I purchased this book:  Rover P5 & P5B:  The Complete Story by James Taylor and overall I am happy with the purchase.

The book does a good job of covering the events that led up to the launch of the car and then the major changes that took place during its life cycle.   It covers all the different series of car, as well as the Coupe and Saloon.      It also features a buyers guide.

The one thing I feel is missing is a bit more detail about the original 3 liter engine, which given it was a carry over into the P5, I can understand why they didn’t go into a lot of detail.   I find this engine interesting as it was one of the last engines that used an IoE layout – that is an overhead inlet valve and a side exhaust valve.

I also would have liked a good appendix at the back with more technical specifications, while the specifications through the book are fairly good – they are not as detailed as I would have liked.    It does do a good job of covering the less well known 2.4 and 2.6 liter versions.

Overall it was a good read and a worthwhile addition to my collection of automotive books.    Rating:  7.5/10

The post Book Review: Rover P5 & P5B: The Complete Story appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

It does a good job of explaining the changes over the years (in this aspect, probably not as good as the Reynolds book), and an especially good job of covering the models for various countries – the UK in particular, but also the Australian made cars among others.     The Appendix sections are probably not quite as detailed as the Reynolds book, but some of the background sections around the hydraulics are better written.

Overall, I would recommend this book.   You can get it for less than $35, and some of the detail it is missing is available on Le Nuancier DS (A French website) which has even more photos of the various details of the DS year by year as well as the colour charts etc that are made available in the Reynolds book.

In summary, this book is better for the story and history behind the DS, and where it is a bit lacking, there is an excellent web resource to fill this gap.    It is also a good buy for the person who is contemplating a DS, to explain the innovation contained int he car, and help decide which of the numerous models is right for that buyer.   This is one of the books I refer to regularly in my library.

The post Book Review: Citroen DS: The Complete Story by Jon Pressnell appeared first on Classic Jalopy.