Archive for Items Categorized 'Biography/ Autobiography', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Fast Ladies: Female Racing Drivers 1888 to 1970

by Jean François Bouzanquet

This is the English translation of a French book. The topic of female racing drivers has been a wildly neglected one in the literature and even this book scratches only the surface by focusing only on European drivers (with two American exceptions, McCluggage and Skelton) and on only 49 of them in detail.

The Classic Citroëns, 1935–1975

by John Reynolds

First things first, this book really goes beyond 1975, devoting the penultimate chapter to the 1974–1989 GSX and a brief final chapter to the 1976–2000 cars built by the PSA Group in the post-Michelin era.

Alfa Romeo: From 1910 to 2010

by Maurizio Tabucchi

Alfa Romeo is in the enviable position of celebrating 100 years of operations, 1910–2010. All sorts of books will laud the centenary, and Italian publisher Giorgio Nada of Milan has produced two. One is a €500, 200 page limited edition of 1998 copies by various authors and then this much more affordable tome.

Mark Donahue: His Life in Photographs

by Michael Argetsinger

This book is a companion volume to Argetsinger’s excellent bio Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed. Publisher David Bull clearly has his fingers on the pulse of what readers want—and are able to afford.

Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed

by Michael Argetsinger

This biography consists of two books, this 344-page text version with only 40 photos and a second volume consisting of several hundred photographs with relevant captions. Argetsinger has written a remarkable and fitting tribute to one of America’s greatest race drivers.

My Father the Car: Memoirs of My Life With Studebaker

by Stu Chapman

North Americans have always known about Daimler, or Daimler-Benzes after these two amalgamated in 1926. However, in spite of Max Hoffman’s best efforts, it wasn’t until the company, by then called Mercedes-Benz, made an arrangement with Studebaker that it really achieved a North American presence.

André Lefebvre and the Cars He Created for Voisin and Citroën

by Gijsbert-Paul Berk

In addition to his work at Voisin, Lefebvre was in large part responsible for the Citroën Traction Avant, the H series trucks and vans, the 2CV and the DS—to have been responsible for just one of these cars would be worthy of nomination to the Engineering Hall of Fame!

Men of Power: The Lives of Rolls-Royce Chief Test Pilots Harvey and Jim Heyworth

by Robert Jackson

Test pilot brothers are a rarity. Both Heyworths worked for the same company, at the same time, and both became chief test pilot. Harvey, the elder of the two became the third test pilot at Hucknall, where Rolls-Royce had its flight test establishment.

Stanguellini: Big Little Racing Cars

by Luigi Orsini and Franco Zagari

Automobili Stanguellini was a maker of small racing and road cars in Modena, Italy. Modena, of course, is known as the home of Ferrari and Maserati but did you realize that they and Stanguellini had their premises all within the same square mile? Stanguellini, in fact, is older than the other two.

Grand Prix Showdown!

The Full Drama of Every Championship-Deciding Grand Prix Since 1950

by Christopher Hilton

A nail-biter! You do not have to be a petrol head or F1 groupie to become totally engrossed in this book! But you do have to have a sufficiently long attention span to follow the written word, not skip ahead, and take time to savor the drama the author so purposefully built into his story arc.

Merchants of Speed: The Men Who Built America’s Performance Industry

by Paul D Smith

One of the many cultural developments that accompanied the end of WWII was the rising interest (some might say craze) for automotive performance that continues to this day. Read about the automotive visionaries that made it so.

Sunderland Over Far-Eastern Seas: An RAF Flying Boat Navigator’s Story

by Group Captain Derek Empson

This autobiography is the first account of post-WWII operations conducted by Sunderland flying boats assigned to the British RAF’s Far East Air Force Flying Boat Wing (FEFBW). Empson was 21 and a newly minted RAF navigator on his first tour of duty with just 450 flying hours under his belt.

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