According to an article in The Independent, Clarkson said that in 1999, an old friend of his, Pete Butters, stopped by to re-live old times and have a drink of whisky.

[1] Keith Bluemel, a writer with a background of published books about historic Ferraris, was credited as the technical editor.

At worst, it is a cynical exploitation of two famous names that fails to come within a light year of doing justice to either."

They criticised many of the photographs in the book as "seem to be little more than snaps; some, staggeringly, are not even truly in focus while others appear to be poor quality duplicates blown up far beyond their modest capabilities" in addition as too many of them as "just plain boring".

A. Gill's Sap Rising, he "considered it to be the worst book in the world" and suggested that "anyone thinking about buying it should flush the money down the loo instead".