Archive for Author 'Mark Dwyer', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Cadillac 1970–1979, An Era of American Automotive Opulence

by Robert S. Newbrough

Once upon a time, owning a Cadillac was a big deal. The decade being visited here definitely qualifies but US emissions and safety regulations plus shifting consumer preferences meant big, comfortable cruisers were on their way out.

Raymond Henri Dietrich, Automotive Architect of the Classic Era & Beyond

by Necah Stewart Furman

Ever seen a Gibson Firebird, or a Carioca? One of them is not a car, the product category for which Dietrich is most remembered. This mammoth biography is the first to paint a full picture, drawing on material new to the record.

SS United States: An Operational Guide to America’s Flagship

by Rindfleisch, Bauer, Daywalt

Built for speed this superliner claimed a Blue Ribband on her maiden voyage in 1952—and the record still stands! Unusual: she was built right out of the gate with conversion to troop carrier in mind if such a need arose. Unusual: she is still afloat, albeit derelict. Unusual: this book.

The Spirit of the Age

by Davide Bassoli

Hardly the sexiest Rolls-Royces and Bentleys ever but for their buyers they were the only game in town at that segment of the market. Over their 20-year production run many modifications were made, not least the first-ever disappearing mascot.

Those Elegant Rolls-Royce

by Lawrence Dalton

This first of the five Rolls-Royce books lifelong motoring enthusiast Lawrie Dalton would write covers the range of coachwork mounted on Rolls-Royce chassis from 1907–1939. To produce the best book possible, he started his own publishing house; that was half a century ago, and it still exists.

Freestone & Webb, 1923–1958

by James Taylor

“Top Hat” and “Razor Edge” were just some of the clever ideas this coachbuilder had up their sleeve, they won gold medals nine years in a row, and were among the last five big remaining firms. But bespoke coachwork went the way of the dodo bird and it is little consolidation that F&W went out in a blaze of glory.

War at Sea: A Naval Atlas 1939–1945

by Marcus Faulkner

Every time you watch a movie or read a book about WWII naval engagements, this book should be in reach. Without it you’d have no real sense for space, distance, scale, and even time because movement on the open sea does not exactly happen at warp speed.

Duesenberg, The Mightiest American Motor Car

by J.L. Elbert

Did the individual marque history genre begin in 1973, as has been argued, with the publication by Automobile Quarterly of its histories of Cadillac and Corvette? This book, now nearly forgotten, clearly set the stage nearly 25 years earlier. And it still deserves a spot on the serious enthusiast’s bookshelf.

Park Ward: The Innovative Coachbuilder 

by Malcolm Tucker

It’s a good time to be alive: Park Ward is a hundred years old this year but only now do we have here the first proper book about it, so thorough—over 1200 pages, and it only covers 20 years!—that it is also likely the last.

The Cadillac Northstar V-8, A History

by Anthony Young

First seen in the Pininfarina-designed Cadillac Allante, the technically complex Northstar has powered cars as diverse as grocery-getters and a Le Mans prototype. Phased out in 2011, without a direct replacement, this long-serving powerplant gets a good look here.

Clydebank Battlecruisers: Forgotten Photographs From John Brown’s Shipyard

by Ian Johnston

This storied shipyard built five of the Royal Navy’s thirteen battlecruisers and not only had the foresight to document their work photographically but to hold on to the photos for decades—which is why a hundred years later this excellent book is possible.

The Battleship Holiday: The Naval Treaties and Capital Ship Design

by Robert C. Stern

Battleship-building may have been forced to take a ten-year holiday in the 1920s but thinking and designing continued anyway, and the next generation of capital ship turned a new page. This excellent book describes the implications of treaties on technical developments.

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