Flying Cars, Amphibious Vehicles and Other Dual Mode Transports

by George W. Green

This book lists just about everyone from 1900 to 2010 who has ever publicly stated an intention to build either a flying car, a car/boat combination, or any other land/sea/air multi-use vehicle. Green briefly summarizes what is known about each effort and in rare cases, its success or failure.

The British at Indianapolis

by Ian Wagstaff

The race that bills itself as “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” turned 100 in 2011. This book celebrates the British contribution to the race, not just the drivers but the mechanics, engineers, designers, and even officials.

From Balloon to Boxkite: The Royal Engineers and Early British Aeronautics

by Malcolm Hall

It’s not for nothing that the British Royal Engineers’ motto is “Ubique” (Everywhere). In their 900-year history they have been involved in every major conflict the British Army has fought in the far-flung British Empire, here and there and—everywhere.

Gotha de l’Automobile Française

by Claude Rouxel and Laurent Friry

To cut a long story short, this is THE book to have on French car manufacturers if you have an interest in the upper crust cars of the Twentieth century.

Chrysler Engines 1922–1998

by Willem L. Weertman

Even if you have only a vague awareness of cars you’ve surely heard of the “Hemi.” And you probably know there is such a thing as a “Viper” with its snarling aluminum alloy V-10 (modified by Lamborghini, then Chrysler-owned). Or the exotic Chrysler Turbine Cars of the 1960s. . . . This book puts it all in context.

Building Chris-Craft: Inside the Factories

by Mollica & Smith

The quality and appeal of the boats made by “America’s oldest manufacturer of powerboats” was such that a large number of buyers subscribed to the advertising slogan “Without a Chris-Craft, life at a shore resort or summer home cannot be called living.”

The Art of the Airways

by Geza Szurovy

Award-winning aviation journalist Geza Szurovy has had a life-long love affair with airplanes and he’s even a pilot himself. And because he thinks about the world and the place of everything in it, he connects some interesting dots.

Alfa Romeo & Mille Miglia

by Andrea Curami

Published in the year of Alfa Romeo’s 100th anniversary, this book follows the Porsche and Mercedes Benz volumes in a series of books by the late Andrea Curami (d. 2010) about the Mille Miglia efforts of specific marques.

Legendary Car Engines: Inner Secrets of the World’s 20 Best

by John Simister

The engine as object of desire—all this book is missing is centerfolds! The point of this exercise is not to offer a clinically detached appraisal of engineering doohickeys but to give visual expression to the notion of an engine being the heart or soul of a car.

Motorcycle Survivor: Tips and Tales in the Unrestored Realm

by Kris Palmer

Back in 1865 German physicist Rudolf Clausius introduced us to the term entropy. Much like the issue of degradation it addresses, the use of the word itself has degraded over time. Central to the second law of thermodynamics and vastly complicated, it is here used in the gravely simplified sense of “the steady degradation of matter in the universe.”

Higher and Faster: Memoir of a Pioneering Air Force Test Pilot

by Robert M. White and Jack L. Summers

US Air Force Major General Bob White (1924–2010) was the man who, in 1961 and 1962, flew the X-15 sixteen times to a speed of 4,094 mph (just short of Joe Walker’s 4,105 mph record) and an altitude of 314,750 feet (59.6 miles), earning White his astronaut wings.

Jochen Rindt: The Story of a World Champion

by Heinz Prüller

In the Clermont-Ferrand paddock during the French GP meeting of July 1970, Jochen Rindt sat with his fellow-Austrian, journalist Heinz Prüller, in the Firestone caravan. They had collaborated on a book four years earlier, and now that Rindt was romping away with the World Championship, they agreed to write another.

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