Lindsay Porter

Lindsay Porter has written more than 50 books and well over 1,000 magazine articles on motoring, and other technical subjects. Lindsay was born in 1949 in the industrial, English, West Midlands, the main home of the British motor industry of the time. He well remembers meeting a bloke on the shop floor at John Thompson Motor Pressings in early 1958, who had spent his life building traditional ladder-frame chassis, shaking a newly pressed floorpan for a yet-to-be-launched new car and saying, "Look 'ow it wobbles -this !!?*!!-thing cor work!" But in fact, the 'Frogeye' Sprite worked rather well didn’t it – and Lindsay eventually wrote a manual showing how to restore them…

Lindsay became a school teacher in 1972 and found his time in the profession deeply rewarding but left in the early '80s, as his writing work began to take off. His first piece of professional writing was carried out in 1979 for DIY Magazine, explaining how he and wife Shan built and extended their own country cottage - the one they still live in today. It was quickly followed by regular articles for Practical Classics Magazine (from issue No. 1) and classic car books and manuals for established publishers.

His MGB Restoration Manual was first published in 1982 and is still in print. It was the first photo-based, step-by-step manual of its type and, having established the genre, Lindsay has since written restoration manuals on most models of classic car..

In 1985, Lindsay launched Porter Publishing Ltd and produced the first commercial range of classic car videos, in association with Castrol, with over 70 titles available. The printed word soon followed and Porter Publishing was commissioned by Fiat, Perkins Engines and Halfords, among others, to produce workshop manuals, including the first all-colour manuals.

Lindsay is still working on classic cars and writing new books on them, as well as updating and republishing several of his older titles. To see what’s coming - Watch This Space!