Archive for Items Categorized 'Biography/ Autobiography', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.
Fay Taylour, ‘The World’s Wonder Girl’ – A Life at Speed
by Stephen M. Cullen
An Irish motorcyclist travels the world as an itinerant racer, becomes a car salesperson in Hollywood and discovers that quintessential American grass roots activity, midget car racing on dirt tracks. Not unusual enough? There’s more.
Sir Joseph Whitworth
by Norman Atkinson
You know the name even if you don’t think you do. The British Standard Whitworth system codified an accepted standard for screw threads. He did many more things, in his field and as a man—and he deserves to be better known!
The Fastest Woman on Wheels, The Life of Paula Murphy
by Erik Arneson
Skates–sailboat–horse: if it moves, let’s see if it can move faster. She came to motorsports only in her thirties and then almost by accident, but it stuck and she was good with anything she drove. But she almost missed this biography, dying just a few months later.
Happy Lucky Days – My Life in Racing
by Bob Evans
Racing in the the glory days of F5000, Evans showed plenty of talent but as his entertaining and candid autobiography shows, scoring points and wins has a lot to do with factors outside a driver’s control.
Ed Pink, The Old Master
by Ed Pink with Bones Bourcier
There was a time, before crew chiefs, when engine builders were as famous as the star drivers because they saw to every aspect of a car’s performance. Having built thousands of engines, at 92, Pink has finally called it quits.
Flying and Preserving Historic Aircraft, The Memoirs of David Ogilvy
by David Ogilvy
Can’t tell roll from bank? Ever put a fuel-soaked rag into your carb intake to encourage combustion? Ever piloted a 1910 triplane, or the first British jet? Ogilvy’s highly polished prose will transport you into the cockpit.
The Diesel Odyssey of Clessie Cummins
by C. Lyle Cummins Jr.
Cummins is not only the name behind the ubiquitous Cummins Diesel truck engine but also a world speed and endurance record holder. Readers with historical awareness will recognize in the publisher’s name a clever homage to Sadi Carnot, the brilliant young French scientist who is considered the father of thermodynamics.
Speed Queens, A Secret History of Women in Motorsports
by Rachel Harris-Gardiner
For almost ten years the author has run the Speedqueens blog, and it contains a lot of material. She has a plethora of stories to
tell, and while she crams too much information into this debut book, it also offers her and others great opportunities for further exploration.
Go Fast or Go Home: The Garth Hogan Story
by Tim Hanna
Dragster racer, record holder, FIA commissioner, founder of multiple businesses, pilot, restorer, museum founder—just reading this list makes you wonder if the differences in cyclonic motion in the hemispheres affects how time flies on Zealandia.
Raymond Henri Dietrich, Automotive Architect of the Classic Era & Beyond
by Necah Stewart Furman
Ever seen a Gibson Firebird, or a Carioca? One of them is not a car, the product category for which Dietrich is most remembered. This mammoth biography is the first to paint a full picture, drawing on material new to the record.
The White Rose of Stalingrad
by Bill Yenne
In WWII, only the Soviets had female active duty combat pilots. In fact, they had three all-female squads. Two of their pilots became aces. The long-suppressed and forgotten story of one of them is told here.
Adolph Sutro, King of the Comstock Lode and Mayor of San Francisco
by William R. Huber
He dreamed big, and achieved and built big. Though not a household name today, his legacy—one of beauty—is inspiring.