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

The Big Spenders

The Epic Story of the Rich Rich, the Grandees of America and the Magnificoes, and How They Spent Their Fortunes

by Lucius Beebe

Automobile folks couldn’t possibly be ignorant of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, first held in 1950. In its early days, one name was inseparable from the event: bon vivant and concours judge since 1954 Lucius Morris Beebe.

Brands Hatch: The Definitive History of Britain’s Best-Loved Motor Racing Circuit

by Chas Parker

In declaring to write the “definitive history” Parker set himself an ambitious target. Competition may have been sparse—Brands published several histories decades ago, and Parker himself was between writing a pair of simple guidebooks to racing there.

My First Car

Recollections of First Cars

by Matt Stone

Right out of the box this book looks as if the people making it had a good time! Clever cover art. Smart book jacket blurbs. On the Impressum page even the editor and designers got to list their own first cars. Drum roll, please.

Hot Rod Model Kits

by Terry Jessee

Being a man of a certain age, this book offers me a sweet and deep sweep of nostalgia; and I won’t be the only one out there. In my early teens, I was captivated and hooked—to be able, with a minimum of skill and patience, to build and customize then current stock cars and modify them into iconic hot rods.

Tales from the Toolbox: A Collection of Behind-the-Scenes Tales from Grand Prix Mechanics

by Michael Oliver

A professional motorsports writer, Oliver has great affinity for his subject, as befits someone who was only weeks old when he was taken along to F1 races, and he likes to say that he learned his numbers by looking at the roundels on the side of race cars.

The Car Design Book

by Gautam Sen

It’s not an easy task to sum up in 140 pages the best designs of all times regardless of price and trends! Sen tackled this exercise with total subjectivity and his position as editor of India’s best-selling Auto India magazine certainly didn’t make it easier: the more you know about a subject, the harder it is to make a selection!

Haynes-Apperson and America’s First Practical Automobile: A History

by W.C. Madden

Before you chalk the complex and relatively short-lived motor manufacturing activities of the three separate companies in this family off as ancient or marginal history, consider that one of the technologies it pioneered is in use still today: stellite.

Silver Ghosts of Australia and New Zealand

by Ian L Irwin

Unlike books written “on spec” for commercial gain or a misguided yearning for immortality, this 2-volume opus is the proverbial labor of love of one enthusiast’s lifelong unwavering interest.

Hot Rod (Perry)

by David Perry & Barry Gifford

If, when browsing the magazine rack, you would automatically pass by Old Skool Rodz and Hot Rod Deluxe in favor of Classic Motorsports, Collectable Automobile or Road & Track—or even Rod & Custom (there is a fine line there, but it exits)—you would no doubt pass on this book also. There is a certain shame in that…

Rallying in a Royal Rolls-Royce

Preparations, Pitfalls and Passion on the 1997 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

by Jeanne Eve

If you are a Rolls-Royce enthusiast seeking information on compression ratios and piston stroke, then this one may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have a pulse, if you have ever felt the call of the open road, and you don’t treat your car like a trailer queen, then you must read this!

A Reliable Car and a Woman Who Knows It: The First Coast-to-Coast Auto Trips by Women, 1899–1916

by Curt McConnell

McConnell’s two related earlier books about transcontinental trips are supplemented here by the story of pioneering women drivers who tackled great distances just to show it could be done. None of the three books makes reference to the others and we continue to be puzzled by this odd bit of marketing strategy.

Road Racing: Drivers of the 60’s and 70’s

by L. Weldon & J. Heimann

Once upon a time motor racing was purely a man’s sport. With rare exceptions, women weren’t allowed near the cars during the race. In photos from the ’30s it’s always raining and cold, and the men in the pits, invariably clad in long overcoats and ties, all seem to resemble Humphrey Bogart or Alfred Neubauer.

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