RE: A Medium Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia

RE: A Medium Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia

Wednesday 22nd April 2020

A Medium Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia

The new Sniff Petrol (digital) book now promises to impart lots of car knowledge you didn't know before



You know who Richard Porter is by now: evo columnist for yonks, brain behind Sniff Petrol for even longer and script editor for those three old men on Amazon, he's irritatingly excellent at writing about cars. And very funny, which you might remember from such titles as Roy Lanchester's How To Be a Motoring Journalist.

Well, thanks to his self-proclaimed Age of Boredom (and a little bit of help from Twitter), Porter is back with a new tome: A Medium Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia. Obviously it's not yet available in print, but it is downloadable onto your digital devices.

Well worth a few quid it is too, packed full of the weird, obscure, esoteric knowledge nuggets that are of precious little use in any situation - but are great fun to read. Any car fan will learn something from AMSBOBCT, whether that's Porsche's involvement in the Vauxhall Zafira, why Ehra-Lessien is where it is, Ford's Project Petunia or how much money really was lost on each Peugeot 1007. We could go on, of course, but you'll need to buy the book for all the juiciest titbits. Suffice it to say car nerds will be kept occupied and entertained (and safely away from anybody else) for an hour or so.


Furthermore, despite this ultimately being a collection of facts assembled into a book, it's not as dry as you might expect. Obviously AMSBOBCT isn't going to make it onto a Costa shortlist, although you'll be surprised how readable the 100 pages or so are; largely thanks to how appealingly strange the anecdotes are (wait for 'stickers of arseholes'), but also due to the typically charming way Porter relays them. It could be a lot more boring, put it that way...

Certainly for less than the cost of a film rental, it's a worthy addition to your digital book collection. (Pre-orders are being taken now, with deliveries provisionally due in May, should you want a physical copy.) Just think, too, how excited the family will be to hear about all the fascinating things you've learnt from the new Sniff Petrol book - thank us (and Richard) another time...

Get the book here.




Author
Discussion

simonrockman

Original Poster:

6,911 posts

262 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
I've bought the kindle version, but really need to get the paperback as it's true home is in the smallest room.

David87

6,788 posts

219 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
The Kindle version seems to be free to ‘borrow’ with Amazon Prime, or at least it was for me.

V8 FOU

2,991 posts

154 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
Can't be any more boring than the Roy Lanchester book.

Turbobanana

6,740 posts

208 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
Ah, explains why nothing's been posted on SniffPetrol since Christmas Eve.

jimmy156

3,711 posts

194 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
Honestly this is not me having a poke at PH, as frankly i dont care about this sort of thing.

but...

Surely this is a paid advertisement, and as such i thought there was a legal requirment to make that known to readers/viewers?

Burnham

3,668 posts

266 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
jimmy156 said:
Surely this is a paid advertisement
I guess we'll never know....


And a big shout out for 'Smith and Sniff ' on Youtube too (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCetcgTqJiNFKYipfBT1YIWQ). It wont be for everyone obviously, but its fun to listen to what goes in in their heads about cars in general (that was not a paid advertisement by the way, no affiliation etc).

Deadlysub

528 posts

165 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
jimmy156 said:
Honestly this is not me having a poke at PH, as frankly i dont care about this sort of thing.

but...

Surely this is a paid advertisement, and as such i thought there was a legal requirment to make that known to readers/viewers?
Who cares if it’s a paid advert (which I doubt?) we all want PistonHeads to survive.

Quhet

2,527 posts

153 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
Ah, explains why nothing's been posted on SniffPetrol since Christmas Eve.
He's still very active on Twitter and Youtube - his Smith n Sniff stuff is excellent with Jonny Smith

jorders500

151 posts

96 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
Deadlysub said:
Who cares if it’s a paid advert (which I doubt?) we all want PistonHeads to survive.
Agreed. I don’t understand why people moan about PH. It’s not as if you have to pay for it.

Turbobanana

6,740 posts

208 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
Quhet said:
Turbobanana said:
Ah, explains why nothing's been posted on SniffPetrol since Christmas Eve.
He's still very active on Twitter and Youtube - his Smith n Sniff stuff is excellent with Jonny Smith
Ah, OK. I'm of "a certain age" so I don't do Twitter.

anonymous-user

61 months

Thursday 23rd April 2020
quotequote all
Porter is excellent; have ordered paper version.

Aquadrome

139 posts

257 months

Tuesday 28th April 2020
quotequote all
Hello gang, Porter here. This book is very much a home-made affair, put out through Amazon's self-publishing platform, and therefore as low budget as can be and certainly not in the realm of paid product placement. I simply sent Matt at Pistonheads a pdf and cover shot in the hope rather than expectation that it might get a mention on the site, not least because they're probably a bit short of material at the moment. I can promise you, no money changed hands.

All the best,

Richard


Deranged Rover

3,778 posts

81 months

Wednesday 29th April 2020
quotequote all
Sniff Petrol........................Sniff Petrol?

Ah, yes, didn't that used to be a website? I used to love it. Whatever happened to it?

gr8jon

89 posts

239 months

Thursday 30th April 2020
quotequote all
Aquadrome said:
Hello gang, Porter here. This book is very much a home-made affair, put out through Amazon's self-publishing platform, and therefore as low budget as can be and certainly not in the realm of paid product placement. I simply sent Matt at Pistonheads a pdf and cover shot in the hope rather than expectation that it might get a mention on the site, not least because they're probably a bit short of material at the moment. I can promise you, no money changed hands.

All the best,

Richard
Thanks Richard, ordered!

BigTallG87

185 posts

63 months

Monday 18th May 2020
quotequote all
Evening everyone

Is the paperback version of this book available anywhere other than Amazon?

Cheers