Automotive Books

This well-written biography of Rex White, one of NASCAR's Fifty Living Legends, will keep you reading to the end to find out the outcome of all White's adventures in the 1950s and 60s on the early NASCAR circuit. White drove before the ovals were paved, and seems as comfortable on dirt tracks and on the road to the next race as anywhere in the world. Along the way, readers will learn as much about the stock car racing sport as readers of "Seabiscuit" found out about the life of the jockey and the history of the horse racing sport. This is a very enjoyable book with delightful accounts of team high jinks throughout the story and enough historical material to keep NASCAR fans arguing for years.

This book is wonderful! I don't know how to describe it. I'm not into sports and all that, but this was a riveting read.

In many autobiographies, it seems obvious that someone wrote the book for that person. But in Gold Thunder, Rex's no-punches-pulled account blends with Anne's seamless strorytelling to the point that one can almost imagine Rex sitting next to you.

Gold Thunder is very fast paced. You put the key in the ignition, rev it up a few times, and then watch it go. As the motor purrs to a stop and you turn the last page, you'll wonder where all the time went

Anyone will enjoy this book,including non race fans like myself. I'm sure that many aspects of it make more sense to race fans, but the book itself is a wonderful introduction to racing. I had no idea that NASCAR had such a colorful history. What a cast of characters! It's enough to make even the newest fans feel a bit of nostalgia.

Here's another great auto racing book that will not only let you into the life of Rex White, it will teach you along the way. Stricken with polio at a young age, growing up in poverty and working countless hours on a farm never hindered little Rex White's passion to get behind the wheel of a race car. You'll find out why his father played a major role in his "race to finish, race to win" atttitude, and you'll meet all of the people who impacted Rex's life on his way to becoming a NASCAR champion. People like modified great Frankie Schneider, who became White's mentor, to partner Louie Clements are all given prime space in this book. Rex tells what racing was really like in the good old days, his love of Chevrolet, and the countless hours on the road traveling on nickles and dimes to get to the next race. A regular dinner was a package of Lance crackers. You'll also attend several wild parties honchoed by Clown Prince Joe Weatherly.
The best part of this book are the lessons learned thanks to a great work ethic. You'll laugh at the loads of funny characters that come into Rex's life, and then also deal with racing's dangers and the many tragic events that happened on the track. It's loaded with photos, tells of the great/not so great 1963 year at Daytona with his Mystery Motor 427 Chevy, GM's "on again, off again" policies on racing and becoming a member of the official Chevy racing teams.
Another can't miss book on the great sport of auto racing from the eyes of one of NASCAR's all-time best 50 drivers. He may have stood only 5'4" in stature, but this is a giant of a man when it comes to racing and winning in life.

This excellent guide for "dummies" is sadly out of print. I loved it when I first read it years ago, and was thrilled to recently meet Mary Jackson, the author, in person. When I told her how sad I was to not be able to buy more copies for friends, she told me that all is not lost, and that most of the info in Greaseless Guide has now been reborn in her other book, Car Smarts.

If you loved Greaseless Guide but can't find it because it's out of print, try Car Smarts instead!

This is a great book if you know next to nothing about cars but you own one. Very well explained and not a struggle to read for the beginner. Gave me a handle on terms and what they mean and how to find your way around the repair shop. Should be curriculum for life skills class for everyone.

I'm sorry to see this book out of print. I purchased copies for each of my children and myself. Jackson clearly explains the essentials you need to know in order to talk to your mechanic and understand what is important and what is not. A must for those of us who just want our cars to run with as little personal involvement as possible.

My first and second cars were a 1961 Rambler and a 1967 Chevy respectively. The cars owned by my friend Ron were a 1951Chevy and a 1964 Chevy. Gary owned a 1968 Charger and Tom a 1965 Barracuda. My brother's first car was a 1965 Ford and then a late sixties Mustang. My all-time favorite car is the Z-28 Camaro of the late sixties. When I was growing up, my elderly neighbor owned a pristine 1956 Chevy.
While not all of those cars are illustrated in this book, there are enough photos of similar cars to bring back very fond memories of times past. Ron was a mechanic and I often helped him and Tom work on cars. We took them apart and put them back together, so I have seen the complete insides of some of these vehicles. There was nothing like getting behind the wheel of my '67 Chevy with a powerful V-8 engine, kicking the gas pedal to the floor and feeling the physical effect of being pushed back into the seat. It gave you a particular feeling of power that nothing else can give you. While I always drove the speed limit, there was no law regarding the time you had to spend getting to that speed.
While there is a lengthy caption explaining each car pictured, I did not read all of them. Even though the captions are complete, in most cases I was too busy looking at the pictures and enjoying the memories to worry about reading.

Great book. The text is informative, witty and quick paced. The photography is outstanding. No reprints of old photos. The author/photographer is obviously a great photgrapher who happens to love American Cars. Unlike the majority of car books where someone has a camera, it is high noon and they take a picture This book has set a standard which leaves all the other car books in its dust.

A celebration of the great American cars of the late 1940's through the early 1970's. In addition to all the iron turned out by Detroit there are a few cars that were improved upon by their owners. We are talking Kustoms, the forgotten art of the 50's. The livley anecdotal text is accompamnied by the best car photography today. Many of the cars featured are former participants of the 1950's and 1960's submarine races.

I originally planned on buying the factory manual from Ducati for my Duc907, but quickly found out that even the Ducati mechanics recommend using the Haynes manual over the factory one. Good thing, too, because the factory manual costs $80 (if they even have it in stock) vs. $29 for the Haynes manual. To top it all off, Amazon offers if for just $19 and can get it to you the next day. Such a deal, I just bought another one for my brother!

I bought this book for my 2001 900SS even though it is outside the covered year range, and I found this book to be the best Haynes manual I have ever used. It is much more user friendly in its layout and descriptions of tasks, and I found alot of good advice for the maintenance I already knew how to do, such as bleeding brakes, etc.

I checked the valve clearances, and although the book was informative on how to proceed with removing the shims, etc. I did back off from that. I plan to talk to a couple of mechanics before I actually do remove the shims for replacement. Even so, the book was there with good advice: put some heavy wire into the vertical piston spark plug hole to hold the intake valve after you remove the bottom shim!

Great manual, easy to follow with handy tips to help me out. There's not to many words and lots of pictures (a picture says a thousand words!)which make it clear what is being refered to and how things are done. It has ratings for each job so you know if youre up to the challange or if it'd be over your head before you even start! Using Amazon is excellent, easy and helpful! Recomend the manual and Amazom to anyone.

I found this book to be extremely informative. I was virtually ignorant about the subject before the reading and now, I at the very least know what questions to ask.

This book is full of excellant info. It is on the technical side, but very thorough. You can tell who wrote it because of the products that are featured, but why not plug your product! Most of us doing high performance work on a diesel should have no problem figuring it out. This book is great if you plan any performance upgrades for you mill, from mild to wild. BUY IT!!!!

if your new to diesel tuning,this is the book to read,it will clear up any question's that you cannot find else where,

Very informative text. Packed with loads of full-color pictures. The most complete guide to Mustangs. The book features the options available on these Mustangs from the factory, and features excellent detail on aftermarket parts currently available.

I bought this Mustang book along with others and I thought this one was the best. It gives a good break out of the years of the mustang starting from 1979 to present. It also gives some great details on what parts go good with certain years of the mustangs. Wish they had more books like this one

This has taught me more that I care to know about Mustangs. Very informative piece. Great photos of models I had forgotten. A good buy. Thankx for putting this together to share.

This is one of two books that I owe about Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (the other book is "Confessions of a Rat Fink"). If you love hot rods and "Rat Fink" cartoons, both of these books should be in your collection. If there was a "Hot Rodder Hall of Fame", Big Daddy deserves to be in it. I grew up loving cars and I have several old comic books with cartoons drawn by Big Daddy. In this book, Big Daddy tells some of his secrets about the hot rods he built. Good pictures too.

this book is the bible of custom car fans and wanna be big daddys alik

This man is a cultural icon for the period, and this book allows him to tell his story, with counterpoint from other participants. The photos of the cars are great. This is not an unbiased history, but gives a flavor of the real character of this character. Highly entertaining read for the car nut.

It is the best book for mofifiand the small block and get the most power you can. I am really happy with it.

goes into detail about everything you will need to know to build a big-inch smallblock. Priceless tables and parts selection comparisons down to the actual part number are included. The big-inch theory is well explained. The book is also well written and fun to read. A great book

Part of this book's title, "big-inch, small-block", reminds me of oxymorons like "jumbo shrimp", "pretty ugly", "mandatory option", or "open secret". That put a little smile on my face before I even opened the cover.

Besides his presumed appreciation of the oxymoronic comedian, George Carlin, author, Graham Hansen has been a hard-core Chevy fan all his life and has been building high-performance Chevy engines for more than 25 years. From this book, you'd think his knowledge of Chevy engines is nearly encyclopedic.

How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks is just an outstanding book, right there with of some of the best of the automotive, how-to/technical genre. The only thing wrong with it is, in fact, the title. Oh yeah, it covers large displacement Small-Block V8s and does that well, but the book really is a comprehensive discussion of putting together any high-end, street or racing Chevy "SBV8," not just engines 377 cubic inches or larger. The most popular big-inch Small-Block has to be the 383 and that combination is addressed in detail. The author spends time on 406es and the really-big, Small-Block, a 454-cuin. monster which makes over 600-hp.

One of the most powerful parts of How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks is at the end. The final chapter, called "Power Packages", is a database of seven different, big-inch SBV8s. Each engine is listed by major parts, engine dyno data (both graphic and numerical) and a brief description of each engine.

Other sections which are worthwhile for anyone building a high-performance Small-Block are Chapters two (on the theory of stroker motors), seven (camshafts) and nine (cylinder heads).

No doubt, Hansen's How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks is a top-notch information source and a great read, even for those looking for general performance engine information rather than big-inch SBV8 specifics. It's taken a prominent spot on the book shelf in my shop.

This is a great book. It describes in detail how every component of the ignition system works. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is building there own ignition or even if you are just troubleshooting your stock ignition.

I found this book to be very informal taking the reader from the basic operation of the automotive ignition systems to determining which system would best suit your need. A must have addition to the diy person/professional library of automotive repair. I couldn't put the book down.

This is one of the better books on high-performance and racing ignition to come along in quite a while. How to Build High-Performance Ignition Systems is a comprehensive guide to understanding everything from old-school, points and condenser systems, to modern, computer-controlled, distributorless ignitions and from bone-stock systems to race-only, totally aftermarket ignitions.

This book helps you understand how your car's ignition works and it helps you choose the right components to better its performance, be it a '55 Chevy with a 265 small-block or a 2004 Corvette with a 5.7L LS6. Coils, wires, spark plugs, distributors, distibutorless systems, inductive ignitions, CD ignitions, multiple-spark systems, computer ignition controls, rev limiters-all are covered for both street and race applications.

Author, Todd Ryden, who's day job is working for one of the aftermarket ignition industry leaders, Autotronic Controls Corporation, manufacturer of the well-known "MSD" brand, leads you through the various systems, subsystems and components, explaining theory behind their operation and how the parts work with each other to provide an accurate, powerful ignition system.

In spite of Ryden's employment at Autotronic Controls, the book is not biased towards MSD parts. Components and systems from a fair amount of the aftermarket ignition companies besides the MSD brand, including Crane, Mallory, Electromotive, Performance Distributors, Pertronix and others, are covered in the book. Mr. Ryden is to be complimented for this impartiality.

The book's strongest points are its discussions of basic ignition theory and components in the early chapters, its discussion of the advanced-technology ignition products used in high-end racing applications towards the end of the book, its high-quality photography and that it covers a wide range of ignition components from stock, point distributors and inductive ignition to crank-triggers, individual coil racing systems with all sorts of add-ons like multi-step rev limiters, timing controls and window switches.

Weaknesses are few. There is not enough coverage of and perhaps even a little confusion about detonation and pre-ignition. In a section on distributor gears, there's no mention of the pressed-on, cast iron distributor drive gears which have made it possible to run roller cams on the street with the durability we've come to expect from flat tappet cams. Lastly, there's little mention of blown fuel and blown alcohol drag racing ignitions. Admittedly, few of this book's readers require that, but it would have been interesting just because of some of the high technology in those kinds of ignition products.

Todd Ryden's How to Build High-Performance Ignition Systems is, well..shocking...in the good job it does in explaining today's high-performance, automotive ignition systems. This book will be a welcome addition to any automotive technical book collection.

This book was written and drawn by some of the original artists of Ed Roth's studio. It doesn't get any closer than this, great book!

My kids just loved this book. They are both aspiring artists and have done some great work since Christmas!

I bought this book for my husband, after several refferals from other hot rod friends. This book is better than described.