Colouring in car classics | Martin Love

The fad for colouring has reached the mechanical cutaway, and Haynes's manual is a winner

Ask anyone (well, let's be honest, any man) about engineering 'cutaways' and they'll go misty eyed. Up there with Hornby model trains and Airfix plane kits, these incredibly detailed diagrams of the inner workings of everything from Bessemer iron converters to Apollo space crafts have the power to reduce men to a state of slack-jawed reverence.

Haynes, famous for its maintenance manuals, has now brought out a book of them. And, as if that's not exciting enough, the idea is that you can colour in the diagrams, too. Currently six of Amazon's top 10 bestsellers are colouring-in books. Animals, flowers, swirly patterns" pathetic really. But classic cars? Now that makes a lot of sense. I've finished the Porsche 911 and have just made a start on a Triumph Spitfire.