Damn Few Died in Bed: Memories of a Life in American Automobile Racing

by Andy Dunlop

Before the days of even rudimentary safety features, brave and talented men raced brutally fast open-wheeled automobiles on the exciting dirt tracks of Middle America. Dunlop gives us a new appreciation of the lives of the people that crisscrossed the heartland on two-lane highways to compete in America’s bull rings on weekends.

Bentley: 3½ and 4¼ Litre 1933–40 In Detail

by Nick Walker

At the time period this book covers, Bentleys were built by Rolls-Royce which had taken over Bentley in 1931 in an attempt to thwart the competition and prevent Bentley from going to Napier which would have constituted an even more formidable challenge to Rolls-Royce.

German Aircraft Industry and Production 1933–1945

by Vajda & Dancey

This book is a compilation of statistical data gathered from German archives and previously published material. While the book is certainly not for everyone, it does contain a huge quantity of information. The authors’ conclusions in Chapter 12 on why Germany was destined to lose the air war are alone worth the price of the book.

Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business

by Bob Lutz

Lutz is the last of the Motor City’s “bad boys.” Not bad like a De Lorean though the two of them shared a passion for cars but rather in the sense of being cut from the same cloth as a Lee Iacocca—a guy with gasoline in his veins who evaluates cars based on whether or not they’ll sell rather than how much they’ll cost to build.

Rolls-Royce Hillington: Portrait of a Shadow Factory

by Peter Sherrard

Preparing for WWII, the Shadow Factory scheme was the British Government’s attempt to guard against the possible loss of key industrial sites, in this case the Rolls-Royce factory at Derby. The Hillington plant on the outskirts of Glasgow was Rolls-Royce’s first site in Scotland and, in addition to the factory at Crewe, the second Shadow Factory.

Rallying to Monte Carlo

by W.M. (Mike) Couper

Often humorous and exciting, the anecdotes of rally preparation and racing as an independent in 1939 and as a factory-supported driver in Rolls-Royces and Bentleys 1949–1955 still end up rather monotonous—there are only so many icy S-curves, near misses, mechanical problems, hastily eaten meals and cabin repartee that one can bear patiently.

Veteranos y Clásicos

by Josep Vert i Planas

“Vert Carrocerias” produced passenger and commercial vehicles but it was after WWII that their interest in classic cars developed into a sideline that specialized in the restoration of what was left after the war had taken its toll.

Around-the-World Flights: A History

by Patrick M Stinson

It’s all relative. To an SR-71 Blackbird pilot who’s clocked 2000+ mph zipping around the globe in about 11 hours the 530-odd mph your average commercial jet achieves are boringly slow. Only 55 years before the fastest recorded SR-71 flight, pilots on the first around-the-world challenge (1921) were given 100 days to make the trip.

Mustang Genesis: The Creation of the Pony Car

by Robert A. Fria

Fria has the distinction of owning since 1997 the first Ford Mustang hardtop with a factory-issued VIN (5F07U100002) and fully restored it. That alone does not make him an expert, it’s the 10 years of research and the tracking down and interviewing many of the surviving players in the Mustang story.

Motor Racing: The Pursuit of Victory 1930–1962

by Anthony Carter

Slightly smaller than its 2005/2007 predecessor—and also slightly cheaper; not at all to be taken for granted—this new book dials the clock farther back, to the 1930s. More specifically, the 1933–1939 racing years and then, interrupted by the war and its aftermath, the 1950–1962 era.

British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603–1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates

by Rif Winfield

If all you know about sailing ships comes from the occasional pirate movie, the level of magnification this book and its two companion volumes bring to the task is probably overkill. Even for the fairly specialized reader these books are hardly casual reading.

The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story, Part 1: The First Forty Years

by Peter Pugh

If you associate the name “Harold Nockolds” with a book of this title you are making the right connections but this is not a re-edition of Nockolds’ 1938 classic that covered the first 34 years of Rolls-Royce history.