Life is a Highway: A Century of Great Automotive Writing

Edited by Darwin Holmstrom & Melinda Keefe

Just as Tom Cochrane’s 1991 most famous song of the same name has been covered by others, this book presents “covers” of a common theme. It is an anthology of 44 examples of ruminations about anything automotive, from excerpts from novels to magazine articles.

BRM: A Mechanic’s Tale

by Dick Salmon

A linguist might point out the negative connotations of the word “tale” (fiction, untruth even), but here—absent any evidence to the contrary—we take it to mean “narrative of events,” in other words a story. Think of it as a memoir, interrupted by frequent elbow jabs. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

Can-Am Cars in Detail: Machines and Minds Racing Unrestrained

by Pete Lyons & Peter Harholdt

If you know your cars and you saw the cover photo without any text, you’d know right away you’re looking at a Can-Am car. Ain’t nothin’ like it. The subtitle says it all: Unrestrained. Unrestricted. Formula Libre. Anything goes.

The Corvette in the Barn: More Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology

by Tom Cotter

If it was the word “Corvette” that caught your eye, do realize that this book isn’t just about that. The Corvette story is neither the first nor the biggest one in this book, in fact there are several, but it makes for as good a title as any.

Villiers: Everybody’s Engine

by Rob Carrick and Mick Walker

Villiers may have started building “everybody’s” engine way back in 1912 but unless you’re from the two-stroke small-engine world, chances are you do not know them. In which case you would do well to start with a look at Appendix 5 “Industrial Power Unit Users”.

When Art Kept ’Em Flying

A Celebration of American Aviation Artists and their Contribution in World War Two

by Georges Grod

No matter in what culture and what era, and for better or worse, children are impressionable. The author had the misfortune of growing up in war-torn occupied France, old enough to know what was happening but young enough to experience it “as if watching an exciting film.”

Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars

by Sven Voelker

If you are a motorsports enthusiast you already know that there must be hundreds, thousands of race cars that could be discussed. If you bought this book sight unseen on the strength of its title, you’d probably expect a visual primer on the evolution, purpose, and practical application of the use of graphics on racecars. Well . . .

Inside the Archives

by Jesse Alexander

It is surprising is that the images Alexander now selected for this book he once thought deficient in some way, lacking whatever indefinable essence the artiste was looking for.

Kept in the Dark

The Denial to Bomber Command of Vital Ultra and Other Intelligence During World War II

by John Stubbington

Even the casual reader will know that towards the end of WWII allied forces had the capability of intercepting coded German communications. Think Enigma and Lorenz machines, and Bletchley Park aka Station X, the UK’s main decryption establishment.

Woodward Avenue: Cruising the Legendary Strip

by Robert Genat

To anyone who has an affinity for car and youth culture in America, Woodward Avenue is an iconic name when it comes to cruising and street racing. “Detroit” is hardly synonymous with “hotbed of culture” and what happened on Woodward Ave. happened in a thousand other places but…

The Rise of Jaguar: A Detailed Study of the “Standard” Era 1928–1950

by Barrie Price

Jaguar is certainly on the rise today, with their new crop of XJ models being hailed as landmark cars and possibly the best ones the company ever built. A far cry from the fragile, eccentric original XJ, and, given the firm’s ups and downs, not at all a development one could have expected.

Fast Ladies: Female Racing Drivers 1888 to 1970

by Jean François Bouzanquet

This is the English translation of a French book. The topic of female racing drivers has been a wildly neglected one in the literature and even this book scratches only the surface by focusing only on European drivers (with two American exceptions, McCluggage and Skelton) and on only 49 of them in detail.

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