By: James Rüppert
Paperback, 302 pages Dimensions: 24.2 x 16.8 x 2.0 cm..
Pictures: Lots, black, white & grainy!
ISBN-13: 978-0955952937
Publisher: www.foresightpublications.com LINK HERE
Publisher retail: £12.99 including signature & postage
Amazon: No discount

James Rüppert is a very bright and original voice amongst the sea of Clarkson cloned automotive commentators. A former top car salesman with BMW’s poshest Park Lane dealership, he is a well known contributor to the media, including a weekly column in Autocar, a must read of buying expertise and the first section this reviewer scans while sadly wondering why the hell he still reads a magazine that appears to have cut itself adrift from today’s economic climate.

James' product promise is simple: “James Ruppert explains why German cars from the 1980s were quite simply, wunderbar. Because when it came to build quality, reliability and performance, every other car made anywhere else in the world was rubbish.”

Yes it’s a bold assertion and — like so much spouted by motoring media — it’s a generalisation to stir things up, entertain, and get your attention. As the owner of a 1985 BMW and a fan of German engineering of the kind that created Audi quattro, I sympathise with the Rüppert school of drifting.

I totally enjoyed the book for its mixture of unique comment, period music reviews and anarchist stance. I blanched at the numerous factual product and literal errors: I thought James could have usefully ignored the gargantuan task of summarizing the entire industry in breathless chunks, but it made no difference to my verdict.

A famous contrast to the me-too platoons of regurgitated information books and DVDs that flood 90 per cent of the 2011 market. Well worth a trip along to the Rüppert website HERE, which includes the foresight publications link to obtain this and other titles, plus the brilliantly effective www.bangernomics.com HERE. Now that’s in tune with the times!

Jeremy Walton