Jock Lewes, Co-Founder of the SAS

by John Lewes

This early admirer of Hitler became so disillusioned with the Nazi regime’s methods that he volunteered for an elite British outfit specializing in counter-espionage, the Special Air Service and became its principal training officer.

Imagine too! Towards the Future

by Patrick G. Kelley 

It’s rare enough that a concept car makes it into production but just think of how many drawings never even make it to the modeling stage. Worse, concept drawings are by definition throwaways and get tossed as soon as their “job” is done. Good thing someone is saving them!

Max Hoffman, Million Dollar Middleman

by Myles Kornblatt

Pick up any book about European cars in the US after WWII and Hoffman’s name will be in it. Finally there is a book that looks at his manifold business activities even if the man himself remains as shadowy as some of his deals.

Tyrrell: The Story of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation

by Richard Jenkins

This team/constructor turned out the lights half a decade ago but has descendants of a manner in the modern era: Brawn GP who almost adopted the old name, and today’s Mercedes-AMG Petronas.
We’ve now added a second review—because the book is just that good.

Crusader, John Cobb’s Ill-Fated Quest for Speed on Water 

by Steve Holter

For what do you need 5000 lb of thrust? For breaking records. In a jet-powered boat. Air is relatively smooth, water is not. Will it all go right? The author is, among other things, a crash investigator—so probably not.

The Bomber Mafia

by Malcom Gladwell

Planning to watch the movie Oppenheimer? A nuclear bomb!? Why had other military strategies not broken Japan’s ability to fight? Because no matter what the strategists of the Bomber Mafia thought, pinpoint hits from high altitude were not achievable in those days.

Bomber

by Len Deighton

This is a novel but the level of research and attention to detail Deighton brought to bear could have easily yielded a nonfiction analysis of one fateful day and night in 1943 pinning German air defenses and RAF Bomber Command against each other.

The V-8 Album

by Charles Seims et al

A compilation of facts and photographs pertaining to Fords and Mercurys and a tribute to the flathead V-8 engine that powered them for 21 years, 1932–1953.

Dreamers

by Cornelis van den Berg

If you dream about going into car manufacturing, look at these guys. One of them had actually done it for real—TAD Crook aka “Mr. Bristol.” Long retired, he sat for an interview, from which is spun this narrative nonfiction the publisher calls “accurate, but not always factual.”

Bourne to Rally: Possum Bourne, The Autobiography

by Possum Bourne with Paul Owen

The fickle finger of fate . . . this autobiography was completed just days before 47-year-old Bourne had a fatal road accident. While that makes the story especially poignant, there’s a lot of practical stuff here how to keep a racing career humming: talent is essential but not sufficient by itself.

Porsche Boxster and Cayman, The 981 series 2012 to 2016

by Brian Long

Having covered this model since it first launched Long could not very well sit this version out. Besides, the 981 cars have especially much going in terms of features, refinement, and reliability—and so does this book.

The Cobra in the Barn, Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology

by Tom Cotter

This was the first book in what would become a series extolling the allure of looking for desirable cars, be it by methodical search or accidental stumble—sometimes literally. The sleuthing, the deal making, the extraction, and the inevitable headaches are captured in experiences many of us had had ourselves (or wish we did).

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