Every so often, somebody publishes a book with 'Driver By Driver' in the title. This is an easy sort of book to write since all the information is on the Internet, you do not have to shift your butt that much to write a book like this. I thought that I would like 'Grand Prix Driver By Driver,' (no comma) until I looked up Alberto Rodriguez Larreta, who bought a drive with Team Lotus in the 1960 Argentine GP.

Readers in South America have filled me in on Larreta, thank you. From his one Grand Prix, I thought he sounded more than averagely useful, it turned out that he was a star in saloon car racing. Sorry, but you cannot publish a book called 'Grand Prix Driver By Driver' (no comma) and miss someone who drove for Team Lotus.

I thought that it was impossible to cock-up a book like this so, when I was contacted, I arranged a deal whereby readers of Pitpass could buy it at a cut rate. The recommended retail price is £16.99 and my deal brought in the book at £12.99 including post and packaging in the UK.

I know how the book trade works, a single copy sold through Pitpass, at this discount, generates more profit than ten books sold in shops.

This sounds crazy, but the wholesaler takes a minimum of 50% of the cover price, and then there are the retailers. On a £10 book, the publisher receives £3.65 and then has to pay the author, the printer, the copyright on photographs, and the storage facility.

The discount deal was offered and agreed, I had not then noticed the absence of Larreta.

The author of 'Grand Prix Driver By Driver, Omitting Alberto Larreta', is Philip Raby, who is not someone with whom I am familiar, but I have discovered that he is well-known within Porsche circles. He offers an assessment service if you want to buy a used Porsche and should I ever overcome my lack of interest in Beetle Specials I might employ him. Someone who knows what to look for on a 911 is not necessarily qualified to be an author. The reverse is also true, you do not want my opinion about a car: my technical knowledge begins, and ends, with WD40.

A former MD of Porsche (UK) once forbade me to have anything to do with Porsche. He got stuffy because I pointed out the errors in a press release. He had a Porsche winning the 1962 German GP, not so. Then there was also the abuse of the noble apostrophe. I was banned from anything to do with Porsche. His name was Kevin.

At first glance, I warmed to 'Grand Prix Driver By Driver, Omitting Alberto Larreta'. I opened it at random and saw three names on a double spread that I did not recognise, which is a hard feat to pull. Max de Terra was a Swiss privateer in the early 1950s, who twice lined up for the Swiss GP, at the tail end. Giovanni de Rei and Frank J Dochnal both tried to qualify for a World Championship race, and failed.

I liked the fact that Philip Raby gave these people respect. Most of us are never going to get close to failing to qualify for a Grand Prix, you have to be pretty special to be given a chance to fail to qualify. We are not talking about a low-level event like the Olympic Games, where thousands of competitors are eliminated in the preliminary stages.