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Long time admirer -- my first time making a comment. Nice info. I can't believe how much I keep discovering here. I finally had to thank you for all the info you share here... Thanks so much --Alvaro

Doug Milliken, one of the authors, writes: I'm so glad reviewer Bill Ingalls found this line and used it in the review: "their...objective of 'giving the reader a mental framework for understanding vehicle behavior.'”

That is what writing the book was all about for me—letting others get on the same page so we could have a useful conversation, without getting lost in definitions and explanation of basic concepts.

It's a great review, thanks!

I think this might be an interesting read... I'll give it a go, maybe I'll find out something new about Studebaker, but I doubt it :)

Stu Chapman did a great job here.

I was very pleased to find this site. I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

Great review! I'm a vintage cars enthusiast myself and this book I'll say is a must read.

Regards,

Richard

This is a very beautiful blog.

Note: another review of this book is posted elsewhere on SpeedReaders.

Note: another review of this same book is posted elsewhere on SpeedReaders.

Newsflash: Curami died June 24, 2010.

The review opens with a statement regarding the disposition of the trademarks. An entire book was written about that subject, Richard Feast's 2003 Kidnap of the Flying Lady. Written a few years after the 1998 auction sale, and notwithstanding the fact that it won the 2003 UK Guild of Motoring Writers' Pierre Dreyfus award, its conjecture about the deals before and after the auction and the bidders' motives are so unverifiable we won't even review it here. The people who were in the room during the negotiations are not at liberty to speak on the record and it will be years, likely decades, before we will learn what really was on VW management's mind when they willingly paid £430m, acquiring both marques (plus spending another £117 for Cosworth, also then owned by Vickers) and trumped BMW's competing bid by £90m—only to then roll over without a fight and accede to Rolls-Royce PLC's pressure to surrender the Rolls-Royce marque to BMW in 2003 for a pittance of some £40m.

Yes, this review is now 10 years old but neither it nor the book it covers have become irrelevant. (The book is still in print at this time and now also available in a softcover edition!) The numbers for company valuations and output may have changed since then but the underlying concerns remain. Moral? Everything is connected; not always in a good way. Author Luger is still at the U. of Colorado’s Political Science Dept.

Hello
I loved reading your blog!!
I found it very useful!!
I am so glad that I found it and that I read it!!
Thanks for sharing this with us!

I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post

Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!

The illustrator writes: Helen, thanks for the kind comments. I had not seen this before, hence the late post.

Alongside "Emotion Ferrari" by Maurice Louche, "Ferrari in Camera" by Geoff Goddard/Doug Nye and "Klemantaski and Ferrari" certainly one of the best books on the subject: a must have!

This sounds very interesting. The Bentley angle, especially.

A few more words seem in order in regard to the design and presentation of this remarkable book, a reader’s appreciation of which would only be enhanced by knowing a bit more. The author—actually, let’s call him “Josh” since he himself dislikes being referred to as a distant, ivory tower-ensconced Grey Eminence—and his principal artistic collaborator, friend, fellow Cord owner, and Art Center College of Design alumnus Robert Pease deliberately strove to create a book whose execution and artistic merits would be a credit to the artistry embodied by the object of their affection, the Cord automobile.

Nothing in or about this generously sized 14"-wide book is random—but not everything is self-evident or even explained. There’s the terrazzo-patterned paper on the slipcase emulating Auburn’s 1930s showroom floor and the green leather cover boards that are dyed to resemble the actual interior of a car trimmed in green. While the purple endpapers were chosen just because they looked good and not because they have a corollary in Cord history, the coat of arms is the real thing the Auburn PR department invented in 1929 but the motto is not; it is merely an interpretation of the heraldic symbols (helmet, arrows, hearts) in the emblem.

Graphic designer William Evans (a future Cord owner?!) is to be commended for his restrained but purposeful choices of typefaces, colors, and ornamentation that, combined, are in harmony with the subject matter and serve to subliminally make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Attention to detail and a sure hand are evident everywhere. The very passage of time that degraded the quality of many of the original materials has also seen the emergence of imaging and reproduction technologies that now permits their restoration, and the importance of seeing here new material added to the historic record cannot be overstated.

Incidentally, among the bounty of illustrations are several reproductions of fine art. Unhurried perusal will yield unexpected discoveries; look for a surprise on p. 87.

Also know that this book is limited to a one-time edition of 3000 of which at the time of this writing less than 1500 remain. A book signed by the author is always more collectible and Josh has signed many books at car events and museums, and for friends. As of May 26, 2010 copies purchased at the publisher’s website www.cordcomplete.com will each be signed by him.

Josh’s eye first fell on a Cord at the impressionable age of 11 and after finally being able to buy one seven years later he has owned Cords ever since and taken them all over the country and the globe. It is humbling to enthusiasts of any stripe to realize to what lengths he has gone to advance the body of knowledge about “his” marque no matter the imposition on family and professional life such dedication entails. “Cord” should be his middle name, especially since his middle initial “B” is just that and doesn’t stand for anything. Books like this make no one rich (except, possibly, the resale speculator later), so, do the right thing and support the cause of scholarship and good bookmaking by buying one!

I have this little book and haven't ever read it! Of course i went through it and pored over his drawings and it should be noted that a great deal of them have figures in them with great probablility sketched by Syd Mead. While some sketches have stiff limbed people standing bolt upright next to the cars, several of the sketches show a striking fluid difference in the illustration of the characters- some of the poses identical to the Mead US Steel figures. As dates go, Syd would have been a recent graduate from Strother's classes.