Archive for Items Categorized 'Automobiles', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Taming the Automobile

by Kerry Segrave

Key point: unlike many other innovations, the auto industry was imposed on society from the top down. What? The author is a Cultural Historian and has written about topics as diverse as Shoplifting and Foreign Films.

Quarter-Mile Corvettes 1953– 1975

The History of Chevrolet’s Sports Car at the Drag Strip

by Steve Holmes

The Corvette started the same year the NHRA hosted its first event. That there is a connection between the two was unintentional but this book will show how entwined they have become.

The Hidden Bugatti Diatto Alliance

by Claude Teisen-Simony

Bugatti’s government work during WWI had put money in his coffers—so he saw a bright future in continuing with aero engines afterwards. A business partner had a different idea, and that collaboration would shape the future of racing and luxury automobiles.

The Forbidden Bugatti Authentication Handbook

by Claude Teisen-Simony

This book is not for the casual enthusiast but for anyone wrestling with existential problems of authenticating high-dollar collectibles. More to the point, anyone who has found themselves on the barricades when no consensus can be achieved among parties with different interests or agendas.

Three Million Miles in a Volvo and Other Curious Car Stories

by Giles Chapman

The author calls himself nosy—and proud of it. If he wasn’t (one or the other or both) there’d be no book, a selection of interviews he collected over a lifetime of talking to people.

Classic American Car Parts: A Pickers Guide to Buying & Selling

by David H. Lehr

If you want to learn about selling car parts, this book tells how to find, price, market, store and ship them. If you’re “just” a buyer, you’ll get a glimpse of how a dealer sees you.

The Rover Story 

by Graham Robson

Except for Land Rovers you can’t buy a new Rover anymore these days but you can now get this long out of print book again. Well-organized, it focuses on the core period 1877–1988 while also touching on the years before and after.

The Original Ford GT 101

by Ed Heuvink

The first prototype, the one from which the Ferrari-beating Ford GT sprang, was scrapped in period—and resurrected 50 years later. Both models are covered in this superbly illustrated book.

Iron Aviator: Cal Rodgers and the First North American Transcontinental Flight

by Christopher C. Wehner

It’s 1911 and $50,000 prize money is to be had for being the first to fly solo across the country. Never mind that you’re only a rookie pilot, legally deaf, and too tall to be a good fit for a little airplane. Rodgers did die in an airplane crash—but not on this trip.

On The Prowl, The Definitive History of the Walkinshaw Jaguar Sports Car Team

by Neil Smith

TWR was associated with several marques, not to mention a great variety of privateer efforts, but the relationship with Jaguar was a particularly bright one and very much deserving of a book as exceptional as this.

Curtiss Aerocar, 1928–1940

by Andrew Woodmansey

The “aero” in the name has nothing to do with Curtiss’ main claim to fame, aeroplanes, but alludes to the slippery shape that lets this “Motor Bungalow” cruise at a higher speed than some cars of the day could reach.

Mustang: 60 Years

by Donald Farr

Now in its seventh generation, the Mustang has been in continuous production since 1964. More importantly, it has remained the “type” of car it started as—although it did have its bloated periods—with only the Mach-E departing entirely from form.