We read the story of a young designer's idea of a car so radical that over fifty years later, it would still be part of our lives. From the car's launch at Earl's Court in 1948 to the passion of restorer's who are making this classic available for a new generation, read how this car became woven into the fabric of our lives. We read how the original design was inspired by pre-war cars and how the Minor was cut in two and widened. The book covers how adaptable the car was and shows how the van version of the Minor became such a workhorse in its day. The book shows us examples of the adaptations that were made and how it was used in all areas of society. Modern cars have central control units and have to be hooked to a computer. This makes DIY repairs virtually impossible. Cars of the 60's and 70's can be taken apart with a spanner. That is a huge part of the appeal for the Minor and why it has been so popular and why it is gaining popularity with young people who are too young to remember it in its heyday. It can be customised and we see various examples and some are works of automobile art. This is a fascinating tale of an iconic motor car.

This book is designed to support poor readers by giving them overtly adult material but where the language has been calculated using a reading age scale on a computer program. Read how Adolf Hitler himself wanted a cheap, simple car to be mass produced for the new German road system. Many people are also amazed to find that it was Ferdinand Porsche of Porsche 911 fame who was the lead engineer on the car. In German, ` Volks' means Folk or people and `wagen' means car so the Volkswagen was literally the ` peoples' car'. We will also read how Major Ivan Hirst from the British Army had to remove a bomb at the end of the second world war, from the VW factory and get production going again. The book will cover the similar car that was a secret weapon against the Nazis in the Second world war and the financial settlement between Volkswagen and the Czechoslovakian car company Tatra. Finally we read of Herbie the VW that could drive itself in the Herbie movies and how the car had to be adapted for a rear seat driver with a camera. The material in this book should be accessible to an year 8 student and as such should be ideal reading material for the vast majority of students in schools and F.E. colleges. This book is in a series on old technology and is specifically designed to develop reading in teenage males. We were asked by a Midlands College to provide something that encouraged young males to read, since they were literally not reading anything. Since many of them will be weak readers, the book also comes with an audio recording on a disc. The student can then, if they need to, listen to the audio as they read. This will be of interest to schools, colleges and academies where there are reluctant readers.