Wayne Carini, Steering Through Life

by Wayne Carini

This automotive memoir by a classic car expert and TV host talks about his life, influences, lessons learned, and of course the finding, collecting, and repair of cars.

Whitney Straight – Racing Driver, War Hero, Industrialist

by Paul Kenny

Born into a prominent family, he hated being referred to as the “Boy Millionaire Race Track Idol”—but he was all that and more, and on his own merits. He would have been more still if he hadn’t died young, at 66. And then this fine book would have had to be even longer!

Spada, The Long Story of a Short Tail

by Bart Lenaerts & Lies de Mol

The title sort of gives it away: Ercole Spada’s design career got underway with his interpretation of the truncated tail. Others did it too, he did it differently. At last there’s an entire—and supremely well designed—book about him.

But Will It Fly?

The History and Science of Unconventional Aerial Power and Propulsion

by Iver P. Cooper

Alighting, staying aloft, and landing again are each hard enough—doing all, repeatedly, controllably, under any number of conditions and in various climactic and atmospheric environments is orders of magnitude harder.

Mercedes-AMG: Race-Bred Performance

by Matt DeLorenzo

From the Red Pig to the Mercedes-AMG ONE hypercar to that other mega-dollar marvel, the Cigarette Racing powerboats, this book updates the almost 60-year-long story of the little tuner company that became an official part of the Mercedes universe.

Mr. Piper and His Cubs

by Devon Francis

Before there was a Piper Cub there was a Taylor Cub, and it was at Taylor that W.T. Piper got into aviation, rather by accident. Designed as a trainer its ruggedness, light weight, and affordability suit that role very well. A J-3 was the first American plane to be shot down in WWII—on a training flight.

This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web

by Tim Berners-Lee

Cloud services made headlines just this week, and not in a good way. But can you really explain how it, or anything on “the web” works? The author is known as the inventor of the World Wide Web so who better to tell its origin story!

Lords of Speed: The Great Drivers of Formula 1

by Roberto Gurian

The obvious expectation would be that this book is about all-conquering race winners. Some of them indeed are but they’re in this book because they’re “great” for other reasons. Forty-six bios, some will surprise, all will give you something to think about.

John, George and the HWMs: The First Racing Team to Fly the Flag for Britain

by Simon Taylor

Underdogs. One a mechanical engineer, the other almost a household name as a quite good race driver. England is picking itself up after the war so they stood up a race team—because they could and because no one else was. They did well, but ask people today about “HWM” . . .

M18 Hell-Cat: 76mm Gun Motor Carriage in World War II

by David Doyle

This particular “Buick” cost almost a million bucks when new. It was the most effective US tank killer of WWII but as every machine, it required compromises (firepower, armor, mobility). When all is said and done, it was the crews that made it successful, not the design.

Joseph Figoni: Le Grand Couturier de la Carrosserie Automobile

by Peter M. Larsen and Ben Erickson

Brimming with extraordinary source material these three volumes explore the Bugatti period in this coachbuilder’s oeuvre, and present info on 113 chassis bodied 1925–1939. The press release says “brace yourself,” and it ain’t kidding: over 1100 pages!

100 Dream Cars: The Best of “My Ride”

by A.J. Baime

The title may not inspire much confidence but this book really has substance. And it’s beautifully made yet costs practically nothing. If you read the Wall Street Journal you already know what to expect, but the photos look waaaay better here, at large size on good paper!

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