John Chatham – ‘Mr Big Healey’

Book excerpt: The authorised biography of one of the best-liked bad boys in British motorsport, John Chatham - driver, racer, repairer, rebuilder, tuner, trader and lover of Austin-Healeys. John is so synonymous with Austin-Healeys that the most famous racing Healey in the world, DD300, is so well-known mainly because John campaigned it for decades, notching up tens of thousands of racing miles. But his career embraces far more than one car, and until this biography no-one had attempted to fill in the gaps. With 150 photographs, many previously unpublished, this is an important and entertaining account of one of motorsport's biggest characters.