“That’s 300hp of pure suck!”

We all know the Haynes manuals, right? The tech manuals that you get every time you buy a car you’re unfamiliar with? The books out in your garage that have black edges from flipping through them with your grubby hands? The dry, straightforward instructions on how to replace your starter? Right. Well, the latest Haynes manuals are nothing like that.

First I spotted the Haynes manual for the USS Enterprise while spending gift cards at the bookstore after Christmas. Now I see that they’ve released the Wallace and Gromit Cracking Contraptions Manual: “From the Techo Trousers to the Knit-O-Matic!” Presumably you’re all familiar with the claymation duo from Aardman and the series of Cracking Contraptions shorts that feature yet another of Wallace’s inventions. If not, the shorts all seem to be on YouTube. With the Haynes Cracking Contraptions Manual, all of those inventions – along with other mechanical apparatuses related to the duo – are illustrated in classic Haynes cutaway style and discussed in form true to the shorts. Of particular interest to us car guys are the Triumph motorcycle (with its sidecar that turns into a porridge-shooting airplane) and the Austin A35 van.

So you won’t be using this manual like your typical Haynes, but it may very well lead to your own cracking contraptions.