The Art of the Racing Motorcycle: 100 Years of Designing for Speed

by Tooth & Pradères

Taking up only a small footprint in a more or less open frame, pretty much all the bits that make a motorcycle go are plainly visible. There is an art to arranging them and an art to photographing them. Both are revealed in this excellent book.

Original MGA

The Restorer’s Guide to all Roadsters and Coupé Models Including Twin Cam

by Anders Ditlev Clausager

The 1955–62 MGA is not at all an uncommon sight on today’s roads. Strong mechanicals, easy parts availability, decent top speed, and good looks account for this model’s desirability. Add to that healthy auction prices and you have a car you’ll want to keep at or restore to the top of its game.

Salmson, la belle mécanique française

by Laurent Chevalier, Claude Chevalier

This book is the enhanced re-edition of Chevalier’s 1997 volume by the same publisher and which has sold out. His son Laurent has found about 200 new photographs that have never been published before. It proves that the “definitive work on …” only exists in authors’ and editors’ dreams or, at least, until the next one!

Original MGB With MGC and MGB GT V8: The Restorer’s Guide to all Roadsters and GT Models 1962–80

by Anders Ditlev Clausager

The MGB is the successor to the MGA about which Clausager wrote a similar book. More than 500,000 of this all-time best-selling British sports car were built over an 18-year span. If you want to make yours as original as the factory intended, you need this book.

The Hot Rod Reader

Edited by Melinda Keefe and Peter Schletty

As one should expect of a good anthology, this compendium covers a lot of ground. It encircles its subject from all angles by presenting various commentaries by practitioners and observers. Representative examples of news articles, essays, fiction, and interviews have been gathered to help the reader connect the dots about what rods and rodding are all about.

The Book of the Lamborghini Urraco: Includes the Silhouette and Jalpa

by Arnstein Landsem

The book jacket refers to the Urraco as a “future supercar classic.” Well, production of this lesser-known Lambo ended in 1979—and the 791 cars built still haven’t become classics. Or supercars. Today you could buy 10 for the price of a tired Miura or top-notch Countach.

U.S. Naval Aviation

by M. Hill Goodspeed & Richard R. Burgess

After taking a first, skeptical look at the newfangled flying machine in 1898 it would take until May 8, 1911 that the Navy placed its first order for a proper aeroplane, and that day was later designated as the official birthday of naval aviation in the US. First published in 2001, this now revised and updated version of the book celebrates a big round number: 100 years.

British Car Advertising of the 1960s

by Heon Stevenson

The run from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in the north of Scotland is the longest distance in the British Isles. No wonder that for years the British have had a hard time comprehending America’s wide open spaces. Their misperception of the space we occupy has, albeit indirectly, influenced the advertising that is the subject of this book.

American Automobile Advertising: An Illustrated History 1930–1980

by Heon Stevenson

American’s have a long-standing love/hate relationship with Madison Avenue. One minute complaining there’s way too much of it and he doesn’t pay any attention to it anyway. Then, almost without taking a breath asking Dilbert in the next cubicle if he happened to see the latest Miller spot and how about those cheerleaders outfits!

Differentials: Identification, Restoration & Repair

by Jim Allen and Randy Lyman

Part history book, part school book, part mechanics manual, part encyclopedia, and part sales guide for aftermarket alterations, this 394-page softcover book is a gearhead’s dream . . . if you want to dream about differentials, that is. If not, it could be slow going.

The Concorde Story

by Christopher Orlebar

First published in 1986 on the plane’s 10-year anniversary in commercial service this is the only one of the many, many books to have reached a service life—25 years—almost as long as that of the aircraft—27 years—it covers. Continuously reprinted/updated the book is now in its 7th edition and has sold in excess of 100,000 copies!

Hot Rod Garages

by Peter Vincent

Think of this book as a Shop Hop or Garage Crawl, a guided tour and look behind the curtain. This hot rod photographer/owner/builder doesn’t so much send you out for a look-see on your own but takes you along with him—all the while reminiscing and dispensing snippets of quotes and conversations, facts and factoids, and personal impressions.