library of motoring » books

collectible of the day: The MINI: The Making of a Modern Icon

James — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:00:11 +0000

Today we feature another collectible book on the MINI.

The MINI: The Making of a Modern Icon was written by Brian Laban and includes forwards by Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear and Frank Stephenson, the designer of the original new MINI.

From Amazon UK:

This text tells the story of the Mini’s development over time and the story [...]

collectible of the day: You & Your New MINI book

James — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:00:53 +0000

From 2004 comes another of the popular early MINI books: You & Your New MINI: Buying, Enjoying, Maintaining, Modifying by Tim Mundy.

The table of contents contains:

Chapter 1: Genesis and evolution Chapter 2: New Mini in depth Chapter 3: The Mini One Chapter 4: The Mini One D Chapter 5: The Mini Cooper Chapter 6: The Cooper S Chapter 7: The Mini [...]

collectible of the day: Owners Workshop Manual for the MINI

James — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:00:26 +0000

Back in February we featured the MINI Cooper Service Manual by Bentley Publishers. That book was very thick and very detailed.

Today we have the Haynes Owners Workshop Manual for the MINI by Randall Martynn. Although this book is in hardcover, the 143 pages are printed on almost newspaper-like paper with only black and white photos.

The [...]

collectible of the day: MINI 50 Years book

James — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:00:17 +0000

MINI 50 Years by Rob Golding is an interesting little book with a clever hardcover case. The bright yellow cover has a magnetic closure and is opened by lifting the bonnet section (to uncover the MINI engine) and then the main cover to uncover the glossy softcover book inside.

Published in 2007, the fifty years covered [...]

collectible of the day: MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper ‘S’ book

James — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:00:23 +0000

MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper ‘S’ is an unusual “book”. On the bright yellow cover it states “THIS BOOK CONTAINS ROAD TESTS AND FEATURES ON ALL MINI COOPER MODELS”. Despite the MINI on the cover, the first third of the book actually contains articles on the classic Mini.

Published by Unique Motor Books, this soft-cover [...]

collectible of the day: MINI book

James — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:00:32 +0000

Titled simply MINI, this book by Patrick C. Paternie is another early book covering the new MINI. Much like Graham Robson’s New MINI book, Paternie’s 96 page softcover book covers the history of the classic Mini and the development of the new MINI by Rover and BMW.

Chapters include:

A Mini History: Britain’s Best Developing and Designing the [...]

collectible of the day: The Little Book of MINI

James — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 07:00:42 +0000

The Little Book of MINI by Brian Laban is little, measuring just six inches by six inches, but covers the history of the Mini as well as the MINI. Contents include:

Introduction The Seeds The Alternatives The Man behind the Mini The Solution Onto the Road Acceptance Minis with More Enter the Cooper Do It Yourself The Wilder Bunch Rallying Round On the Road Again Into the Future An End [...]

collectible of the day: New MINI book

James — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:47 +0000

One of the first books to be published about the new MINI was this one: New MINI by Graham Robson from 2002. The book covers the beginnings of the MINI from the BMW takeover of Rover, early concepts like the Spiritual and ACV30, initial marketing, moving to Plant Oxford, and the launch in 2001.

In 2005, [...]

collectible of the day: MISSION MINI book

James — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:00:14 +0000

MISSION MINI was a worldwide contest organized by MINI and held in Barcelona in November 2003. Twenty-one teams competed to track down “stolen” artwork by artist Peter Halley. The crime’s story and characters were set up in a short book MISSION MINI by award-winning crime writer Val McDermid. This 52 page book was available in [...]

collectible of the day: MINI Cooper Service Manual

James — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:00:32 +0000

Published in 2004, the original MINI Cooper Service Manual by Bentley Publishers covered the first generation, pre-revised MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S from 2002, 2003, and 2004. This large and thick paperback book consisted of 800 pages of information for do-it-yourself repairs. When published it had a cover price of $99.95.

In 2007, a new [...]