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Alfa Romeo: From 1910 to 2010
by Maurizio Tabucchi

“When I see an Alfa Romeo, I tip my hat!”

                                    —Henry Ford, 1939
  (long thought an apocryphal—and unlikely—remark but 
  confirmed in 1988 by Dr. Ing. Pierugo Gobbato in an 
 interview with Griffith Borgeson as having been made 
          to Gobatto Sr. during a visit to Dearborn.)

Alfa Romeo or A.L.F.A.—Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili which translates into Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company—or simply Alfa is in the enviable position of celebrating 100 years of operations, 1910–2010. All sorts of books will laud the centenary, and Italian publisher Giorgio Nada of Milan, Alfa’s hometown, has produced two. One is a €500, 200 page limited edition of 1998 copies (Alfa Romeo. The Official Book - Centenary Edition) by various authors and then this much more affordable tome.

The book covers in chronological order the ups and downs of the firm; the emphasis is on the product but there is useful if not extensive reference to the overall political and economic situation and ancillary topics of technical relevance such as aviation.

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Porsche Racing Cars: 1953 to 1975
by Brian Long

This book looks at Porsche’s purpose-built competition cars of the modern era, cars the author considers motorsports and design icons “the likes of which, sadly, we will never see again.” Marque expert Brian Long is a trained engineer with some 40 motoring books on his resume, quite a number of which have a place in the core canon of Porsche literature. He also has strong links to the factory which itself has a commendable commitment to preserving its proud history in the form of a professionally managed archive and museum. Long says he had wanted to do this book (and its companion, Porsche Racing Cars: 1976 to 2005, ISBN-13: 978-1904788454) for decades so one wonders what he thought when Anthony Pritchard published his very similar book just a bit earlier. Remarkably, even though both authors cover pretty much the same era and the same cars, of the almost 1000 photos they show combined only a handful are common to both books! Hats off to the photo researchers and the Porsche Archive for making the effort to facilitate distinctively different books, each worthy in its own right.

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International Automotive Media Award: Best Book of 2009

Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed
by Michael Argetsinger

This biography consists of two books, this 344-page text version with only 40 photos and a second volume, Mark Donohue: His Life in Photographs consisting of several hundred photographs with relevant captions. Argetsinger has written a remarkable and fitting tribute to one of America’s greatest race drivers. That it has already won several awards including the prestigious International Automotive Media Award is no surprise; Argetsinger’s previous work, Walt Hansgen: His Life and the History of Post War American Road Racing was similarly praised and feted in 2006.

This is a significant book fully worthy of the IAMAs. In a full-time effort that required more than three years to complete, Argetsinger interviewed over 211 people close to the subject, and enjoyed not only access to all the family papers but those of the Penske organization as well. He also had access to the unpublished tapes made for Donohue’s own book The Unfair Advantage.

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Mark Donohue: His Life in Photographs
by Michael Argetsinger

This book is a companion volume to Argetsinger’s excellent bio Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed. Publisher David Bull clearly has his fingers on the pulse of what readers want—and are able to afford. His books are not cheap but there hasn’t yet been a case of a David Bull book not being good value for money. Still, Bull’s desire was to keep the price of the Excellence book to under $40 and, since it runs to a hefty 250,000 words, the only way to achieve it was to cut back the number of photos. So, for the reader able and willing to plunk down another $39.95 the 40 photos in that book can be augmented with this companion volume by the same author containing almost 250 photos!

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Race Car Vehicle Dynamics
by William F Milliken and Douglas L Milliken

and

Race Car Vehicle Dynamics: Problems, Answers and Experiments
by Douglas L Milliken, Edward M Kasprzak, L Daniel Metz, William F Milliken

When I received my copy of RCVD—still an SAE bestseller—I felt like the guy at the bottom of the mountain to whom Moses handed the Ten Commandments. All the knowledge contained in the Holy Grail of how vehicles handle had just become mine. I am unaware of any other book that brings together the world’s knowledge on vehicle behavior like this one does. On the macro level RCVD deals with general principles of vehicle dynamics but on the micro level was specifically geared towards racing; it synthesizes fundamental theory and practical application. Any race team that doesn’t have a copy of this well written book is not winning as much as they could!

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