Archive for Items Categorized 'Automobiles', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Baillon Collection

by Rémi Dargegen

Looked at one car at a time, the Baillon Collection is interesting enough but it is the unique circumstances of it being found and brought to market that will forever make it the “find of the century.”

The Race to the Future: The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century

by Kassia St. Clair

Automobiles, electric lights, wireless telegraphy, the first synthetic plastic—everything is changing all at once. Ironic: The 8000-mile drive in 1907 from Peking to Paris happened at the same time newspapers touted “the triumph of the horse.”

Honda/Acura NSX: Honda’s Original Supercar

by Brian Long

Conceived as “the everyday supercar” the NSX delivered, often enough besting the higher-priced competition. The press and engineering folk loved it, the buying public not so much.

The Diesel Odyssey of Clessie Cummins

by C. Lyle Cummins Jr.

Cummins is not only the name behind the ubiquitous Cummins Diesel truck engine but also a world speed and endurance record holder. Readers with historical awareness will recognize in the publisher’s name a clever homage to Sadi Carnot, the brilliant young French scientist who is considered the father of thermodynamics.

Tales of Studebaker, The Early Years

by Jan B Young

Thirty-eight historical vignettes from Studebaker’s earliest years provide a look at life in America 1852 to 1930 and the then-nascent automobile industry and more.

Morgan – An English Enigma: The Vintage and Classic Years

by Martyn Webb

Plenty has been written about the anachronistic cars, now in their 115th year of production. What sets this book apart is that the author is the company archivist and that many of the hundreds of photos have never been published before.

NSU, The Complete Story

by Mick Walker

From knitting machines in 1873—by way of bicycles, motorcycles, and cheap but well-built small cars—to the futuristic, luxurious, world-class Wankel-engined Ro 80 passenger car in 1967 (that year’s European “Car of the Year” and also unofficial Car of the Decade) NSU was one of Germany’s pioneering manufacturers.

Cult of GT-R

by Ryan K. ZumMallen

Starting in 2023, some models of Skyline GT-Rs have cleared the 25-year rule that prohibited their legal importation into the US. This book describes how, and why, people had gone to great lengths to get their cars here before that.

Go Fast or Go Home: The Garth Hogan Story

by Tim Hanna

Dragster racer, record holder, FIA commissioner, founder of multiple businesses, pilot, restorer, museum founder—just reading this list makes you wonder if the differences in cyclonic motion in the hemispheres affects how time flies on Zealandia.

Three Men in a Land Rover

by Waxy Wainwright, Mike Palmer, Chris Wall

Three school friends, a £400 Landy, wanderlust in the name of a bigger cause: the United Nations. This 1969 adventure makes for a unique tale, not least because it could hardly happen today because the world has not become a friendlier or more stable place since then.

British Sports Cars 

by Richard Gunn

Any “Top Ten” list of sports cars will include examples from Great Britain. This short book is a quick but well-illustrated romp through 140 years of history.

Raymond Henri Dietrich, Automotive Architect of the Classic Era & Beyond

by Necah Stewart Furman

Ever seen a Gibson Firebird, or a Carioca? One of them is not a car, the product category for which Dietrich is most remembered. This mammoth biography is the first to paint a full picture, drawing on material new to the record.