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

The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook

by Gijs Mom

Different cultures produce different tech. What?? That’s just one of the points this academic text makes, enlisting 125 years of global automobile history to describe the mutually dependent development of technology and society. From engineering to driver behavior, nothing escapes scrutiny.

Trophy Girl 

by Marlis Manley

A historic novel, centered around the first national race for stock cars at Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City in July 1957, written by an author whose dad really was the first Grand National Champion.

The Graham-Bradley Tractor, A History

by Michael E. Keller

The Graham Bradley was was considered a rich man’s tractor in the late 1930. Less than 2300 were built over its 3-year production and no more than 500 survive. Here the story is told in the context of American agriculture and overall industrialization.

Design & Desire

by Keith Helfet

A flat mountain top took such strong hold of young Helfet’s emotions that he felt moved to train as a designer—and found his calling, and a quarter-century gig at Jaguar. This book was originally intended as a private affair for only family and friends; thank goodness someone convinced him otherwise.

Wheels of Her Own, American Women and the Automobile 1893–1929

by Carla R. Lesh

As if the earliest days of the automobile weren’t fraught enough in regards to the culture at large, the subset of automobilists that was made up of women had layers of additional issues to contend with.

The Legend of the First Super Speedway

by Mark G. Dill

Two companion books about the same thing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—one for adult and one for YA readers. Gather ‘round for family time!

Hello, I’m Paul Page: “It’s Race Day in Indianapolis”

by Paul Page & J.R. Elrod

Could auto racing reporting be Emmy-worthy? You bet—Page did it twice! He probably could have brought excitement to reading the telephone directory out loud. From the X Games to hot dog eating contests, this memoir covers six decades in the broadcast booth.

Fay Taylour, ‘The World’s Wonder Girl’ – A Life at Speed

by Stephen M. Cullen

An Irish motorcyclist travels the world as an itinerant racer, becomes a car salesperson in Hollywood and discovers that quintessential American grass roots activity, midget car racing on dirt tracks. Not unusual enough? There’s more.

The Last of the Cape Horners

Firsthand Accounts from the Final Days of the Commercial Tall Ships

Edited by Spencer Apollonio

Both the ships and those that sailed on them around the fabled southern tip of South America are known as Cape Horners. While most were put out of business by the opening of the Panama Canal, the last hung on into the 1950s.

The Fastest Woman on Wheels, The Life of Paula Murphy

by Erik Arneson

Skates–sailboat–horse: if it moves, let’s see if it can move faster. She came to motorsports only in her thirties and then almost by accident, but it stuck and she was good with anything she drove. But she almost missed this biography, dying just a few months later.

We Were the Ramchargers: Inside Drag Racing’s Legendary Team, 2nd Ed.

by Dave Rockwell

Passionate auto engineers don’t leave their day jobs behind in their free time but few went as deep into pro motorsports as this bunch of Chrysler engineers. The author, a Ramcharger himself, interviewed more than 40 team members, competitors, and track operators.

Ed Pink, The Old Master

by Ed Pink with Bones Bourcier

There was a time, before crew chiefs, when engine builders were as famous as the star drivers because they saw to every aspect of a car’s performance. Having built thousands of engines, at 92, Pink has finally called it quits.

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