Carrera RS 964

by Christoph Mäder

An RS almost needs no explanation. Nor does this author’s name. Nor does this book, but we will anyway. For anyone who loves books no matter what they’re about, this one is highly aspirational.

Massey-Ferguson Tractors

by Michael Williams

This became the most widely sold and recognized brand of agricultural machinery in the world. Many mergers, reorganizations, and licensees later it is now almost 150 years old and still in business.

British Private Aircraft

by Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume

This book and its sister volume may look unassuming but they are nothing of the sort. They are also so well written that anyone with an ear for language will find them enriching.

Dragster Genesis: The Formative Years of Fearsome Acceleration

by Barry John

No place to hide: two cars, side by side. Run a quarter mile. One wins. As a kid the author studied Hot Rod magazine, later he studied art at college. Youth well spent, apparently, because this book combines both interests.

L-15 Scout, Boeing’s Smallest Airplane

by Mal Holcomb

The “L” stands for Liaison and in theory this was a sensible aircraft. It was developed for a military contract that never materialized, and no civilian market ever emerged either. Only one is still flying, but you’d have to go to Alaska to see it.

Classic Cars Review: Revised Edition

by Michael Görmann, editor

Think of this compendium as a year’s worth of ultra-high-end car magazines but with much more upscale presentation and stunningly reproduced photography.

Test Pilots: The Story of British Test Flying 1903–1984

by Don Middleton

Written by a pilot who is also a good writer this 1985 book continues to impress. This is not about flyboy derring-do but the hard and dangerous work of trying out things that look good on paper but have never been done in the wild before.

New York Fifth Avenue Coach Company, 1885–1960

by Oliver J. Ogden

Fifth Ave is the premier north-south thoroughfare in Manhattan, with landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, not to mention high-value residential buildings. Obviously, buses had to look the part.

Great Auclum National Speed Hill Climb 1938–1974

by Stephen R. Lovegrove

Situated on a private estate, this only 440-yard-long course was short in length but long in motorsports impact and career-making—also intensity if not all-out danger.

U-2 Over the Soviet Union

America’s Famous Cold War Spy Plane from a Soviet Perspective

by Dmitry Degtev

What the American military and political leadership thought they got out of the U-2 program is of course exhaustively documented. But how did it look to/from the “other side”? Answers here.

Corvette, Legend or Myth & Zora’s Marque of Excellence, Vol IV

A Factual History, The “First Two” Corvettes

by Kenneth W. Kayser

If everything you know of Corvette history comes from books, good for you—but be prepared to unlearn a whole bunch of things in this book by a veteran GM engineer.