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

Of Firebirds & Moonmen: A Designer’s Story from the Golden Age

by Norman J James

If you were a newly-minted designer in the 1950s, the place you would want to go to work would be GM. Legendary Harley Earl ran his design division as his own private fiefdom, and his Knight’s Errant were his designers.

1965: Jim Clark & Team Lotus, The UK Races

by William Taylor

A 208-page large-format book about just eleven race weekends that took place 45 years ago in England seems fairly indulgent. But when the subject of the book is the incomparable Jim Clark, and the year is 1965, it all makes sense.

Equations of Motion: Adventure, Risk and Innovation

by William F Milliken

You’ve heard the saying about someone having “forgotten more than the rest of us will ever know.” This certainly applies to Bill Milliken, except that he hasn’t forgotten anything! He was 95 years old when he published the first version of this autobiography, the hardcover edition.

Equations of Motion: Adventure, Risk and Innovation

by William F Milliken

When the first edition of Equations of Motion was released in 2006, I wrote in a published review that it was unequivocally “the most interesting and well-written of the 50-some-odd books that I’d read during all of that year.” Now, with the publication of the 2nd edition, this time in softcover, you get more for less.

The Man Who Supercharged Bond: The Extraordinary Story of Charles Amherst Villiers

by Paul Kenny

The Bond in the title is “Bond, James Bond”, created by Ian Fleming who was a friend of Villiers. Naturally, Fleming chose a Villiers-supercharged W.O. Bentley for Bond in his book Casino Royale that was later made into the iconic film of the same name.

The Miller Dynasty

by Mark L. Dees

Inspired by Griffith Borgeson’s work, fellow Californian Mark Dees began to seriously accumulate Miller lore, interviewing those still living who had known or worked with Miller, along with survivors from the prewar racing world.

Winning, The Racing Life of Paul Newman

by Matt Stone and Preston Lerner

The terms actor, philanthropist, and racer combine to describe only one man, Paul Newman. Although he didn’t begin his driving career until age 47, he developed quickly and competed into his eighties, eons beyond other competitive drivers.

Ferrari – Men from Maranello

by Anthony Pritchard

A Ferrari “Who’s Who.” Here, in one place, are the biographical details of more than 200 individuals who have made important contributions to Ferrari’s greatness over the years.

Walter L. Marr, Buick’s Amazing Engineer

by Beverly Kimes & James Cox

An eexcellent biography of Buick’s brilliant and innovative Chief Engineer. His contributions made the Buick one of America’s most desirable automobiles in the early part of the Twentieth Century.

Flight of Passage

by Rinker Buck

Imagine trying to write a memoir about the defining event of your life thirty years after it happened. This was the challenge facing Buck here. In 1966, Rinker, then 15 years old, and his older brother Kern, who was 17, flew a 85-hp Piper Cub to become the youngest aviators ever to fly from coast to coast.

Mickey Thompson: The Last Racing Maniac

by Scribbler Joe (Scalzo)

I read this book with the absolute wish that every single solitary, bar none, motherlover listed in it could be looking over my shoulder reading right along with me; or even better still be listening to the author frantically reading the book aloud to all of us huddled in some musty Babbitville coffee enclave at 4:30 on a cold, rainy Wednesday afternoon.

Jochen Rindt: Uncrowned King

by David Tremayne

“Who the hell is Jochen Rindt?” is the title of the first chapter—because it was the first question people asked when Rindt seemingly came out of nowhere in 1964 to beat the big-name drivers of his day. And it is, the author fears, the first question a new generation of racing enthusiasts asks today.

Newer Entries »