Hi Gang…

Our good friend Nick Whitlow recently completed a book on the history, design, development and production of the CRV / AMT Piranha – and he’s exactly the right person to have done so.  We’ve known Nick for nearly 15 years and when we met him he was just starting to go down the path of “Historian” for this car marque.  In the intervening years, Nick has become the leading expert on these cars, created a website where you can learn more about the Piranha and most recently he has published a book too.  There’s no stopping Nick and his passion to share his enthusiasm for the CRV / AMT Piranha.

Click Here To Explore Nick’s Website on the CRV / AMT Piranha

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Nick Whitlow’s Book:  The All-Plastic Car

Nick’s book tracks the creation, design, and development of the first all-plastic automobiles and documents the six vehicles built by Centaur Engineering for Marbon. He also discusses the involvement of the AMT Corporation and the various versions of the car they built and called the Piranha.

The book continues by exploring kit car versions of the CRV/Piranha that were offered in both Cycolac and fiberglass, and also discusses other plastic vehicles designed by Centaur Engineering, such as Formacar, CanAm 1, CanAm 2 and the Citroen Mehari. Other chapters track the whereabouts of the remaining cars today and even the history of the model kits manufactured of the cars. Also included is a large photo gallery of many rare and unusual pictures of the various cars.  It’s both a fun book to read and a detailed one that shares the history where little has been shared before.

In writing this book, Nick has been in contact with previous and current owners of some of the cars, the original builders and designers, and former employees of Centaur, Marbon, and AMT.  He has acquired a large library of resource materials and photos of the vehicles and now wants to share his resources with everyone within this book.

The Foreword of the book is written by none other than AMT Piranha builder and famed custom car legend Gene Winfield – a treasure by itself to read.  It is an 8-1/2” x 11” hardbound book with 100 pages and over 135 black & white and color photos, printed on glossy paper.  Cost is $39.00 plus $4.00 shipping in the USA via Media Mail.  

Each book is numbered and signed by the Nick Whitlow. If you would like to order a copy of the book, contact Nick Whitlow via e-mail at  nkw1965@aol.com  for more detail.

 

Summary:

It’s impressive when someone you know brings a project full-circle and Nick’s appreciation of these cars has led to the publication of this excellent resource – one that documents this rare American handcrafted sports car in such detail that you can appreciate what it took to design and build the car in every way.  Thanks Nick for taking on the task of documenting and sharing this book with all of us – a definite addition to those of you who have a library that includes American sports cars such as this.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and remember…

The adventure continues here at Undiscovered Classics.

Geoff