The first book review of this new section is that of the new biography of Paul Hawkins. It is particularly apt as we have the new models from John Shinton Lola T70 MKIIIb and Tenariv Ford AMR/2 announced elsewhere on the site. "Hawkeye" as all knew him was one of the genuine larger than life characters who were so much a part of Motorsport during the 1950-1970 period. He was killed in a fiery accident in his Lola T70GT MKIIIb at Oulton Park in 1969 just at it appeared he was reaching the best years of his career. Paul Hawkins Racing was very much the "works Lola T70 squad operating from a part of the Factory and was also running a F5000 car. 

Lola T70 MKIIIb > Here   Tenariv Ford AMR/2 > Here

One day we were testing at the Nurburgring with the new 907, which in effect was virtually a 910 with the bigger, heavier and more powerful 2.2 litre eight cylinder engine in the back instead of the lightweight six-cylinder 2 litre.  

After one lap Paul came back and told Helmuth Bott who was in charge of race engineering, that with the extra weight the rear of the car "was going up and down like a whore's drawers at a pile drivers picnic"! Fortunately, Helmuth was such a straight innocent man that he had not a clue what Paul was talking about.

The book is littered with such stories and once I started to read it I could not put it down. Having met Paul while I was a teenager on a few occasions at Silverstone it brought back many happy and sad memories. I do not know if a laughed or cried most while reading the book, on second thoughts probably the latter as many of the tears were tears of laughter. The book is a great read and should be on everyone's shelf if they have any interest of that period.