By Philip Newsome
2025 review by James Loveridge
Now it is almost impossible to think of any engine-powered vehicle for which there is not some form of competition irrespective of the number of wheels it has: motor bikes, cars, trucks and even lawn mowers. These events are staged on tracks, hills, drag strips, and in this book’s case, on the beach! These Hot Rods race over a set distance in pairs. This, essentially, is how the World Speed record is established, though only one car is actually running at a time of course.
Clearly the object of motor sport is to go faster than the other people competing. Even driving tests depend on how quickly you can complete the course without incurring penalties. Most forms of motor sport require the vehicles being on track together but one very popular version is where one, or sometimes two, vehicles drive along a measured distance to establish which, at the end of the event, went quickest.
The particular type of this motor sport featured in this new book by Philip Newsome (the co-winner with Guy Loveridge of the Malcolm Jeal award in 2019) “Tracks in the Sand” is about hot rodding beach racing in the United Kingdom, specifically at Pendine in Wales, site of World Land Speed Records in the 1920s.
Hot rodding originated in the United States. There appears to be no strict definition of what is a hot rod; one such is “a car that’s been stripped down, souped up and made to go much faster” and that seems to be as good as any. Hot rodding has become quite popular in the United Kingdom and is run by the Vintage Hot Rod Association. The rules seem pretty flexible but to qualify the car used must originally be of pre-1949 manufacture and of USA make so this means plenty of lusty flathead V8s and a lavish sprinkling of Ford Model A genetics. However, plenty of latitude is allowed so a lot of the cars bear little resemblance to the products of Detroit of that period. The designs are very imaginative; in fact some are even bodied with old aircraft jettisonable fuel tanks, and range from the weird and wonderful to the really very attractive.
Philip is a skilled photographer and has published a good deal about the Macau Grand Prix amongst other aspects of motor sport and the numerous, but un-numbered, photographs show that skill to very good effect. This is definitely a picture book and the text is limited to the bare minimum to give an idea of the atmosphere of one of the Association’s recent events on the “hallowed” sands of Pendine. It is highly recommended, not least for the many candid and interesting images it contains.
This 116-page book with its 78 photographs is published by Blue Flag Press at £38 plus p&p hardback and £25 plus p&p paperback and can be ordered at blueflagpress.co.uk. Hortons also have it.
Publisher: Blue Flag Press blueflagpress.co.uk
Price: £38 plus p&p hardback and £25 plus p&p paperback.
Description: 116 pages, 78 pictures.
ISBN: 978-1-7397061-2-8
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