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

Lost Muscle Car Dealerships

by Duncan S. Brown

A complete list of dealerships that once specced their own souped-up cars or sponsored customers’ race cars, if it were even possible to compile one, would number more than the 17 presented here. This book also includes Canadian ones.

Astonishing Stories Pilots Tell

by Robert N. Pripps

You’ve heard it: flying is hours and hours of absolute boredom interspersed by moments of sheer panic. The author has written three dozen books about farm tractors but his heart has always been in the clouds. He earned his pilot’s license half a century ago—plenty long to have picked up a few tales.

Detroit Steel Artists

by Matthew Kilkenny

Ray Dietrich probably designed more custom and semi-custom cars than any other designer of the Classic Car Era. This is the book about Dietrich and others and those cars.

Culture & Customisation: The Motor Scooter Story  

by Barry John

It’s not just nostalgia that keeps interest in scooters alive and well today. They are as practical as ever, economical to operate, take up little space, and now they even have zero-emissions electric motors. Plus, a brand-new racing series debuts this year, the eSkootr Championship.

Legends & Lore Along California’s Highway 395

by Brian Clune

Have a need to visit  a house shaped like a lemon? Or, more sobering, the Manzanar Internment Camp? Or check if there really are 80,000 hubcaps in the hubcap capital of the world? Heck, that stop counts as a twofer because the 25-ft-tall woman lives here too. Go West, young wo/man!

The Archaeological Automobile

by Miles C. Collier

Will “the future” consider “the car” a mere phase, possibly ill-fated and best forgotten, in the history of man? Your car matters to you—but is there a higher tier that constitutes “cultural heritage”? Why? And which? And what are the consequences of such questions?

Tattered Cover Book Store, A Storied History

by Mark A. Barnhouse

If you think of the book as a dying breed (not!) what about brick-and-mortar book stores, especially independents? Tattered Cover in Denver is also a cultural institution and garnered nationwide attention in a First Amendment Supreme Court case. A former employee has recorded the first fifty years.

Chicago’s Motor Row

by John F. Hogan and John S. Maxson

Today’s auto mall was yesterday’s auto (or motor) row. Being able to check out a handful of dealers in one fell swoop seems like a great convenience—but Chicago, ever the Big City, put over a hundred, including repair shops, into one district.

Ken Miles (Two books about_]

-by Dave Friedman
-by Art Evans

If you watched the very engaging 2019 movie Ford v Ferrari you would have formed an opinion about Ken Miles. Probably not a great one and certainly not a balanced one. These two books paint a fuller picture by bringing many more voices to the table.

Acoustical Materials, Solving the Challenge of Vehicle Noise  

by Pranab Saha

Can you hear me now? Ever chased a mystery sound? Ever thought it’s only in your head? Sound is different things in different contexts. In physics it is expressed as an acoustic wave. In psychology it’s the reception of that wave and its perception by the brain. This book tells you just how complicated it is to manage.

Spellbinder, The Life of James J. Nance

by Stuart R. Blond

If the name of James Nance brings to mind “Studebaker Packard,” it’s not usually in a friendly way. He had the misfortune of presiding over the ambitious automaker’s final years—and is often enough blamed for them. There’s never been a book written about his working and personal life until now so be prepared to reevaluate that assessment.

Hot Rod Dreams: Car Shows and Culture

by Larry Erickson and David Boulé

A guy paints signs for a car show in the 1950s. A decade later he becomes one of the founders of the International Show Car Association. Seems like someone stumbled into a career. For Bob Larivee Sr. it was a calling, and this is his story.