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

Brunei’s Bespoke Rolls-Royce and Bentleys

by Richard Vaughan

In the days of yore, it was the Indian potentates who counted among their playthings fabulously exotic, usually custom-made cars. In the 1990s the richest man in the world was said to be the Sultan of oil-rich Brunei and he too lives large. Little is known of his vast car collection so this book definitely opens new territory.

Roadside Relics: America’s Abandoned Automobiles

by Will Shiers

This look at scrapped American cars lain to rest in field and stream (yes, literally) not only documents relics of yesteryear but also a phenomenon that won’t exist much longer.

GM’s Motorama: The Glamorous Show Cars of a Cultural Phenomenon

by David W Temple

Lower, longer, wider. Often outrageously designed—and often enough outrageously impractical for real-word use (David Davis calls them “comic book fantasies” in his Introduction)—these show cars were the most American of American cars and American lifestyle.

De Dion Bouton, An Illustrated Guide to Type & Specification 1905–1914

by Michael Edwards

They were the world’s largest automobile manufacturer in the early days. This book shows how trying to be everything to everyone is a heavy cross to bear—and can ruin you.

Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?

by Alfredo Marcantonio, David Abbott, John O’Driscoll

Hindsight is everything. What is now considered one of the greatest ad campaigns EVER was dismissed at the time by the very man who hatched it as a total mistake!

MotorBinder: Classic Photographs from the Golden Age of Motor Racing

by Roy Spencer

Not just another catch-all generic photo book! This is a story, told in period photos, of mostly west coast racing seen from the perspective of someone who participated fielding his own cars and for-hire drivers.

Monzanapolis, The Monza 500 Miles

by Aldo Zana

Primarily about the 1957–58 Race of Two Worlds this well-researched book sheds light on a relatively unexplored subject, the multitude of American/ European face-offs that began with the Vanderbilt Cup of 1905.

Auto-Mobilität – Wie der Mensch das Laufen verlernte

by Roland Löwisch

The history of the car and all the various bits that made it possible, from the taming of fire to the taming of animals to the invention of the wheel.

A formidable, illustrated reference book you’ll be picking up again and again. Even if you don’t speak German!

Auto Racing Comes of Age

by Robert Dick

It is nothing short of amazing that the transition from rickety horseless carriage you could outrun on foot to fire-snorting record-breaking racecar took so little time. This excellent book examines the European and American history of the origins of motorsports.

The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car

by David Fletcher

Many automotive marques were pressed into war serive, and many acquitted themselves well. The Rolls-Royces do take pride of place, for reasons this little book makes clear.

Mercedes W113: The Complete Story

by Myles Kornblatt

The successor to the 300SL was nothing like that car, but it was also nothing like any other car. So it carved out its own place in the world and remains an icon to this day.

Kar-Kraft

by Charles Henry

Ford beat Ferrari at Le Mans. But FoMoCo didn’t do it alone. Kar-Kraft was a key contributor and Ford was pretty much its only customer. The author worked there and so can offer an inside look.