 914 with cogent reasoning as to why it was a relative failure -- Porsche was warned by its drivers that the 911 was a better bet, especially in bad weather.  One of the disadvantages of the marketing and the racing departments sharing the same hat is that decisions are made for the wrong reasons.

In a later chapter, for reasons that make no sense, the 550 and 904 efforts, primarily in road racing, are again covered – thankfully so, since many more marvelous photographs are included.  Perhaps this was not the right chapter for the two color photographs of Herbert Lange stuffed into the back of a dark blue interim bumper cabriolet with “3rd Carrera Panamerica plate #11”.  As an aside, I had never seen even one of these photos prior to this year, but now I have seen at least one of these two photographs in three publications.  Never before had I seen or been aware of Spyder 550-06 in the same color blue with 58 in the roundel.  Lurking in the background of the photograph are a dark blue body bumper coupe, number 53, and a silver Spyder number 55.  Of course, Meredith gets the year wrong -- it was 1954, not 1953.

Again, not the first book you should buy and maybe not borderline adequate as a history, but if you are relatively price insensitive, consider it for the photographs alone  – just don’t rely on Porsche the Rally Story for facts. 

AUTHOR         Meredith

   ENGLISH

ISBN 10     075092348

ISBN 13     no ISBN 13

price                 $20.00

OUT OF PRINT --  AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS

AUTHOR     Meredith

    ENGLISH

ISBN 10 076031005X

ISBN 13 978076031005X

price                 $20.00

OUT OF PRINT --  NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS

AUTHOR Meredith

    ENGLISH

ISBN 10 075092599X

ISBN 13 9780750925990

OUT OF PRINT --  NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM BLOCKS BOOKS