New CN7 Book

[Mike Bull]

...on the same day Amazon sent me an email to say they won't be sending mine out for another couple of weeks. So you can pay thirty four quid to have it now, or seventeen if you wait a bit.

I'll wait a bit.

[sheppane]

Donald Stevens has told me today that he's just picked up some copies of his new 'Bluebird CN7 - The Inside Story' book from his publishers Veloce Publishing.

The book is 128 pages long & hardback. There are over 100 photographs and diagrams, many not previously seen before in the public domain.

For people who don't know who Donald Stevens is, he was the Norris Brothers 1st employee and joined the company aged 19. and worked on the design of K7's cockpit & water baffles, but entered National Service before Donald achieved his 1st record at Ullswater.

When Donald completed his National Service, he returned to the Norris Brothers, and became the Project - Co-ordinator for the design & construction of Bluebird CN7. This is his 1st book.

For people who do know Donald - they'll know his talks at the Blue Bird Supporters Club open day events are always well received, and give his personal insight what it was like to work with Ken & Lew Norris, Donald Campbell & all the Norris Bros employees, who maybe don't get the recognition they deserve.

Where Can I Get This Book From??

This book is available directly from the author & costs £29 & also £5 to anywhere in the United Kingdom .

For this you get also get an exclusive DVD, which is not available elsewhere & has never been on public release before. It's a 30 minute, colour film DVD from the Owen Organisation 'Project Bluebird' which details the final runs. The DVD has a timeline on but does not interfere with the main picture.

This is a unique opportunity, to own a rare DVD, and a superb book. He will also sign it with any suitable inscription.

To contact Donald, his address is:- Brindles, Golford, Cranbrook, Kent, TN7 3PA, or email him at:- brindles@uwclub.net

If you want to see a 12 minute interview with the author, and some of the footage on the DVD, go to:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQWNScJ_8LQ

Hope this is of interest

John Bullivant

My book arrived today. Looking at it now. First impressions are positive, although there is not as much coverage of the 64 attempt as one would wish. The book mainly concentrates on CN7/60, which Donald Stevens was the project co-ordinator for its build. It is heartbreaking to think that car became scrap after only 6 runs. Without the fin, with therefore with less drag, and given some slightly changed circumstances, both during the run up to Utah and the events in Utah themselves, the author makes a compelling case for CN7 to have set a record of 450 - 475 mph+ Things would have been very different subsequently if that had been the course of events.

The DVD of the 64 attempt is excellent and easily worth the additional expense.

Who did the proof read of the book though? I may be a perfectionist, but there are quite a few errors that should have been picked up, and the slightly missed opportunity to explain the 63 /64 attempts in more detail. The book is therefore a curates egg, albeit a good one...

Neil

[Mike Bull]

Cheaper still at WH Smith online at £15.49 with free delivery to your local store or free saver delivery to your home, though with the same 1-2 weeks order time.

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=9781845842802

[bluebird-k7]

Speaking to Donald Stevens today, he's a little surprised at people's wish for more on the Oz Runs. I would only have had to plagiarize John Peason's 'Bluebird and The Dead Lake' as there seems to be little info in the archives after BP pulled out.

Donald

[Mike Bull]

Fair point in that the Pearson book is very comprehensive about the stresses and daily goings on of the '64 attempt, if not the technicalities of the car itself, but I guess that if one is going to write a book on a subject, you don't leave out the ending because it's already been published elsewhere; I mean, I've got over 70 books about the Titanic and it still sinks in every one of them!

(I hasten to add though that I'm speaking generally, as I've not actually seen the book myself yet.)

[Mike Bull]

Amazon pre-orders are now posting.

[Renegadenemo]

Got a mail from Donald earlier to say his book has been voted book of the month by Octane magazine. He's a bit chuffed.

[Mike Bull]

Got my copy this morning and my first impressions are not unlike Neil's- why is there so little material covering the car post-crash? The 'Rebuild and Australia' chapter runs to all of 11 pages, and even then most of that is photos; how on earth can you have a book called 'Bluebird CN7' and yet only slightly touch on it's ultimate success? Yet instead, the author finds room to have a smaller chapter about his own finding of a stabbed person on the Norris Bros. site?!

I'd also have expected to see some detailed current day photography of the car, given that it is still with us, but there's none! (Bar a background glimpse of it in the author photograph) That alone I think is just ridiculous, a real chance missed.

First impressions then, a bit of a hodge-podge to be honest, and I'm glad I got it at a much-reduced price.

[Mike Bull]

Tell a lie, there's one other modern colour pic of the car in the book.

Interesting, the stuff in there alluding to companies not liking to work under Leo...or just sour grapes from the author after falling out with him? Plus there's at least one photo (cockpit, p.41) that's been printed in reverse, and another tiny one (p.113) that purports to be Ken Norris on the flooded Lake Eyre, but I'm pretty sure it's actually the older Ken with John Ackroyd during one of the Thrust 2 wash-outs?! Then we have Ken dying in October 2006 on one page and in 2005 on another, then a photo of Ken with the early Quicksilver model with some speculation that amounts to the author saying he doesn't know for sure what that was all about, while on the facing page it mentions Ken's work as a consultant on the early concept of Quicksilver!? Plus Maurie Parfit gets called 'Morry' and 'Morri' in the book also...

[sheppane]

Tell a lie, there's one other modern colour pic of the car in the book.

Interesting, the stuff in there alluding to companies not liking to work under Leo...or just sour grapes from the author after falling out with him? Plus there's at least one photo (cockpit, p.41) that's been printed in reverse, and another tiny one (p.113) that purports to be Ken Norris on the flooded Lake Eyre, but I'm pretty sure it's actually the older Ken with John Ackroyd during one of the Thrust 2 wash-outs?! Then we have Ken dying in October 2006 on one page and in 2005 on another, then a photo of Ken with the early Quicksilver model with some speculation that amounts to the author saying he doesn't know for sure what that was all about, while on the facing page it mentions Ken's work as a consultant on the early concept of Quicksilver!? Plus Maurie Parfit gets called 'Morry' and 'Morri' in the book also...

Yes... It's unfortunate... I wish a proof reader had been employed...