High performance - Peter Grimsdale

'A band of stubborn pioneers rose from the embers of Britain's cities after the war and created the finest automobiles the world had ever seen...High Performance tells the exhilarating tale of their journey'Ben Collins, bestselling author of How To Drive
'High Performanceis a cracking read and an adrenaline-packed tribute to the time when British mavericks "blew the bloody doors off" the competition' Sunday Times

In January 1964, a team of tiny red and white Mini Coopers stunned the world by winning the legendaryMonte Carlo Rally. It was a stellar year for British cars thatculminated inGoldfingerbreakingbox office records andmakingJames Bond's Aston Martin DB5 the world's most famous sportscar.

By the sixties, on road, track and silver screentheBrits were the ones to beat, winning Formula One championships and capturing hearts. Designers like John Cooper, and Colin ChapmanofLotus, dismissed as mere 'garagisti' by Enzo Ferrari, grabbed all the prizes, while Alex Issigonis won a knighthood for his revolutionary Mini. The E Type Jaguar was feted as the world's sexiest car and Land Rover the most durable.

But before the war only one British car had triumphed in a Grand Prix; Britain's car builders werefiercely risk-averse.So what changed? To find out, Peter Grimsdale has gone in search of a generation of rebel creative spirits who emerged from railway arches and Nissen hutsto tear upthe rulebook with their revolutionary machines.Like theserial fugitives from thePOW camps, they thrived on adversity, improvisation andsheerobstinate determination.

High PerformancecelebratesBritain's automotive golden age and the mavericks who sketched them on the back of envelopes and garage floors, who fettled, bolted and welded them together and hammered the competition in the showroom, on the road and on the track - fuelled by contempt for convention.