13 replies to this topic

[petefenelon]

Your title's nearly been hijacked!

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...&category=48442

Unique Motor Books are putting out one of their compilations of photocopies on Ebay under the title "LOTUS 72 72E 72C 72D 72E STORY OF AN F1 ICON"..... unfortunately, the best one can say about Unique's books is that they compile useful information - but they're horrid tatty things next to Brooklands books.

Anyone who buys this thinking they're getting your 72 book will be profoundly disapopinted!

[Michael Oliver]

Originally posted by petefenelon
Your title's nearly been hijacked!

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...&category=48442

Unique Motor Books are putting out one of their compilations of photocopies on Ebay under the title "LOTUS 72 72E 72C 72D 72E STORY OF AN F1 ICON"..... unfortunately, the best one can say about Unique's books is that they compile useful information - but they're horrid tatty things next to Brooklands books.

Anyone who buys this thinking they're getting your 72 book will be profoundly disapopinted!

Hi Pete

What is the saying?:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

But in this case I think a phone call might be in order because that is taking the p***...

Cheers

Michael

[petefenelon]

Proving that jumping bandwagons is dead easy, Unique have now come out with a Jack Brabham book ("Brabham The Man And The Machines") which they're advertising on Ebay.

130 page book lokking at variuos modelsincluding 3-litre models and Brabham-Daf Formula 3 car and the BT24 Brabham and the Brabham Junior. Excellent book.

The caption really does mirror their production values ;P

At least they're not picking a tag-line for the advert that's as close to the DCN/Sir Jack book as the one they used with Michael's.

(which they're now just advertising as "LOTUS 72 72E 72C 72D 72E BOOK")

I think we need a couple of new terms here - "to tipler" - to publish a cheap cash-in book before someone else can get in and publish a substantial one, and "to unique" - to publish a cheap cash-in book after someone else has done a substantial one ;)

[petefenelon]

Christ, it gets worse.

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...&category=48442


...just as a reprint of the wonderful Archie and the Listers comes out, Unique publish another slim sheaf of old photocopies and presumably try to mislead people that they're getting a bargain?

[Don Capps]

There is obviously a market for some form of publication which provide those with either an interest or a need with articles reproduced from magaines from the distant past.

Out of curiosity, I bought a few of the items that Unique offers. Generally, the quality of the reproduction is poor and the lack of any complete bibliographical information on the reproduced articles - not even the original page numbers -- renders them essentially almost unuseable for any real scholastic use. Okay, the latter is perhaps not a biggie to 99.99999999999999999999999999999% of those purchasing the publications, but to one or two of us it is.

They don't come really all that "cheap" and I have found them often very haphazard in both content and layout. Easy to be critical, perhaps, but then again I am certain that someone with the access to similar materials with a real eye for the material could blow Unique -- and there is/was another whose name I forget -- out of the water.

I know that Mark Steigerwald and Bill Green of the IMRRC and I could easily do better.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Don Capps I am certain that someone with the access to similar materials with a real eye for the material could blow Unique -- and there is/was another whose name I forget -- out of the water.

I know that Mark Steigerwald and Bill Green of the IMRRC and I could easily do better. [/B]

Brooklands Books usually do a damn good job - I have their Le Mans, Land Speed Record, Carrera Panamericana, Can-Am and ERA compilations. Excellent stuff.

[Don Capps]

Originally posted by petefenelon
Brooklands Books usually do a damn good job - I have their Le Mans, Land Speed Record, Carrera Panamericana, Can-Am and ERA compilations. Excellent stuff.

Exactly. Someone else jumped into the act several years ago, slotting somewhere twix Brooklands and Unique, perhaps a bit closer to Unique. Brooklands has been careful to steer towards certain topics and for this I am grateful, they do a great job.

[VWV]

I have bought 4 Unique books, Auto Union Racing Cars, MERCEDES-BENZ W25.W125.W154.W156, MERCEDES-BENZ W196 GRAND PRIX CAR, and Lotus 49.

The quality of the Lotus 49 one is really bad, the text and photos barely legible while the white cover Auto Union and both Mercedes books were much better in both reproductive and content quality. I bought them because I don’t have access to old magazine articles on these cars and plus the fact that they were on sale.

[Doug Nye]

Ho-hum - I have not yet had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of a Unique book. I wonder what photographs they reproduce from bygone publications....

DCN

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Ho-hum - I have not yet had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of a Unique book. I wonder what photographs they reproduce from bygone publications....

DCN

It's often difficult to tell what they're reproducing, the repro standards are appalling. Their stuff tends to look like the office junior was told to photocopy something very quickly while the copier engineer was ferretting around inside it, and then grapple with the binding machine for no more than 30 seconds. Oh, some of them even have the titles Dymoed onto the spine.

[conjohn]

Originally posted by Don Capps
They don't come really all that "cheap" and I have found them often very haphazard in both content and layout. Easy to be critical, perhaps, but then again I am certain that someone with the access to similar materials with a real eye for the material could blow Unique -- and there is/was another whose name I forget -- out of the water.

Are you thinking about Transport Source Books? Similiar idea, but instead of the junior office boy doing the photocopying they have gotten the senior office boy to do it....

[Ted Walker]

Doug. I have been"looking " to see whos photos they are using,and what I dont understand is how they can just copy anything from any magazine. I see that they have copied " Sportscar & Lotus Owner into a book.

[Dave Wright]

The preface to my Unique Motor Books includes special thanks to all the publishers who have allowed them to use their material.#

Whatever their faults, I find them a useful resource. I've bought many reduced to £5 which won't buy you much more than a current issue of Motorsport, and they are far more interesting - poor photocopies of poor quality newsprint photos not withstanding! Even at full price (around £12), the compilations giving 3 years worth of Autocar or Motor GP race reports isn't bad value. Buying 30 or so second hand magazines would cost much more even if you can get hold of them.

[bill moffat]

I had the misfortune of buying (unseen) one of Unique's attempts at Le Mans history from a reputable motor-sporting bookshop.

Two things struck me..1) how ultra-professional my old college magazine (edited by me, typed by my mother and with cartoons by my then-girlfriend) looked when lined up alongside this shoddy cluster of poorly developed photocopies and 2) how the hell could C*****s justify promoting,and profiting from, this rubbish.