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

British Racing Green: Drivers, Cars and Triumphs of British Motor Racing

by David Venables

This is the first of several books in the “Racing Colours” series edited by the renowned Karl Ludvigsen. The book presents its topic organized by marque, one per chapter, for the proverbial “household” names. Several of the “lesser” ones are bundled together, ending with a four-page chapter bringing up the rear of the field.

Genevieve

by Henry Cornelius

This film, made in 1953, has old cars, romance, comedy, gentle action, along with sex appeal and charm enough to drain away the day’s tensions—it almost guarantees you’ll be in a good mood after seeing it!

The Scarlet Car

by Richard Harding Davis

This slim book first published in 1907 is certainly among the very earliest motoring stories. The characters and events are skillfully brought to life, jumping off the pages and into your mind even as you read. It is the sort of book that you can—and want—to devour in one sitting.

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.

The World’s Fastest Indian

by Roger Donaldson

This is not a documentary but a theatrical movie telling the story of the legendary Bert Munro, the New Zealander with a dream to set a record at Bonneville on the Indian motorbike that he had owned for forty-some-odd years.

Super Speedway

Few racing movies begin with a tight shot of three fat chickens roosting on a barn beam, but this is an exception. That’s just one aspect setting Super Speedway well apart from the usual racing film.

Magic Motors 1930

by Brooks T Brierley

One way to approach this book is to consider it as an essay in photos. The introduction states right away that the reader is “assumed to have some familiarity with the subject” and that the book is not meant to be “a comprehensive marque-by-marque history.”

A Gullwing at Twilight, Shifting Gears Gracefully

The Bonneville Ride of John Fitch

by Chris Szwedo

Fitch is today a living testimony to the fact that attaining a “certain age” need have no relationship to being useful or productive. One must only remain fully engaged in life and living and, of course, be blessed with the gift of good health. As proof, take a look at this DVD, gloriously filmed by Chris Szwedo,

The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost: Origins and Development of the 40-50 HP Model 1906–26

by David William Forward

Restoration of the author’s Springfield-built Silver Ghost showed him what an amazing mechanical creation it is and inspired him to write this book. Using disciplines of his academic background, he reviewed and analyzed the state of the art.

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.

Rust In Peace

by Malcolm Tucker

The proverbial tooth of time spares nothing and no one. As the title implies, this book features automobiles in various states of decay and disintegration. While this may appear an odd, or morbid, topic for a coffee table book, it is the inevitable fate of most cars.

Bentley Beauty, The Art of the Coachbuilder on the Derby Bentley 1933–1940

by Neill Fraser & Tomas Knapek

One of the greatest periods of coachbuilding worldwide, and one of the most interesting periods of automotive design, was that of the 1930s. Over 2400 Bentley chassis were erected by Rolls-Royce and wound up with some of the most beautiful bodies coachbuilders could produce.

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