Archive for Author 'Sabu Advani', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Fabuleuses collections oubliées

by Christian Martin

Whether the collections are fabulous is debatable but the photos here certainly are, and the book itself is a fine example of craft. Behold eight European “collections” that in most cases are glorified junkyards with trees growing through cars and you have to ask yourself what the motives of these people are.

The Bimota Story 

by Ian Falloon

It may be one of the most famous names in the Italian motorcycle industry but it also had more brushes with death and more owners than any that survived. Kawasaki is the largest single stakeholder these days but they leave Bimota to making utterly Italian-flavored bikes.

Albatros Fighter Aircraft of WWI

by Dave Douglass

Get those paintbrushes out! This book is for modelers—or anyone who is just insatiably curious.

Porsche RS: Development, History, and Technology 

by Bergander, Hoberg, Besser

While the RS is mostly associated with the 911 there are other Porsches with that special spec; this book discusses them all but the main focus is on the various series of 911s.

Flying Boat Pilot in War and Peace, Disaster and Survival

The Extraordinary Life of Captain M.J.R. ‘Roly’ Alderson

by Mark Alderson

From learning on an Avro Lynx biplane—six months after Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic crossing—to leading BOAC’s “Comet Development Unit” this book covers the whole arc of aviation development.

Iron Fist: The Lives of Carl Kiekhaefer, Industrial Caesar of a Marine Industry Empire

by Jeffrey L. Rodengen

Once fired for “brazenly insubordinate arguments concerning design and product development” he would go on to put his name to over 200 patents and was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.

IMSA 1990–1999: The Turbulent Years of American Sports Car Racing

by Raffauf, Raffauf, Silbermann & Ingram

Read the book prior to this one for the backstory why/how IMSA became “The World’s Greatest Sports Car Racing Series.” The decade examined here shows how much went then wrong. Gripping stuff, written by people who were there.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle: The Man Who Invented the Turbo-jet

by Robert L. Evans

High speed, long range, high altitude—there was a time when aircraft couldn’t achieve any of these let alone all. Whittle developed a theoretical solution, but the materials didn’t yet exist to actually build an engine. Besides, no one thought his scheme was practical. Or so they said.

Mercedes-Benz C 111

The Definitive History of the Mysterious Supercar That Never Was

by Heidbrink & Hack

It’s not the car that is mysterious but the circumstances that kept if from becoming the hit for which scores of 1969 auto show visitors wrote blank checks. M-B owns all the cars it ever made, and this is the one book that covers them.

La vie en rouge Ferrari / Life in Ferrari Red

by Christian Martin & Jean-Marc Thévenet

Lots of photos and an assortment of vignettes about Ferrari miscellanea, mostly with a French connection.

Marcello Gandini, Maestro of Design: Revisited

by Gautam Sen

Miura. Countach. Montreal. You know those names but Gandini did so much more and counts among the most exceptional designers in history. Yes, you’ve seen a book with this title before. But that’s years old and long sold out. This is not a revision but a wholly new animal—it costs less but contains more! What??

Ferrari in F1

by Peter Nygaard

No team has competed in F1 for longer, had more poles, earned more points, has more World Championship titles and GP victories. This book covers 1950–2024 and explains not so much the why but the what and who. But the real star are the hundreds of photos, many/most new to the published record.