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Hello fellow Motor Sport fans,

We are Auto-Archives: Automotive & Motor sport library and research center, is a 501© 3 nonprofit organization, located in Denver, Colorado.

Within our Archive we have 75,000+ automotive books and magazines from all over the world, as well as over 100,000 images from the photographic archives of Peter Darley, Ian Catt, William Taylor, and the Motor Racing collections of Classic Team Lotus and the Polygon Gulf Collection. The archive also has 1,000+ Race Event Programs, Race Media/Press Packs and amongst others, probably the most comprehensive Lotus archive in the world.

With our 100,000 plus collection of historic motor racing images, we felt that the best way to share such an impressive array of motor history is by highlighting a special group of images and presenting them in a fantastic 12x12-inch, large format book 'Pit & Paddock.' No point of having a massive archive of motor history with an array of photos/magazines/books/race programs and more if no one gets to see and enjoy it.

First a little bit more about who is involved:
Photographer Peter Darley became hooked on motor racing first by racing a Mini Cooper in the UK back in the 60s, and then by travelling to as many races as he could. Living near so many circuits, he photographed many great races, at many great circuits, and in doing so visually chronicled an incredible golden period of motor sport in the 60s & 70s.

Interesting bit, what is the book about:
After a difficult selection process, the volunteers at Auto-Archives narrowed down the images to those taken at ten circuits around the U.K. and Europe. Deciding which circuits to choose developed into several lively discussions here at Auto-Archives. The monumental task of going through all the images and picking the images to support and breathe life to each circuit called for many coffee and tea breaks.

The large format, 256-page book will feature over 200 images from the Auto-Archives library, all taken by Peter Darley in the 1960s and 70s. The selected images give the reader an insight into life off the track, and behind the scenes at race meetings found at paddocks and pit areas throughout Europe. Here at Auto-Archives, we are excited to bring you this stunning collection of historic images from the depths of our photo archives. These unique never before seen images portray a world that is long gone.

For this book to become a reality we felt that crowd funding through Kickstarter was the best way to reach out to the community of motor racing enthusiasts. Here is where you along with your fellow historic vehicle followers come into play by very kindly spreading the word of our Pit & Paddock book project via your website, newsletter, blog or social media outlets. Or, even by word of mouth!

Who is supporting Pit & Paddock:

Lord March a good friend of Peter Darley, has kindly written the foreword to the book. Lord March is hugely respected as the creator of both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival, and the Goodwood circuit is of course one of the tracks featured in Pit & Paddock. Furthermore, lending their support to the project, are Dan Gurney and Sir Jackie Stewart. They have both signed a small number of special, Limited Edition Art Prints of themselves. These prints are available to our Kickstarter pledgers depending on the pledge level. The images were taken by Peter Darley in the early 60s at Goodwood and Snetterton respectively.

The most important part, YOU:
The Kickstarter page for Auto-Archives project is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1198055082/pit-and-paddock-unseen-60s-and-70s-european-motor I'm writing in the hopes that you may give your support to the project in the form of a pledge which depending on the reward level, you will receive some great gifts (books/prints/Dan Gurney & Sir Jackie Stewart autograph prints) to cherish and share. On the other hand, if you cannot give a pledge please share the link with everyone you know. Please post it on your blog, website, Facebook or Twitter. I am hugely thankful for your interest and efforts.The book is our first undertaking to spread Auto-Archives mission “To be a world leader in the archiving of historic automotive & motor racing research materials". Remember we only have 23 days and counting.