{"id":13113,"date":"2025-01-14T14:29:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T14:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=13113"},"modified":"2025-01-14T14:47:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T14:47:20","slug":"book-review-prodrive-40-years-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=13113","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Prodrive 40 Years of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A book details the 40 years of Prodrive, the driving force behind Subaru\u2019s rallying success and Aston Martin\u2019s victorious GT racers, and many more. A book of just 192 pages, isn\u2019t that a bit short?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

40 years ago, Ari Vatanen\u2019s co-driver, David Richards departed the cockpit to start a motorsport venture of his own. Or so reads the quick guide to Prodrive. Of course, David Richards was much more astute than that, tapping close contacts with Rothmans to help finance his plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
David Richards at Prodrive’s Banbury base. Photo Newspress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even with their first initiative of 1984, the Rothmans-sponsored Porsche 911 SC RS in rallying, Prodrive showed its potential, delivering a highly capable, rear-wheel-driven car at a time when four-wheel drive seemed to be the new norm. Later, Porsche handed Prodrive a ton of 959 parts and said: \u2018Let\u2019s see you make a better rally-raid car than us.\u2019 David Richards\u2019 team responded with a Pharaoh rally-winner. Porsche\u2019s factory entry failed to make the finish\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Newspress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All terrain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Things took off from there: world championship titles with the WRC Subaru Imprezas; Le Mans challenges with the unique Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello and the Aston Martin DBR9; touring cars titles with the BMW E30 M3 and Ford Mondeo V6; V8 Supercars; a Dakar challenger, and for David Richards, a stint at the helm of the BAR Honda Formula 1 team. In short, Prodrive and Richards had the Midas touch \u2013 with few exceptions, they produced winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Newspress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If Ian Wagstaff\u2019s book on the firm\u2019s 40-year history has one shortcoming, it\u2019s the feeling that it is too anecdotal, too brief. So many of the Prodrive initiatives deserve a book of their own, and many already exist. What Porter Press and the author have realised is a finely-manufactured showcase with a quality hardback cover and finishing, costing a very moderate sum. It surely makes a fine gift for Prodrive\u2019s most-appreciated guests and clients. But as a reader, it leaves you longing for more. Fortunately, The DBR9<\/a>, the Ferrari 550<\/a>, the Impreza<\/a>, all have lively, extremely well-documented books on them, should you want to learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Newspress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To Wagstaff and Richards\u2019 credit, the current book about Prodrive is more than a company brochure. Tricky episodes like Colin McRae\u2019s refusal to give way to team-mate, Carlos Sainz, in the 1995 Rally Catalunya are present in what should be considered Prodrive\u2019s official history book. Also clear is that missing out on overall victory at Le Mans still hurts David Richards\u2026 and is something worth following up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

porterpress.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ian Wagstaff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN: 978193089047<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher: Porter Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pages: 192<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price: \u20ac47.95 ($45.33)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A book details the 40 years of Prodrive, the driving force behind Subaru\u2019s rallying success and Aston Martin\u2019s victorious GT racers, and many more. A book of just 192 pages, isn\u2019t that a bit short?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[446,630,953,1702,206,1703,119,137,712,244,242,635],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-13113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-books","tag-aston-martin","tag-books","tag-colin-mcrae","tag-david-richards","tag-ferrari","tag-ian-wagstaff","tag-le-mans","tag-porsche","tag-porter-press","tag-prodrive","tag-subaru","tag-wrc","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Prodrive-40-Years-Graphic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13125,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13113\/revisions\/13125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13113"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=13113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}