Variable Valve Timings: Memoirs of a car tragic
£15.20£20.90 (-27%)
‘What defines the car-saddo condition is not being able to recall a time when the toy-car-era of your life actually ended. Because for us sufferers, it never does.’
Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it ‘unhinged geekery’, but the rest of the world call it infectious enthusiasm, adrenalin fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity.
And then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car.
And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his life-long obssession with the automobile – along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to prep the stock.
From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit Top Gear studio.
Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrolhead joy, told with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This book is a true one-off, just like Chris.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Ebury Spotlight (9 Nov. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 256 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1529913594 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1529913590 |
| Dimensions | 16 x 2.5 x 24 cm |
by Timothy J. Norman
I had been buying car magazines since 1982 when I bought my first Hot Car magazine, when I moved house some time later there were nine pallets of them that I had to move. Chris Harris was to blame for some of this.
So many journalists back then were a bit out of touch with reality, you knew very well that most of them didn’t earn a big wage but they would tell you how a car costing more than an average house was a bargain. I first noticed Chris when he was working for Autocar and he bought a Gallardo on a PCP and explained exactly how he had done it on a modest income. This set him apart.
It is funny because I can remember all the issues of the magazines that he mentions in this book and I even remember reading the letter that he wrote to Performance Car when JC left, not that the name of the sender meant much to me at the time.
The obsession with toy cars, the What Car? data pages, Setright, Goodwin and Bulgin just mirrors my own.
I have loved this book and read it in one sitting. I am so glad that Chris has finally got the wider audience that he deserves.
by David
A book that should be given to all and any partner / husband / wife
by SRE
Being a fellow petrolhead of a similar age, a near neighbour and with mixed-race kids of my own, I pre-ordered the brand-new Chris Harris book with interest.
12 hours after the Amazon delivery driver dropped it onto my soaking wet Bristol doorstep, I’ve finished reading it. Gone for a walk, and had time to reflect. My verdict. It’s a brilliant page turner, and should be a must-read for any seasoned petrolhead.
This is a very well written, structured and enjoyable book. The depth, insight, emotion and passion oozing from every page underlines it has been written by the person with their name on the book cover. It is so much better for it, rather than using a ghost writer which many books of this type adopt.
As with many high-profile people working in the public spotlight, you feel that you know a version of them already. But, having read the book, Harris has a depth and likeability that understandably does not come across so much in his media persona.
In this era of superficial celebrity, Chris is refreshingly genuine, humble, skilled, knowledgeable, sensitive, human and, as we all are, shaped by our own upbringing. In short, authentic. And we need more people like that in this mad world….!
Contrary to many others working in the supercar arena, who project a fake version of life via their social media platform, Harris represents a refreshing change. His passion for the petrol engine and cars is perhaps well known, but it is balanced by a healthy love for family and maintaining a private life. That is a great approach to life, and should be celebrated.
Now, where is the Maserati key, as it is time for a drive…….
by Ids
Great insight and stories from Harris. Well written, wish he could share more especially some of the mag stories and tests.
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No he isn’t Jeremy Clarkson and in many ways thank gawd for that. This book feels like you’re having a natter with him over a cuppa in his kitchen, just noodling about life, business and cars.
It’s a massive relief to know I’m not alone in this world. Like Chris I grew up with cars. Toy ones to start with and then in greater depth with my father who was an artisan mechanic, who once diagnosed a massively obscure ignition fault over the telephone when my Sierra wouldn’t start
in a car park Central Birmingham.
Working on cars with Dad lead to tuning Scalextric cars and then a job in the automotive lighting sector which helped finance an exciting 20 odd year career in co-driving rally cars.
The book is like a trip through my own car obsessed life and we share a love of Peugeot 205s and Porsche 911s. I’ve got a Merc at the moment but I dream of a 911 Touring.
Chris. You said in the book that you don’t read reviews but if you are reading this one perhaps you could hook me up with a 911?
If not that then how about comparing toy car collections? I’ll bet mine is better than yours.
Buy this book. I enjoyed it and finished it in one day. So you might say it’s a page turner.
For me the book is a validation that there’s someone out there that’s as obsessed with 4 wheels and an engine as I am.
Cheers Chris. Keep the pedal to the metal and the rubber on the road!
by O.H
This was a hugely enjoyable read. Clever, funny, emotional, and engaging. A lot like me.
by David Taylor
I loved this audiobook and listened to the whole thing over a couple of days. I have always been a fan of Chris’s work, and his journey through the car magazines I loved to read and the content I loved to watch was pitch perfect.
I would have loved to have heard a little bit more about the TG3 era as that was covered very quickly, and the quality of the recording was not the best I have experienced on Audible.
by carl
I read it from start to finish, only pausing from laughing so much I couldn’t hold the book straight. He doesn’t hold back and his burn of Chris Evans was awesome! My only complaint is that it was too short, the sort of memoir that makes me want to suffer a severe head injury, just so I can enjoy reading it again from scratch.