Archive for Author 'Helen Hutchings', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Taming the Automobile

by Kerry Segrave

Key point: unlike many other innovations, the auto industry was imposed on society from the top down. What? The author is a Cultural Historian and has written about topics as diverse as Shoplifting and Foreign Films.

Quarter-Mile Corvettes 1953– 1975

The History of Chevrolet’s Sports Car at the Drag Strip

by Steve Holmes

The Corvette started the same year the NHRA hosted its first event. That there is a connection between the two was unintentional but this book will show how entwined they have become.

Charlie Schwab, President of Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel  

by William R. Huber

Somebody who should know (Thomas Edison) called him the “master hustler.” He became one of the very rich men of his time—and died in debt. Still, 2000 people lined the streets. So what sort of fellow was this?

The Rover Story 

by Graham Robson

Except for Land Rovers you can’t buy a new Rover anymore these days but you can now get this long out of print book again. Well-organized, it focuses on the core period 1877–1988 while also touching on the years before and after.

Iron Aviator: Cal Rodgers and the First North American Transcontinental Flight

by Christopher C. Wehner

It’s 1911 and $50,000 prize money is to be had for being the first to fly solo across the country. Never mind that you’re only a rookie pilot, legally deaf, and too tall to be a good fit for a little airplane. Rodgers did die in an airplane crash—but not on this trip.

One Track Mind, The Art of Robert E. Gillespie

by Robert E. Gillespie

Go ahead, count the rivets. His father did, which taught young Bob an important lesson: people who know will notice details, which is why he puts them in his work, whether it’s birds of prey or the fighter planes that borrow their names, or landscapes, or the race cars on his home track of Watkins Glen.

Curtiss Aerocar, 1928–1940

by Andrew Woodmansey

The “aero” in the name has nothing to do with Curtiss’ main claim to fame, aeroplanes, but alludes to the slippery shape that lets this “Motor Bungalow” cruise at a higher speed than some cars of the day could reach.

Curtiss Motorcycles: 1902–1912

by Richard Leisenring Jr

If you know your contemporary exotic machinery you know niche maker Curtiss Motorcycles—but that’s not the Curtiss of this book, the champion bicycle racer most remembered as an aviation pioneer contemporary with the Wright Brothers.

The Saga of the Willys Aero

From Second Fiddle to the Jeep to Proudly Wearing the Ford Badge, 1952–1971

by Mark L. James

How an obscure American compact car was built by four different automakers, over twenty years, on two continents, and helped launch the Brazilian auto industry.

A.J. Foyt: Survivor, Champion, Legend (Vol. 1)

by Art Garner

He got his start in a car that had a lawnmower engine—and went on to become the only driver to win the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Daytona 500, and the 24 Hours of Daytona. This is a big book and it can fit only half that story, which is why there will be a second volume.

The Complete Book of AMC Cars

American Motors Corporation 1954–1988

by Foster & Glatch

It was the largest corporate merger in US history when Nash and Hudson regrouped as AMC. Domestically, the Big Three were and remained the big kids on the block but AMC played well in Europe which would lead to a partnership with Renault.

Alvan Macauley of Packard: Detroit’s Forgotten Automotive Pioneer

by Charles E. Flinchbaugh

So much went right at Packard for so long—surviving the Depression and once outselling Cadillac—and then the company went under anyway, and during the greatest car-buying boom the US had ever seen.

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