Automobiles Books

Take this enjoyable book along while exploring some of Texas' most outstanding yet least known family fun spots. Full of humorous history and highlights about small towns, state parks, trail rides, boat excursions and swimming holes. Includes Enchanted Rock, Bandera, Lost Maples, Westcave Preserve, Fredericksburg and much more!

Gone for the Day, as it is titled, would lead one to believe that it is simply a book about day trips. Naturally, I made the same assumption, purchased the book, and found a wonderfully written,humerous,folk tale of central Texas. This is a book that should be bought for the read, and not the road.

As journalist and car lover I think that Quentin Willson realize a great book, because he worked with a lot of information that is presented in a didactic style that invite you to read it.
Data hasn't mistakes, fact that demonstrate a good job.
Beautiful photos complete a fantastic collection book. If you love cars, you love it.

Great Car has 1 or 2 two-page spreads on each car. There are good photos of front, side, back, and something else of interest, such as engine, depending on the car. Minor irritation: pictures split across the fold. Book is sewn, so you can open it fairly flat without having the pages pop out, but it's still a little annoying.

Each car has a smattering of history, a smattering of performance, and a little bit of whatever else was interesting. Some in an introductory paragraph for the car, some in captions distributed across the display.

I've been poring obsessively over the book for several evenings, and I'm still finding neat new stuff.

The selection of cars is partly "Great Cars" like the Ferrari Dino, AC Cobra or the Maserati Ghibli and partly landmarks, like the Citroen 2cv, or the Edsel. Hardly any boring cars (the Audi Quattro (looks boring next to a Lamborgini anyway) or the Olds Toronado come to mind). Usually there is something interesting to say about every car.

Not a reference. More like a micro coffee-table book. Pick it up, open it to a random spot, see what you're driving today.

This is a great book for the american muscle car enthusiast,however its recommended only for men 37 years old or older. These young guys of today werent even around when these great cars were conceptualized,and therefore this book is not for them.

It had awesome pictures, hints to live by and the most detailed information about muscle cars that there is. FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!!!!!

My husband is converting a Neon into an SCCA race car. He loves the book which now has permanent grease marks on it!!

This book is a must have for any discerning Neon owner/lover! It has filled the void for Neon tuners everywhere, there isn't anything else like it out there. This book is carefully written and progresses from one system to another and shows how each one works together to make your car achieve better performance (with balance). The only thing it doen't cover is automatic transmissions. The author is both knowledgeable, truthful and "gives it to you straight" in this book. There are no inappropriate ads for racing/performance parts/companies in this book either; the author simply gives his recommendations as to what he has found to work. This book is appropriate for all skill levels and is not full of technical jargon. The book IS a must for anyone interested in modifying their neon, whether it's for the street, drag racing or some serious autocrossing.

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 book covers most of what you possible could need building your own engine with higher power as your main goal.

It gives you the possibility to choose from different approaches to each specific hp-goal and also suggestions to overal hp-gains on all BBC-engines.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!

This is the best book on the Big Block, most others are too old, this one dates the articles so you know if you are getting new info....I reccommend it

Highly recommended reading for dedicated car enthusiasts, Hot Rod Milestones: America's Coolest Coupes, Roadsters, and Racers offers an excellent selection of America's historical sports cars, covering twenty-five of the most influential and innovative vehicles in the automobile industry. Co-authored by automotive experts Ken Gross and Robert Genat, Hot Rod Milestones is a 204-page book enhanced with large pictures and great descriptions of each of the featured automobiles.

Excellent collection of the best hot rods of the past 60 years.
Terrific photography and descriptions. One of the best(of many) hot rod books I have.

I remember Andy Southard,jr. when I had a custom body and paint shop in Oakland California. Andy was doing pinstriping and taking photos for some of the leading "Hot Rod" magazines. The amazing thing about Andy's photos, the quality is superior and really shows the true colors of the "Candy Apple" and Pearl paint jobs done by some really talented people, including the late Bill Cushenbery.

Andy was right there during the "Cool Days" of Rod and Custom car building in the 1950s-60s. I only regret that my own custom paint work was not in his collection (He was back east at the time). Andy's books are a real asset to anyone who loves the superior craftsmen that built these works of rolling art.

Excellent photography, well written, and, by a man who "knew them all" -- Andy Southard Jr. - wow! He has captured the custom car and hot rod culture of the 60's as no other could, with his fabulous photographic library and unparalled knowledge of the special vehicles and the personalities he writes about.

This is a "must read" for all who are interested in the history and art form of hot rods and custom cars, whether they be past or present enthusiasts. It is truly a "trip down memory lane" for all who participated either as an owner of one of these unique vehicles or who just enjoyed them as a spectator.

I can't wait for his books on the 70's and 80's that will hopefully follow! Congratulations to Andy Southard Jr, for a very well-done book!

For those of us who go out learning to hod rod the hardway, that is books, because we don't have the money to waste building one motor after another, this is a must have. If you read into the text, and take out a pen and paper to do a little figuring, this book will give you most everything you need to build an incredible race motor. The same principles for building race motors can be used to build street vehicles for economy, tow, and the ever sought sleeper rod.

Vizard goes into great detail and geeks like me with a little math and physics background can get what we need pick the right cam. This principle will apply equally well to all engine types.

If you don't want to do the extra leg-work the book will give a pretty good feel for cam profile selection in the small-block chevy without the math. In fact he doesn't suggest the extra work at all, but if you have the brains you can extrapolate more from this book than the other twelve motor books on my shelf combined (yes, I counted).

This has been a very useful book. It will be useful for the beginner or the professional. As with many of Mr. Vizard's books, it easily understood and very detailed. I have already had very rewarding results and still have much more material to experiment with. The material is very practical and for the hands on enthusiast.

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.