Vintage Travel Guides

Navigation systems in cars are here to stay. They can be a real boon to getting where you need to go on time. But, for the less time constrained, there is another way of finding your way around new environs. True, it isn’t as quick and easy as plugging in your destination and then mindlessly following the synthesized voice of your mechanized navigator. However, it is more fun, more romantic and much more stylish to plan your motoring trips with the aid of vintage travel guides.

Rolls-Royce: Storia, technical e modelli

by Halwart Schrader

Did you know that in 1912 a Silver Ghost took part in the second edition of the Monte Carlo Rally? That car was the first Rolls-Royce ordered, bought, and owned by an Italian. And it started a love affair between the “Best Car In the World” and the country best known for low, red, uncomfortable, and noisy sportscars for middle-aged teenagers.

A Century of Automotive Style, 100 Years of American Car Design

by Michael Lamm & Dave Holls

When first released in 1996 the book garnered raves from everywhere and everyone. The automotive media heaped on still more praise—and now it is released as a searchable DVD.

Two classic books by Ken Purdy

This prolific freelance writer (1940s–1970s) edited magazines directed toward men including True and Argosy, writing authoritatively on many subjects, but is remembered primarily for his car-related material. It is no accident that the Award For Excellence in Automotive Journalism given by the International Motor Press Association is named after him.

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!

Classic British Car Electrical Systems

by Rick Astley

Utter the word LUCAS and grown men will quake in their boots. Astley explains the reasons for Lucas’ market dominance and their relationship to Smiths, Rists, and Autolite—and that Lucas built to a price point: meaning you get what you pay for! So there.

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.

On Any Sunday

by Bruce Brown

Follow American Motorcycle Association Championship contender Mert Lawwill as he drives his van full of Harleys to dirt and road courses across America seeking to again earn the AMA championship laurels.

Eat Free or Die

by Kevin Clemens

Written by a bona fide, real-life, practicing, authentic, credential-carrying automotive journalist, this is a wild ride (that was just too easy!) of a novel which I read as a sort of slightly less-complicated, car-centricDaVinci Code. This fast-moving, turbocharged whodunit features the adventures of a super hot-shot automotive journo from a super hot-shot automotive magazine.

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.

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