SIDETRACKED, A True Life Motoring Saga is a gripping account of men and machine.  Not often does a string of events produce so wholly unexpected results together with so many unusual challenges.  From the motor industry's beginnings, two eras stand out more than most, the thirties and the sixties: the curvaceous lines and thunderous roars of the thirties only being matched by the sheer beauty and drivability of the nineteen-sixties.  Could the two ever be reconciled?  The diverse and sometimes eccentric efforts involved here would appear as much an exhilarating encouragement as a dire warning to those in search of the answer.

Having launched into a complicated commercial venture, those involved soon discover that the only course of the project's survival is as a community labour-of-love.  While disbelieving observers grill a newly-formed team about an apparent spur-of-the-moment machine, several extraordinary coincidences, cutting across continents and delving into the past, come to the fore.  After which, encouraged by fellow enthusiasts, team and machine continue their quest to put the doubters to shame by heading to the racetrack. A twist of fate then thrusts cars, clubs, families and international figures into a centennial challenge with a difference.

The Author, Robert Maidment, has had a life-long passion for exotic cars, invariably those that were financially out of reach at the time.  He has spent much of his working life living and travelling abroad involved in various commercial projects, primarily while exporting for the company that played a key role in this story.  He has also written a number of interesting and entertaining articles published both in the UK and in the US, and was the 2003 recipient of the coveted Maurice Hendry Literary Award, the first non-American to be so honoured.