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

Ferrari F40

by Gaetano Derosa

At a cost five times higher than its predecessor and offered only to VIP customers, the Ferrari Forty would seem to have limited appeal. Instead, bidding wars ensued and the order book swelled. This book draws on a lot of Ferrari publicity material to explain why the car is so special.

Auto-Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design

by David Gartman

Mass production gives rise to social conflict, social conflict is reflected in the aesthetic qualities of vehicles. All clear? How’s this: working Americans demand beautiful, stylish, and constantly improving cars to compensate them for the deprivations of mass production. Not an easy book, this!

Ferrari F40 

by Keith Bluemel

It was among the most expensive cars of its time, yet the company sold three times as many as they had forecast. It changed the way other makers looked at supercars and it also changed how Ferrari thought about its own cars. See why here.

The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company 

by James A. Ward

Packard made a better attempt than its peers at surviving the damage done by the Depression of the 1930s, but still it was for naught. Transportation historian Ward examines the reasons.

Fast Lady, The Extraordinary Adventures of Miss Dorothy Levitt

by Michael W. Barton

“The Fastest Girl on Earth” had plenty of adventures in life but an inquest ruled her death of morphine poisoning at 40 a misadventure. What good is it to be the first British woman racing driver, the world’s first holder of a water speed record, the first woman to hold a land speed record if no one remembers?

OBD-I & OBD-II, A Complete Guide to Diagnosis, Repair, and Emissions Compliance  

by Greg Banish

Are you the sort of person who puts masking tape over that annoying Check Engine light? If your car has an ECU, realize that more and more states require a recent OBD-reader analysis in order to renew registration.

A History of Auto Racing in New England

Dick Berggren, editor

Unless you live there you probably had no idea how long ago racing started in that region. This excellent book connects many dots that extend far beyond those six states.

Norbert Singer – My Racing Life with Porsche 1970–2004

by Norbert Singer & Wilfried Müller

He almost became a rocket scientist. He almost went to Opel instead of Porsche. His very first assignment helped win Le Mans at a crucial time. No looking back now—his entire career was spent at Porsche, which would go on to win 16 overall race victories with cars in which he played a key role.

The Lotus Book Type 1-74 & The Ian Walker Racing Elans

by Colin Pitt

Covering this many cars in one single book of not even 200 pages can only be accomplished one way: keep it light and tight. This isn’t so much an emulation of the Lotus credo but the author/publisher’s default writing style.

Junkyards, Gearheads & Rust

by David N. Lucsko

The author is a hands-on enthusiast and restorer but also an academic. This book is less about parts picking or hunting for treasure but the junkyard as purgatory for automobiles, a stage of limbo from which will some will go on to be crushed, and some saved. One practical finding: scarcity does not necessarily equate collectibility.

Lancia Flaminia and Flavia

by Colin Pitt

All roads lead to Rome, and the Flaminia is named after one of them. There are practically no books about these models; this one is hardly comprehensive but it’ll have to do.

Triumph Cars: 100 Years

by Ross Alkureishi

A really good look at the cars and the people who made them, spiced with plenty of well-deserved criticism of the politics that drove this fine marque into the ground.

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