Barry,
Welcome to the forum.
If you do decide to visit John, be sure to ring him first and arrange a date and time, so he will be there!
Having a car is not a requirement to join the TOC!
There are a couple of “buyers Guide” articles in the technical forum that may be of interest to you here: http://traction-owners.co.uk/members_only/torque/articles_books.htm and scroll down.
NOTE: You will need to log in to the “members only” section of the website, with the username and password (provided to you by the Membership Secretary) to access these articles.