Lime Rock Park

This natural-terrain road racing venue is the oldest continuously operating track in the US and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two good books, 30 years apart, explain its appeal—and how banning racing on Sundays can be a good thing.

Early Australian Automotive Design: The First Fifty Years

by Norm Darwin

The automotive industry is one of the most significant Australian industries of the twentieth century. It began around 1895—and only now is there a comprehensive account of the design side of it, not just overall styling but component/industrial design.

Building the Star of India

by David M. Cox

Would you be able to tell from the cover photo that this is a 22″-long model?? With thousands of parts, many fully functional? You do have to be a rocket scientist to build these things—or you have to know the fellow who wrote this book and can build yours.

Space Odyssey

by Michael Benson

The movie is still fantastic. It has aged very, very well. Michael Benson tells the story of its conception, gestation and birth. He did his job so well that our reviewer was too involved and engrossed to actually write a proper review, but, please, check out his attempt . . .

British Armoured Car Operations In World War One

by Bryan Perrett

WW I was the first conflict to see widespread use of mechanization, a threshold hybrid stage where horse, camel, and mule fought alongside car, tank, and airplane. All except the latter are discussed here.

Ballooning: A History, 1782–1900

by Kotar & Gessler

Many aeronautic “firsts” were accomplished in balloons. Some records haven’t been bettered in decades (altitude, highest parachute jump). How did it start? Why didn’t it last?

Orbiting Ray Bradbury’s Mars

by Gloria MacMillan, editor

Bradbury is on the A-list of classic sci-fi literature. This book examines his work through various prisms—literary, sociological, scientific. It also deals with how Bradbury was adapted to film and television. It will satisfy both Bradbury fans and Bradbury scholars

Airmen’s Obituaries, Book Two

by Jay Iliff (Editor)

You may not have known Moose Fumerton, Bobbi Trout, Cyclops Brown, orGrumpy Unwin in life but you really should get to know them in death. Think of these obits as mini biographies—nothing morbid about that!

Ikarus: Busse für die Welt

by Christian Suhr

If you like busses, you’ll want to know about Ikarus from Hungary and this is about the only book to do the job. From China to Canada, you may have ridden in one and not even known it!

The Pulitzer Air Races


by Michael Gough 




In the space of only a few years, American flyers in American planes went from footnote to superstars—thanks to a series of races few seem to remember anymore. This is the first book exclusively devoted to them.

One Off: The Roads, The Races, The Automobiles of Toly Arutunoff

by Anatoly A. Arutunoff

The story of a supremely colorful life—that’s still going on, full bore. Well, almost. If you know anything about the beginnings of club racing in the US, this is a name you know—or should know.

The Watch Book

by Gisbert L. Brunner & Christian Pfeiffer-Belli

Sure, smartphones tell time—but that’s not what the engineering marvels and artworks that are the mechanical wristwatch are about. This book showcases 18 makers and highlights of their work.