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

Rallying in a Royal Rolls-Royce

Preparations, Pitfalls and Passion on the 1997 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

by Jeanne Eve

If you are a Rolls-Royce enthusiast seeking information on compression ratios and piston stroke, then this one may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have a pulse, if you have ever felt the call of the open road, and you don’t treat your car like a trailer queen, then you must read this!

A Reliable Car and a Woman Who Knows It: The First Coast-to-Coast Auto Trips by Women, 1899–1916

by Curt McConnell

McConnell’s two related earlier books about transcontinental trips are supplemented here by the story of pioneering women drivers who tackled great distances just to show it could be done. None of the three books makes reference to the others and we continue to be puzzled by this odd bit of marketing strategy.

The Romance of Engines

by Takashi Suzuki

Many readers of book reviews are chiefly interested in the review in order to determine whether or not they should buy the book. In this case, this reviewer can tell you that if you are at all interested in engines and their developmental history, you’ll want to know about this book!

Avanti (Bonsall)

by Thomas E. Bonsall

Originally published in 1979 and long hailed as the ultimate book on the Avanti, this updated and revised edition is a must for every Avanti enthusiast. The legacy of the Avanti in the pony car era is all but ignored while lesser marques from the Big Three are eulogized for their contribution to the art.

American Road Racing — The 1930s

American Road Racing – the 1930s

by Joel E Finn
Finn has produced an epic work with this brilliantly written coffee table book is. It is, however, even more remarkable for its exhaustive research. The book covers the rebirth of American road racing which had become dormant after the early years of the twentieth century.

Corporate Power: American Democracy, and the Automobile Industry

by Stan Luger

The introduction to this book advises that it has grown out of a dissertation the author submitted to the University of New York. It is a scholarly study of the history of the power and influence of the automobile industry on governmental policies and the interactions of government and industry

French Etceterini Miscellanea

A review of three slim specialty French books:

La 4CV Bosvin-Michel-Spéciale by Robert Bosvin

La Saga sportive de la Renault 4CV by François Rivage

Sportives tricolores, 1950–70 by Jean Paul Decker

American Cars: 1946 to 1959 and American Cars: 1960 to 1972

by J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr.

Flory’s life is awash in numbers about cars. His dedication to gathering encyclopedic detail about every car sold between 1946 and 1972 is evident in these two 1,000-page (each!) books. No bit of information is too small, and none has been overlooked.

Legendary Race Cars

by Basem Wasef

McLarenLotus, Maserati, Ferrari—simply saying the names of the world’s great racecar makers is thrilling to their fans. The words sound fantastic on their own; still powerful even after all the years they’ve been household words.

Merchants of Speed: The Men Who Built America’s Performance Industry

by Paul D Smith

One of the many cultural developments that accompanied the end of WWII was the rising interest (some might say craze) for automotive performance that continues to this day. Read about the automotive visionaries that made it so.

The Brothers Rodríguez

by Carlos Eduardo Jalife-Villalón

This book tells us not only about Pedro’s life on the track, but it also traces his and his brother Ricardo’s rise from obscurity to international celebrity status, and ends with their untimely deaths.

Chassis Design: Principles and Analysis

by William F and Douglas L Milliken

This important book has a very special place, for the vast majority of the material has been taken directly from the previously unpublished writings of Maurice Olley, often called an “ueber engineer,” and a key contributor to automotive suspensions.