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

Chrome Dreams, Automobile Styling Since 1893

by Paul C. Wilson

Illustrated with line drawings instead of photos this book aims to draw attention to what design features worked and/or found favor. The book is decades old by now and so makes for an interesting case study, also in regards to the author’s analytical abilities.

Mustang vs. Camaro, The Battle for Pony Car Supremacy

by David Newhardt

If you have a wild horse as the emblem for your new car don’t be surprised if someone calls it a pony car. How annoying is it for the guy fielding a competitor to also have it called pony car! GM told the press that a Camaro was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” Over 60 years later—no winner.

First Highways of America

John L. Butler

The US played a pioneering role in terms of cars but lagged in road development. Why? It’s a big country, duh. This book may be old but it belongs on the shelves of any serious transportation historian as it documents the earliest days of road building in America.

Queen of the Midnight Skies

The Story of America’s Air Force Night Fighters

by Garry R. Pape & Ronald C. Harrison

While focusing on the Northrop P-61 the book also discusses other types, in the context of technology, operational matters, and personnel.

Life on a Wing and a Prayer

by Peter G. Dickens

A true story of and by someone who has spent decades flying anything and everything with wings. This memoir is the result of people who knew and appreciated those stories leaning on the author to write them down.

Defying Detroit, Automobile Manufacturing in Southern California

by Leslie Mark Kendall

Would you have guessed that Los Angeles County alone was once the second-largest auto manufacturing hub in the US, putting as many as half a million cars a year on the road? It’s quieter now—but still busy.

P-61 Black Widow, Northrop Night Fighter in WWII

by David Doyle

Designed from the outset to incorporate then-new radar the P-61 became America’s first dedicated night fighter, capable of carrying heavy weapons to give it the bite of the deadly nocturnal predator spider it is named after.

Benjamin Holt & Caterpillar: Tracks & Combines

by Reynold M. Wik

Mud is the enemy of wheeled machinery. Holt was the entrepreneurial and mechanical genius of a wheel-making family and his invention of a continuous track system revolutionized agriculture and heavy construction.

Twilight of the Gods, Vintage Motorcycling’s Race Against Time

by Greg Adomaitis

This book posits that motorcycling in the US is at a critical moment as demographics and lifestyles are changing and new technology is making inroads.

The 1954 Hudson Italia

Hudson Motors’ Stylish Swansong

by Mark L. James

Bodied by Touring in Italy this model was primarily intended to gauge public reaction to styling ideas. It did receive positive customer reactions but just over two dozen ended up being built.

Your Mom Races Rally: Motherhood, Motorsports and the Revolution of Fun

by Kelly Conroy

This is not a hardcore car book. It’s about the memoirist’s voyage of personal discovery that leads her to unexpectedly becoming a rally driver.

Deadliest Decade: How Speed, Money, and Technology Transformed Auto Racing

by Preston Lerner

Can you guess which decade this book will be about? 1964 to 1973. But it really reaches farther. Bad things are allowed to happen because good things are expensive and inconvenient. Then critical mass is reached. It was ever thus.

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