Automotive Books

This book makes me want to get out and DRIVE! If you ever had a love affair with a vehicle, this book is for you. Enjoy it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories of the various owners. Justin Lukach has a wonderful story telling style that captures the essence and the love of this category of classic vehicles. Old pickups certainly have a "cult like" following.

A wonderful book for those who regard the pickup as the workingman's Cadillac. Fantastic writing from Mr. Lukach.

I have never been into trucks, but the big colorful book is a page turner. I love looking at the old pick-ups and reading the interesting tidbits of history that Mr. Lukach has added. It has the intellegence of a text book, but it is the presentation that makes it exciting. You can sit with it for hours!

Great book in general with nice step-by-step instructions of common items to perform on the car. The seller of the book did a great job of describing the shape of the used book and it was mailed very promptly.

The best manual i found yet. Put it together with the hayes restauration manual and go start the works...

Except for factory books this is the best there is. Along with the technical discussions on the PCA web site this is all you'll ever need.

Great manual, nearly as good as the set of factory manuals. Many times better than the Haynes manual - you can do anything to your 911 using this book. Just great.

This is a great book because is has great photos - and good writing by an author who sees the pop value of service stations and like. There is a good historic overview of the early days, and lots of facts that make for fun reading. This book is not just for collectors of gas station stuff. This is a good read for anyone who use to pay 35 cents a gallon for gas.

This is one of two books written by Margolies which I have just re-read. (The other is Ticket to Paradise.) Regrettably, copies of both are now difficult to obtain but well-worth the effort. Each focuses on what may seem to be a highly specialized subject. In fact, both offer a wealth of information and commentary concerning a basic component within the development of U.S. culture. This volume focuses on the "glory days of the gas station." At least some readers of this review recall traveling across the country decades ago and pulling over where they could fill up their vehicle's gas tank. For many summers, I drove from Chicago to Los Angeles along Route 66 and stopped at several of the locations featured in this book. I have forgotten when but, at some point, the filling station became a service station. Upon arrival, an eager stranger appeared to fill up the tank, check the oil and tire pressure, wash the windows, and encourage me to purchase a canvas bag filled with water in the event the summer heat depleted the water in the radiator. One attendant who resembled Gabby Hayes noted that I might also need extra water "if this thing of yours breaks down in the middle of nowhere."

Margolies organizes his material within five chapters: Pump and Circumstance (signage); Pioneer Days (road maps); Golden Age: 1920-1940 (Pop Architecture, Aircraft, Razzmatazz: Kid Stuff, Believe it or Not!, Razzmatazz: That's Entertainment!, and Deco Moderne); "Going, Going...: 1940-1965 (Razzmatazz: Postwar Frolics, Porcelain Enamel, restrooms, and Razzmatazz: The Best of the Best; and Back to the Future: 1965-1990. The book is filled with superb illustrations (the best of which being archival photographs) and the text is based on a wealth of primary sources. Chapter 3 was especially interesting to me because it examines (with some of the best graphics in the book) various gas station architectures which include the Gulf Lighthouse Service Station (Miami Beach, FL), windmill-shaped buildings (Saint Cloud, MN), shell-shaped Shell gas stations (Winston-Salem, NC), the B-17 "Bomber Gas Station" (the plane installed above the pumps in Milwaukee, WI), "Bob's Airmail Service Station" built around a 32-passenger Fokker plane (Los Angeles, CA), and a zepplin-shaped building grounded beside the Pennzoil pumps (near Pittsburgh, PA). Photographs of most of these facilities are included, accompanied by brief but informative commentaries.

I highly recommend this book (as well as Ticket to Paradise) to those who share my interest in icons such as the gas station. Its evolution has been inextricably involved in the cultural history of the United States.

Margolies has done his homework. In addition to a good written history of the "filling station," he has come up with photos and postcards depicting all aspects of delivering gasoline to your hungry tank. Following are just a few:

A station shaped like a red and white teapot, complete with pouring spout, in Zillah, Washington, built in 1922.

A 50 foot high tepee shaped gas station from Lawrence, Kansas, built in 1930

A station with a roof shaped like a red cowboy hat with a 50 foot wide brim, and restrooms in a structure shaped like a pair of cowboy boots, in Seattle, Washington, built just after World War II.

A station utilizing an actual B-17 Bomber overhanging the gas pumps from Milwaukie (sic), Oregon, again built just after World War II.

A flying saucer service station from Ashtabula, Ohio, built in 1966.

There are lighthouses, windmills, giant soda bottles, icebergs, and a myriad of other shapes and styles including art-deco, ceramic tile, cape cod, and just plain wooden sheds and concrete blocks.

The book includes a written history of filling stations from tanks atop horse-drawn carts to today's stations. Every kind of pump from hand cranked to coin operated to visible level to today's 24 hour automated pump are displayed and discussed. There are men's and women's uniforms, and there are advertising slogans, signs, very artistic give-away road maps, and even a discussion of the evolution of "the clean restroom" as an advertising feature.

We live in the era of the automobile, and PUMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE is, in addition to being brainfood for the nostalgia buff in all of us, a history of that still unfolding era.

This is the kind of coffee table book that any over 30 guest in your home will be drawn to and, pointing at some illustration, say, "Hey, I remember those."

This handsome book arouses my nostalgia for the good old days of motoring both visually and educationally. Besides tracing the evolution of gas-station architecture, gas pumps themselves, and petrol merchandising, the book displays top-quality photo reproduction. This is especially to be appreciated for the way it shows the details in the older pictures, which were made in the days of slow, fine-grain films. And the book's generous page size helps the photos stand out, too. There's a good bibliography to further stoke the nostalgia.

No longer a dusty realm occupied solely by the Southern male, NASCAR has exploded over the last decade into a full-throttle national obsession. That said, it's only fitting that Mark McCarter, a homegrown Tennessee boy who's become a nationally recognized sportswriter, should be at the wheel of this tribute to America's newest past time. McCarter's evocative prose flawlessly blends a professional's dizzying knowledge of the sport with a race fan's tender passion. The heart-pounding, full-color photographs of Talladega, Daytona, and other racetracks around the U.S. are so vivid you'll swear you can smell the motor oil rising off the page! The Racetracks Book is a must-have for any red-blooded American who calls himself-or herself-a NASCAR fan.

I love NASCAR and I'm so excited about this book. The pictures are amazing, but there's so much I didn't really know about the racetracks. This is a very well-written book and the author did a fantastic job!

This book is a gem. Mark McCarter, a gifted and nationally recognized newspaper sports columnist, has done for stock car racing what Jack London did for dogs and James Joyce once did for drunk Irishmen. This book is the ultimate compliment to a fan's love of NASCAR. Grown fans will love this book for the access it gives them to some of America's premier tracks. But children will also love the pictures and stories. So parents, listen up: put down those boring Fairy Tales and pick up "The Racetracks Book" when your kids demand a bedtime story.

Mark McCarter is simply one of the most prolific sportswriters of our time. His poignant and powerful memoirs of life around the culturally diverse venues of NASCAR is spellbinding and makes any fan heady with excitement for his or her next visit to the track.

Mike Costin was chassis designer at Lotus, and also co-founded Cosworth.

This book shows, in brief and clear style, how to design a fully triangulated space-frame type chassis that will carry loads as efficiently as possible,and how to design a suspension to give both good ride and good roadholding.

If you wish to design a modern day car using a tubular space frame, this book is absolutely essential. It will be very helpful as well to those wanting to design ultralight mileage record or solar cars. Even designers of monocoque chassis will find excellent ideas as to where their load paths should be going, and how their suspension movement should be controlled.

Don't be put off by the fact that the book is almost 40 years old. If you plan to build a space frame, find a copy.

There is yet to be a book written, that describes the why's and how's of designing a light-weight, high-performance sports car chassis in a more informative, yet pleasantly readable style than "Racing and Sports Car Chassis Design". There are other, more contemporary titles on this topic, and having read many of them, I have a strong impression that their authors were much influenced by this book; perhaps having studied it in their college and university years. That would not be surprising, for it is forty years since the author, Michael Costin, then Development Director of Lotus Cars Ltd., with technical writer David Phipps and automotive artist, James A. Allington completed what was to be acclaimed by the industry, and motoring enthusiasts, as the Chassis Designers' Bible.

Costin was also a chief chassis designer at Lotus Engineering, one-time home of many of the most creative and innovative thinkers in the history of motor-sports. He later became the Cos' of Cosworth fame. Quite a motor-sports pedigree!

The theory and basic principles of chassis design, including methods for chassis stress calculation, plotting suspension geometry, and selecting materials for a winning space-frame chassis are all comprehensively covered. The text is classically crafted, making this a reference book for the `coffee table' reader too. It is complemented with excellent illustrations and (now historical) photographs, and the reader will enjoy a revealing treatise from a fascinating period in motor-sports development. Reference to the appendices explaining the essential mathematical calculations, tables of materials specifications and the glossary will assist understanding of the engineering principles, and will be invaluable to the novice chassis designer. This is the material that contemporary writers have often, unfortunately, left out.

The sections on suspension, while now dated, examine the conflicting forces that influence road-holding and vehicle dynamics, and assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various suspension types then in use. The technology may have developed, but the principles that applied then still apply today, and would be readily recognized by todays engineering student.

If you are a motorsports enthusiast, and particularly one interested in building your own racing or sports car, then this book, though now out of print, is well worth the search. Of course, if you are planning to build a monocoque, or a composite-bodied racer, then you'll have to supplement this book with more recent titles.

As a current Lotus-Seven-inspired-sportscar builder, I value and constantly refer to my copy, and strongly recommend it to like-minded enthusiasts.

Put it in your shopping cart now,...your copy is out there.

Written from the perspective of an engineer, this book, which I first read 20 years ago is always a nice reflection back to a time when the sport was more individual. Part technical reference , part coffee table reading, it has lots of pictures and even a brief set of simple calculations in an appendix. I always enjoy reading it again. In my opinion, a timeless work

If you are thinking of building a "Locost" replica of the Lotus Seven according to Ron Champion's Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and Race It!, you would be well advised to consult this book to see how Champion's design could be improved. As reviewer Ian Carter can probably attest, a chassis built straight from Champion's book will not pass the Australian government's mandatory test of torsional rigidity. A Web search for "Locost" will yield thousands of hits from which you can eventually dig out some minor improvements to the Locost chassis that will allegedly double its stiffness. But if the principles so clearly presented by Costin and Phipps were applied in a complete redesign, the chassis stiffness could probably be doubled again due to improved triangulation and the use of round rather than square tubing. (Sure, square tubing is easier to weld but structurally it's equivalent to round tubing that has already collapsed on four sides!)

The RTS is truly a landmark transportation vehicle. A common sight on the streets of North American cities for more than 30 years, thousands of RTS buses have been built by 4 different manufacturers. Once a leading edge design, the RTS slowly is being replaced by newer successors. As only a genuine bus enthusiast can, Evan McCausland tells a story that truly needs to be told. In words and well chosen photos, he chronicles the RTS from the earliest Transbus projects to the first-generation slope-backs to the square-backed 04's and 06's. Rare 05's, 07's, and 08's are covered, as are artics, suburbans, and one-off experimental units produced by GMC, TMC, NovaBUS and Millennium Transit. McCausland clearly has done his homework, and he gives lots of interesting narrative. Detailed builders lists provide statistics to back up the prose. It is hard to put this book down once you begin reading it. In my opinion, this is a book that all bus fans will want to their personal libraries.

First of all, let me say I have considerable knowledge of the history of American buses as I have been following them for year and a special interest on the RTS bus, one of my all time favorite buses.

I have not finished this truly encyclopedic book, only starting to read the Production charts. But, I have to say it is a fantastic book and many thanks to the author, Evan McCausland, for writing it. Its BETTER than any other bus book of an American Bus I have ever read. Its styled like the New Look fishbowl book that came out last year (2007), but even more detailed. It talks about each stage of the RTS development and goes into history of other transit buses, including the Transbus project, that evolved into the RTS bus for GM/GMC. It has a detailed Production chart/manufacturer deliveries list and a color section of buses at the last section. An all around FANTASTIC book and I cannot sing enough praise on it. Someone who knows this author should tell him to write another one. I will be one of the first in line to buy his next bus book. Bravo to Evan T. McCausland for sending a treasure to the very small market of bus history. We American bus fans truly appreciate it!!!

This book not only chronicles the General Motors RTS transit coach's development in great detail, but also covers the political climate that helped create it in the first place. Well illustraited and complete in every detail, this book is a must for any public transit enthusiast.

Lots of Pictures, interesting history regarding RTS buses.

Written by a true bus enthusiast.

This is the only book you will ever need for custom flame jobs. Rod is, and always will be, the best artist to ever layout & paint traditional style flames. His detailed photos and dialog will help even the most talented artist to become even better.

I have known Rod Powell for over 35 years, and he is one of the best custom painters around. Rod is never afraid to try "New Things", which shows in his excellent flame jobs. I was in the custom paint manufacturing business for many years, and would bring samples of New Products to Rods shop. The book shows the proper techniques in laying out the patterns and masking the design. His use of 1/4" masking tape for the design is the best way to go. I was a custom painter/pinstriper since 1955, and Rod's work has always stood out from the others. He worked a lot with Andy Southard jr, another well known pinstriper from the 1950s. I wish I had saved photos of my work as Rod has done, which shows creditability to his work. You can't miss on this book, even if you use spray cans. The technique is the same.

this book has some of the finest examples of car flames published, with most of them is full color.

Excellent book for the beginner or professional custom spray painter. The book is filled with colour photographs of the various flame painting techniques and styles. The book also includes three step by step tutorials, with +/- 20 photos per tutorial on flaming cars and motorcycles. This book is definately good value for money and I'll recommend it any day to any spray painting enthusiast.----- Paint long and prosper.

This is a very comprehensive documantion of one the most exclusive car manufactures in the world. Very useful guide on all things Bentley / Rolls Royce.

The title sums it up. Vivid color photos and good information
about pre 1915 vintage cars.

It's good to see a new version of an old favorite. I have two of the earlier editions. My only real complaint about the coverage in the new volume is that it's too bad that more details on the new Rolls-Royce Phantom could not have been included. This is a very handy book for the Rolls-Royce enthusiast.

My other complaint about the book is the printing quality. A number of the pages were printed on damaged paper which had streaks and other imperfections, pg 76 in my copy as an example. Since this was a personal gift to myself, I really didn't want to go through the aggrivation and wait for a new copy. I don't know if the steep discount on the book was due to the copies purchased by Amazon were irregular or not.

Anyhow enough said, the coverage maintians the level of RR history set down by Tony Bird.

If limited to one definitive book on Rolls-Royce and post 1931 Bentley this would be it. Very readable history as well as a comprehensive tecnical appendix. The idea format for a book on one make cars.

For starters I bought this book used from Amazon. Slight tears on the cover but a $50 book for $3, I couldn't pass it up. I'm glad I didn't. Even for $50 I would think the book would be worth it, but that is my opinion.

The pictures and the explanation of the history behind this car are very detailed. Almost 200 high quality pages full of great pictures and information from the very history of the rotary motor to the prototype Rx-8. This book was written in 2001, so the Rx-8 was a fairly new idea. The book goes through and explains every rotary powered car Mazda produced and explains a bit about the motorsports aspect as well.

Like in some of the older reviews, They could have spent a little more time in the buyer's guide section. Even though they explained a lot of good points, there is much more to know before purchasing this car.

For any Rx-7 enthusiasts out there, I would recommend this book for their spare time (when they are not out driving).

This book is a MUST HAVE for any RX-7 enthusiast! There is a wealth of new information that is ONLY in this book and nowhere else, and I have 'em all :).

If you've read the Mazda RX-7: Sports Car Color History book, this book is along the same lines and format. Where the big difference lies is the non-US specific focus of the information; model changes and lineups for Japan, the US, and the UK are covered, along with TONS of color photographs, reproductions of ads, and more.

The information in the book is VERY well researched and extremely accurate, which is asking quite a lot due to the breadth of the subject.

This is a fine reference work on the history of the RX-7. The "newness" of the book is a plus, since it covers the newer 3rd generation cars that are only for sale in Japan as well as photos and information on the upcoming RX-8. This information is not in *any* of the other RX-7 books.

Get it now!

Great book, all of the history is there. Worth geting, also makes a cool table book. lots of pics, and info on the Wankle rotary. only thing is it lacks a longer buyers guide. oh well, still A+.

An absolutely amazing book. Some of the most in-depth insight into this superb production automobile. It covers the inception of Mazda (and the effects of WWII on the company - based in Hiroshima) to the modern developments of the RX-8 and the Renesis engine (and a wealth of RX-7 facts in between).

If you have ever wondered about the history, evolution, and the future of this impressive sportscar... Here is the source of your answers (has great photos, too!).

If you've ever been in the situation where you need to buy transportation and your mate is out of town, this book is for you. I found it at the library and it was 10 times more helpful than any other book they had in their collection. It is packed with useful information about cars and car dealers. The author could have entitled this book, "Everything you ever wanted to know about cars but were afraid to ask". The writing is clear and precise. Highly recommended.

I picked this book up from the library and had to buy a copy. It has information on pretty much every situation a car owner will come across. It covers the basic run-down of a car's systems and parts and how much you should expect to pay to fix or replace a part. It also has a great section on buying or selling a car, and checklists for periodic maintenance. After reading this book, I feel a lot more confident that I can handle any car problems that might come up. Pick up this book (if you can find a copy) for anyone, female or male, who tends to "neglect" their car because they feel overwhelmed by the amount of information they think they need to know to keep it running. This book makes it simple.

I checked this book out at my local library, but found it so helpful that I wanted to buy a copy to keep in my car (which I'm currently in the process of buying, with aid from this book....) I can't express my disappointment with finding it's no longer available and can only hope that one day it will be again. Until then...check to see if your library has a copy too!

I'm actually a guy, not a woman, but I am not the most car-astute person in the world. Like most people, I've always felt that I must have missed the two days at high school where everybody else magically learned everything there was to know about cars.

This book has saved me with the basic facts about cars, how to change a flat, what fluids to check and how, and how to avoid getting ripped off when buying a car. It is so refreshing to see this stuff spelled out by someone who sincerely wants you to understand it, and has no macho baloney complicating it. I would reccommend this book to all my friends, male and female, if it were still available.