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

A Century of Automotive Style, 100 Years of American Car Design

by Michael Lamm & Dave Holls

When first released in 1996 the book garnered raves from everywhere and everyone. The automotive media heaped on still more praise—and now it is released as a searchable DVD.

Two classic books by Ken Purdy

Purdy was a prolific freelance writer during the 1940s–1970s. He edited magazines directed toward men including True and Argosy, writing authoritatively on many subjects, but is remembered primarily for his car-related material. It is no accident that the Award For Excellence in Automotive Journalism given by the International Motor Press Association is named after him.

British Racing Green: Drivers, Cars and Triumphs of British Motor Racing

by David Venables

This is the first of several books in the “Racing Colours” series edited by the renowned Karl Ludvigsen. The book presents its topic organized by marque, one per chapter, for the proverbial “household” names. Several of the “lesser” ones are bundled together, ending with a four-page chapter bringing up the rear of the field.

Classic British Car Electrical Systems

by Rick Astley

Utter the word LUCAS and grown men will quake in their boots. Astley explains the reasons for Lucas’ market dominance and their relationship to Smiths, Rists, and Autolite—and that Lucas built to a price point: you get what you pay for! So there.

The Scarlet Car

by Richard Harding Davis

This slim book first published in 1907 is certainly among the very earliest motoring stories. The characters and events are skillfully brought to life, jumping off the pages and into your mind even as you read. It is the sort of book that you can—and want—to devour in one sitting.

Eat Free or Die

by Kevin Clemens

Written by a bona fide, real-life, practicing, authentic, credential-carrying automotive journalist, this is a wild ride (that was just too easy!) of a novel which I read as a sort of slightly less-complicated, car-centricDaVinci Code. This fast-moving, turbocharged whodunit features the adventures of a super hot-shot automotive journo from a super hot-shot automotive magazine.

Zoom, The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future

by I Carson and V Vaitheeswaran

It is pretty clear that something has to change. The system of transportation that we have developed over the past 100 years—the one that is dependent of infinite amounts of cheap energy and two or even three new cars in every garage must come to an end in the not too distant future.

Magic Motors 1930

by Brooks T Brierley

One way to approach this book is to consider it as an essay in photos. The introduction states right away that the reader is “assumed to have some familiarity with the subject” and that the book is not meant to be “a comprehensive marque-by-marque history.”

A Gullwing at Twilight, Shifting Gears Gracefully

The Bonneville Ride of John Fitch

by Chris Szwedo

Fitch is today a living testimony to the fact that attaining a “certain age” need have no relationship to being useful or productive. One must only remain fully engaged in life and living and, of course, be blessed with the gift of good health. As proof, take a look at this DVD, gloriously filmed by Chris Szwedo,

Equations of Motion: Adventure, Risk and Innovation

by William F Milliken

You’ve heard the saying about someone having “forgotten more than the rest of us will ever know.” This certainly applies to Bill Milliken, except that he hasn’t forgotten anything! He was 95 years old when he published the first version of this autobiography, the hardcover edition.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost: Origins and Development of the 40-50 HP Model 1906–26

by David William Forward

Restoration of the author’s Springfield-built Silver Ghost showed him what an amazing mechanical creation it is and inspired him to write this book. Using disciplines of his academic background, he reviewed and analyzed the state of the art.

Equations of Motion: Adventure, Risk and Innovation

by William F Milliken

When the first edition of Equations of Motion was released in 2006, I wrote in a published review that it was unequivocally “the most interesting and well-written of the 50-some-odd books that I’d read during all of that year.” Now, with the publication of the 2nd edition, this time in softcover, you get more for less.

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