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

Maserati A6G 2000: Frua, Pininfarina, Vignale, and Allemano

by Walter Bäumer

Chassis histories of 53 cars, compiled by an author whose auto consultancy has brokered several of them. Plenty of period photos—but the asking prices in the period ads will make you weep.

Jaguar D-Type, The Autobiography of XKD 504

by Philip Porter & Chas Parker

You can still see this 1955 car being raced today, with abandon, and successfully. In its day it was the ultimate sports racer. Few have survived in this original a form which is why this is the one to which an entire book is devoted.

Cadillac V-16s

Three books by Christopher Cummings

Cadillac’s top-of-the line model was ultra-refined and ultra-expensive. Even its almost-silent engine was designed by a stylist. It was launched at a time when the longterm repercussions of the Great Depression were not fully foreseeable but its prospective buyers wouldn’t have cared anyway.

Alfa Romeo Tipo 105 RHD

by Patrick Dasse

Righthand-drive cars involve more than simply sticking the steering wheel on the other side of the cockpit. A whole lot of other engineering has to happen, much of which not visible. Until now.

Colin Chapman: Wayward Genius

by Mike Lawrence

The title hints at the dichotomy in the Lotus founder’s character but the book makes an effort to show that Chapman compartmentalized his waywardness: questionable morals as a friend and businessman but (almost) never in motorsports.

The Rootes Story, The Making of a Global Automotive Empire  

by Geoff Carverhill 

Rootes is about as British a carmaker/distributor as it gets but US connections abound, not least the Raymond Loewy one. This book is quite the deep dive and dispenses lots of detail in a very readable manner.

Fuelin’ Around

by J.K. Kelly

There once was a racer who wondered if his fuel was all it could be. He taught himself chemistry and physics, didn’t blow himself up, and founded VP Racing Fuels which today is an internationally known name. This memoir is by someone who worked there for 30 years.

Porsche 356: Made by Reutter

by Frank Jung

For the first time ever a book reproduces some of the correspondence between the two firms, illustrating not just business details but the dynamics. Also, excerpts from oral histories accompany hundreds of photos from the shop floor.

Driverless America

by Joseph E. Hummer

Pick up any old consumer magazine and you’d think driverless cars are right around the corner. Well, it’s a big corner—but still, you should drive the heck out of whatever is in your garage right now! And also hope you don’t get run over . . . by an inattentive driver!

Forgotten Motoring, A Miscellany on the Open Road

by Peter Ashley

There is a certain charm in the assembly of miscellanies, and this book is an example of just how charming such an assemblage can be. Ashley’s eye, his sensibility, and his appreciation for ephemera combine to create quite the attractive volume, a sweetly polished little gem.

Indy Split: The Big Money Battle that Nearly Destroyed Indy Racing

by John Oreovicz

Big-time open-wheel racing in America is big business. And money is, as they say, the root of all evil. Followed by ego. If you can talk about CART, USAC, CRL, and IRL in the same sentence you know what this book will be about. It’s a bruising read—but there’s a happy end.

GT Love, 50 Years Opel GT

by Jens Cooper & Harald Hamprecht

This little Opel, the first-ever German concept car (1965), has more American connections that just being called the “baby Corvette.” As GM’s European subsidiary several US execs who would become industry heavyweights shaped the fates of this machine.

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