MOTOR-mad Peter Hingston's new book signals the end of a project more than 20 years in the making.

The Hereford author spent three-and-a-half years researching The Enthusiasts' Guide to Buying a Classic British Sports Car, after being sparked by a love of sports cars back in the 1970s.

"I wasn't really into them until college," he said.

"I had been fascinated by the idea of an electric car and had started an engineering course.

"Another student mentioned that he owned a sports car which had a one-piece glassfibre body and it turned out to be a Mini Jem. It was love at first sight."

At the time, Peter was driving a Heinkel bubble car but soon went on to own a Mini Jem and a series of other classic cars.

After building up a bank of knowledge, Peter wrote and published a small booklet, Guide to Buying a Used Sports Car, in 1978 but always wanted to produce a more comprehensive and up-to-date version.

He set about contacting all the main classic sports car clubs in the UK as he wanted to make sure the book was as accurate as it could be.

"Some were wary at first thinking I was just another tyre kicker wasting their time but I proved I wasn't," he said.

Soon hundreds of enthusiasts and experts were involved in the project - checking text, correcting inaccuracies and supplying photographs of rare models.

Before Peter knew it, the list of acknowledgments in the book had run over on to a third page but he says each deserves credit for the help they have given.

The author himself spent a lot of time at the research facility at the Heritage Motor Centre, based at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

Here, he found previously unpublished and wrongly published information and ended up donating some of his own rare photos to the centre's collection.

The finished book contains photos, detailed specifications and brief production histories of more than 150 classic models, as well as the author's five-step plan for buying a classic sports car and a unique 100-point vehicle checklist guide.

The book, priced at £22.95, is available at several bookshops, including the Hereford branch of Waterstones, Commercial Street, and Bookworm, West Street, or online at www.amazon.co.uk