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

Preston Tucker & Others: Tales of Brilliant Automotive Innovators and Innovations

by Arvid Linde

The book’s basic premise is true enough: at all times and in all fields there are those who think outside the box. More often than not they are unlauded, misunderstood, and unrewarded in their own time. Worse, they may be forgotten altogether—hence a book like this.

Something Quite Exceptional: Hugh Easton and the Battle of Britain Memorial Window for Rolls-Royce

by Adam Goodyear

Many aircraft have been, and are, powered by Rolls-Royce engines. In the WWII context it is of course the Spitfire with its Merlin engine that tops the list. It played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, where, against formidable odds the pilots of the planes it powered turned the tides of war.

Runways and Racers: Sports Car Races Held on Military Airfields in America 1952–1954

by Terry O’Neil

Published a year after O’Neil’s 2010 opus Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950–1959 this new book on a directly related topic is not a sequel but, chronologically speaking, a prequel.

The Big Spenders

The Epic Story of the Rich Rich, the Grandees of America and the Magnificoes, and How They Spent Their Fortunes

by Lucius Beebe

Automobile folks couldn’t possibly be ignorant of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, first held in 1950. In its early days, one name was inseparable from the event: bon vivant and concours judge since 1954 Lucius Morris Beebe.

My First Car

Recollections of First Cars

by Matt Stone

Right out of the box this book looks as if the people making it had a good time! Clever cover art. Smart book jacket blurbs. On the Impressum page even the editor and designers got to list their own first cars. Drum roll, please.

Race to the Sky: The Wright Brothers Versus the United States Government

by Stephen B Goddard

It is positively exciting to think that only three short years lie between the Wrights launching an unmanned kite/glider, then strapping themselves to it, learning by trial and error how to control it, and then, in 1903, achieving mankind’s first powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flight.

Orville’s Aviators: Outstanding Alumni of the Wright Flying School, 1910–1916

by John Carver Edwards

Kitty Hawk is the location that has so lastingly become associated with the Wright brothers’ aviation triumphs but Greene County, Ohio is where most of the actual development and flying—and training—took place.

The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost Its Way

by R. Michael Gordon

Even if everyone in the record crowd of 750,000+ that attended NASA’s 135th and final launch in July 2011 had paid $10 admittance, all that money wouldn’t put much of a dent into the $3 billion annual shuttle bill.

Silver Ghosts of Australia and New Zealand

by Ian L Irwin

Unlike books written “on spec” for commercial gain or a misguided yearning for immortality, this 2-volume opus is the proverbial labor of love of one enthusiast’s lifelong unwavering interest.

Ships and Shipbuilders: Pioneers of Design and Construction

by Fred M Walker

To the uninitiated, “Rina” may sound like the name of the girl next door but RINA, or rather the RINA, is really the venerable Royal Institution of Naval Architects which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2010, which occasioned this book.

David Molyneux: The Racer’s Edge, Memories of an Isle of Man TT Legend

by David Molyneux with Mathew Richardson

Who would have thought that when the first race on the Island was held in 1904 (because racing in Britain was forbidden and the 1903 introduction of a 20 mph speed limit) that more than a 100 years later the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy could lay claim to being the oldest circuit in the world still in use?

The Forerunners of Jaguar in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia

by John Clucas & Terry McGrath

British Jaguar expert Paul Skilleter, who is the publisher of this book, introduces it on the flyleaf by stating “If you thought you knew all about the forerunners of Jaguar, think again. . . . Extraordinarily comprehensive and full of fascinating new details.”