Hello,
First time poster on this forum so I dont know how much weight my comment has, but anyway...
I just rediscovered Lego and bought my 2 first set this week (Turbo Track Racer and the 911). When I saw the review of this book it caught my interest and it was delivered today from Amazon.
I was hoping it was more a book like you described, but it really is 200 pages of Building Instructions. There is maybe 15 pages of text, but that is more to tell the history of each car.
The book has a very good layout and the models are interesting, and for USD 20 I am not complaining.
Espen