I just got done reading Lee Ioccoca's autobiography, also read Mark Donahues book about Trans Am racing, Smokey Yunich's sbc build guide, and a few more. Do you have suggestions on more auto related books. I dont watch much TV.
Most these books aren't really reading books, more pictures.... But all of them good! www.echarlottesweb.com/books (^shameless plug^)
What are you interested in? Domestic, foreign, racing? I collect car books, mainly marque histories and racing.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth His Life, Times, Cars and Art by Pat Ganahl Von Dutch: The Art, the Myth, the Legend by Pat Ganahl Bonneville: the Fastest Place on Earth by Louise Ann Noeth One Good Run: The Legend of Burt Munro by Tim Hanna There are also some great books on European road races like the Italian Mille Miglia and others. Hmmm... all the others that come to mind are more technical than readable.
As Beach Bum says give us a few clues on your interests. I'm a motoring book dealer and have had most really important books pass through my hands at some time and could give you a good list that you could source locally.
Has anyone read Sundays with Von Dutch? I was thinking of picking it up. Just wondering if it was worth the $.
Richard Petty's autobio is a pretty good read, especially the early days mixing it up with Lee Petty. Try Burt Levy's books 'The Last Open Road', 'Montezuma's Ferrari', and 'The Fabulous Trashwagon'. Great reads set mostly around sporty car racing in the early 50's, but touches on Indy, La Carrera and Bonneville as well. If you want a laugh, read PJ O'Rourkes article 'How to drive really fast on drugs while getting your wing wang squeezed and not spill your drink' Its in the book Republican Party Reptile.
There is also a fourth book, 'Toly's Ghost'. You have to read them in order. They are terrific. Burt's writing style is a bit different, it's kind of like you were sittin' around having beers and shootin' the shit. A couple others come to mind. 'Sunday Driver' by Brock Yates tells about Brock running a Camaro in Trans-Am and running the Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash with Dan Gurney in a Ferrari Daytona. 'Touch Wood' by Duncan Hamilton. Hamilton was a gentleman racer of the old school who was good enough to be a Jaguar factory driver and win Le Mans. The man knew how to have fun too. Be careful if you are drinking anything while reading this book. It's liable to shoot out your nose. Both of those are out of print but can be found used pretty easily. These are books that give you a good feeling of what racing was like at one time. Cheers, Kurt
try these, crosley, by rusty mcclure, bio of the crosley bros nuvolari, by christopher hilton umbrella mike, by brock yates fireball, by godwin kelly, bio about fireball roberts
Another great book by Lee Iacoca is "Where Have All The Leaders Gone?" Just type the title into our computer search box and you will see why.
Vincent Curcio's bio of magnate Walter Chrysler "Chrysler" Griffith Borgeson's inspiring bio of Mickey Thompson "Challenger" Andy Granatelli's hilarious "They Call Me Mr. 500" Foyt's bio "A.J." Mario Andretti's bio by Kirby The brilliant "Offenhauser" by Gordon White. If you wanna read about Indy cars - anything by Karl Ludvigsen or Joe Scalzo. Great Stuff! A huge tome about Ford racing by Leo Levine "Ford - The Dust And The Glory" "Man Against the Salt", Harvey Shapiro's book about Art Arfons
I agree with speedtool about Granatelli's "They Call Me Mr. 500" I bought that in 1969 and still have it.
The Miller Dynasty by Mark Dees Race Car Oddities by Doug Nye Kings of the Road by Ken Purdy All But My Life by Ken Purdy (about Stirling Moss) The Legendary 2.3 by Simon Moore American Road Racing: The 30s by Joel Finn Board Track Guts, Gold, and Glory by Dick Wallen Anything by Dean Batchelor I second any recommendation of the BS Levy books. The Don Montgomery books, of course. Ford: The Dust and the Glory by Leo Levine (this is mentioned above...a long read but worth it. It gives you tremendous perspective on how far back Ford's racing history goes.) Confessions of a Bugatti Hunter by Antoine Rafaelli (far, far better than that recent 'The Cobra in the Barn' book if you're looking for barn find stories.) The Cobra Ferrari Wars by Michael L. Shoen (in reprint now) And Speedtool mentioned Joe Scalzo...he is one of the absolute best, but most underrated, racing writers ever as far as I'm concerned. Look for anything by him...books, magazine articles, and look for old issues of Automobile Quarterly, which is where I first came across his writing. Cris
A couple of interesting books I have are Today and Tomorrow by Henry Ford, first published in 1926 ( I have a 1988 reprint) and Alfred P. Sloan's 1941 autobiography, Adventures of a White Collar Man (my copy is from the 1941 printing of the book).
Someone mentioned Tim Hannas book on Burt Munro...this borders on Plagiarism..the original by George Begg is much better..and there is a book on George, I believe..built his own Formula and Sports cars...A poor mans Bruce McLaren.My old pal Al Drakes books are worthwhile, too....
I am in the middle of reading Cannonball ! Worlds Greatest Outlaw Road Race by Brock Yates. It's a great book . I'm sure all of you have seen the movie's but you won't belive how much of the stuff that they did in the movies actually happened. I actually started another post about this same thing then found out about this thread. I did a search before I started mine and came up with nothing. The search function doesn't even find stuff that I know is on here somethimes.
Actually, the "Sundays with Von Dutch" book is a reprint of an interview with Von Dutch that appeared in the, I think, Orange County Register back in the early seventies. I have it and it is quite good, as I never saw the original interview being locked into the frozen tundra of upstate New York. It's a fun book to have and read.
An old book,that i saw was reprinted for it's 25 year anniversary a couple of years ago,The Unfair Advantage by Mark Donahue was a great read.
Bump. Just finished three books. Hot Rod Kings by Kevin Thomson and David Perry Excellent book. It was cool to see a lot of the other cars these builders own or have built, aside from the cars that had gotten a lot of press. It was also great to get some perspective on the builders' various histories. Like Hot Rod Milestones, I hope there's a second volume some day. The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams Not so much a biography as it is documentation specifically relating to the artist's history with cars, it's a good read. The stories he tells of growing up are the same ones my dad has always told me about what he and his friends went through in the 50s and 60s. Worth it alone for the backstory on Roth Studios. City of Speed: Los Angeles and the Rise of American Racing by Joe Scalzo How Scalzo keeps up his unbelievably entertaining and unique style of writing, I'll never know. Title of the book is self-explanatory. What this book suffers from in the way of annoying little details and factual errors (Ferrari V-16?) it more than makes up for in the way of how fun it is to read along with Joe's insights into the personalities. I waited a couple months to buy this book...I shouldn't have. Buy any of these books, you won't be disappointed. Anyone else read anything lately? Cris
I'm not sure if it's up your alley, but "Prototypes, the history of the IMSA GTP Series" it's a great retrospective of the imsa series from the early eighties to the early ninties before they started with the open cockpit formula. I suppose the book is a bit sentimental for me because my first real experience with cars that involved anything other than riding in on was my dad taking me to Sears Point to see the IMSA race in '84, we camped on the ringroad all weekend watching the races and I've been in love with the porsche 962/956 ever since. We went every year after that until the series quit racing at sears point, saw all the greats though, the audi GTO's, the hendricks vettes, the twr and group 44 jags, gurney eagle toyotas, nissan's zx P cars and GTO cars, the mazda spaceship looking car, comptech spice's, the ford mustang and probe P cars, dfv tiga's, and the countless porsches. I know it's not a rod book, but I think any car nut gets at least a small sense of aww when they look at the graceful sweeping lines of an old sports racer. p.s. on that note congrats to audi for the "4 peat" yesterday, even if I really was pulling for the new pugeot to hand it to them!
You already mentioned Mark Donahue's book(The Unfair Advantage)that was first published about 27 yrs ago,and reprinted for it,25 anniversary.What a fabulous read!!!Another very entertaining book is Horatio's Drive published to accompany the documentary about the first successful U.S.Transcontinental drive.Very fun book!
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