Plum Tyndall releases “Keep The Revs Up” Book

Alan “Plum” Tyndall is one of the best known names in Irish Motorsport. For 25 years he commentated on BBC, UTV, RTE and of course RPM Motorsport, the iconic programme which he created.

Did you know, however, that he is the son of a Bishop, survived a major train disaster, was an Irish Saloon Car Racing champion, went behind the lines in Northern Ireland during the “troubles”, escaped death in the Dubai desert  and was a PR pioneer and a Grand Prix Commentator?

His new book, “Keep The Revs Up” is a highly entertaining tale about the many characters he has consorted with and the unplanned adventures that have befallen him. It also includes, unsurprisingly, many previously untold stories fom the stages, racetracks and much further afield.

“I created and produced RPM which ran on terrestrial TV for a record 23 years (1991-2013). RPM was broadcast on UTV for it’s entire twenty-three year run, and at various stages on RTE, TV3, TG4, and Setanta in Ireland and to the wider world on Motors TV and Premier TV. In the early years we were even ‘big in Dubai’ when the UAE country bought our Rally Ireland series.

It took six-thousand tapes, eighty-thousand hours of material, fifteen-hundred camera days, and a hell of a lot of sweat, laughs and tears to make over three-hundred RPM programmes.

We were sometimes exhausted, most times exhilarated and often exasperated during the record twenty-three years of the programme that set out to bring the best of homespun motorsport to the screen.

And so we started into our yearly cycle of shivering in Galway in February; enjoying the sometimes spring sunshine and showers on the Circuit at Easter; heading for glorious Donegal in June; usually getting wet on the Ulster in July; enjoying the stages on the Isle of Man in August; going down to the south-west for the Cork 20 in October; and shivering again in Killarney in December. The Jim Clark Rally came and went but we were in Lurgan Park every summer and often in the Antrim forests for the Mid Antrim Motor Club’s event at the end of each season.

In between the stage events we travelled between Mondello, Kirkistown, and Phoenix Park and to the odd Hillclimb, Sporting Trial, Autotest, Rallycross, and Kart meetings.

I have always believed that happy people are productive people so fun was a key ingredient in RPM from the outset. Over the years we built up a fabulous collection of characters who I always looked forward to meeting and working with again.

Choosing the Theme Tune: Lynn was feet away in the kitchen preparing a tuna salad and we simultaneously shouted – “That’s it!” And ‘Dangerous 2’, in its various forms, played RPM in and out for twenty-three years. One Donegal rally driver even asked our permission to use it as his wedding march. Sadly, the marriage didn’t last!”

The book is released later this month and is available to pre order HERE