Written and curated by Alicia Mariah Elfving, founder of TheMotoLady.com and the Women’s Motorcycle Show, and arguably the most notable advocate for women in the motorcycling hobby, The MotoLady’s Book of Women Who Ride subverts all the tired women-and-motorcycle tropes, offering the true stories of the women past and present who ride and wrench as well as anyone, proving every bit as indispensable to maintaining and growing a positive motorcycling culture.
Historically, depictions of women in motorcycle culture tend to objectify—from the outlaw motorcycle club “biker babe” to cheesecake photography to posturing celebrities with motorcycles as props. The truth is much different. From the early days of motorcycle culture more than 100 years ago, women have played a central role in making the motorcycle a legitimate form of transportation, recreation, and motorsport.
Elfving presents more than 70 figures in the motorcycle world, from the Americas to Europe and even the Middle East and South Asia—stunt riders, racers, builders, customizers, organizers, and more. Elfving links today’s women motorcyclists with those of the past and illustrates the freedom represented by two wheels, and how motorcycles allow women to transcend cultural expectations confidently. You’ll meet riders such as:
- Sofi Tsingos, who raises money for charities by building and auctioning motorcycles.
- Safety ambassador Brittany Morrow, who found her calling after surviving a high-speed crash with no gear.
- The Van Buren sisters, who in 1916 were among the first motorcyclists to ride coast to coast and the first women to ride to the summit of Pikes Peak.
- The late Jessi Combs, an iconic TV personality, metal fabricator, and land-speed record holder.
Overwhelmingly positive, Elfving instills confidence and can-do rather than providing an echo chamber of common complaints among women in motorcycling. In addition, The MotoLady’s Book of Women Who Ride is illustrated throughout with contemporary and historical photos of the author’s subjects, comprising a beautiful as well as inspiring package.
Automotive journalist Karl Ludvigsen, born in 1934 in the USA and one of the greats in automobile history, opens his archives in this book. In more than 50 years as a motor journalist, author, and an automobile historian, he has accumulated a comprehensive knowledge of his subject, and has met all the prominent figures of the automobile’s golden age.
In this book we meet Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Juan Manuel Fangio, Bruce McLaren, Emerson Fittipaldi, Dan Gurney and many more. A look in ‘Ludvigsens rear-view mirror’ takes us back to a time when cars definitely had combustion engines, when motor races were life and death struggles, and groundbreaking successes were made in the fields of safety, design and technology.
My Greatest Defeat is a collection of honest and revealing insights into 20 of the greatest living racing drivers, legends of the worlds of Formula 1, Indycar, NASCAR, Le Mans and Rally. Interviews conducted specially for this book are with (in alphabetical order) Mario Andretti, Derek Bell, Emerson Fittipaldi, Dario Franchitti, Jeff Gordon, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill, Jimmie Johnson, Tom Kristensen, Niki Lauda, Sebastien Loeb, Felipe Massa, Rick Mears, Emanuele Pirro, Alain Prost, Carlos Sainz, Jackie Stewart, Bobby Unser, Ari Vatanen and Alex Zanardi. Here are five highlights…
- Dario Franchitti — The Indycar champion talks of the deaths of the friends that book-ended his career in racing, the heartbreak that each caused and the aftermath of accidents that affected the physical functioning of his brain.
- Jeff Gordon — One of the all-time NASCAR greats, he looks back on his many championships, admitting that today he cannot view a single one with anything but regret as family relationships were soured and stretched to breaking point.
- Jimmie Johnson — One of the greatest stock car drivers in history, Johnson was at one time considered a reckless outcast. He reflects on the little-known crash that almost killed him and changed his mindset forever.
- Niki Lauda — A racer who needs no introduction, Niki Lauda discusses the loss of one of his aircraft over Thailand in which all on board were killed; for eight months he fought to clear the name of his pilots and change aircraft safety forever.
- Alex Zanardi — In a deep and revealing conversation, the Paralympic gold medalist, who lost both legs in an Indycar accident, discusses how we decipher between our passion and our ambition and how childhood dreams affect our adult decisions.
Striking portrait artworks come from a revered artist in modern comic book design, Giuseppe ‘Cammo’ Camuncoli, who is renowned for the dark, brooding style that has seen him become a staple in the Vertigo, DC and Marvel stables.
This beautiful book tells the story of the birth of the infamous Blower Bentley, through the life of the first ever example – YU 3250. Starting with W.O. Bentley and his band of brothers, we join them at the end of the Great War, following them from the prototype 3 Litre through to the Bentley Boys and other notable investors, before Tim Birkin takes on the production of his Blower project at Welwyn.
Extensively researched by Bentley authority Clare Hay and written by Giles Chapman, this hard-back book offers a wealth of period and contemporary photos, documenting the life of the most famous Bentley of all.
Hardcover in slipcase
Limited edition of 1000
19920
Off-Road Giants!: Heroes of 196
The First Heroes
Covering almost 100 years of motor racing history, humanity, not simple statistics, is revealed here as the true source of the subjects’ heroism. Take Andre Boillot; so tired at the end of the 1919 Targa Florio, he made a silly mistake, spinning his car backwards across the finish line – yet he still won. Or Grand Prix winners Robert Benoist, William Grover Williams and Jean-Pierre Wimille, all of whom became French resistance fighters during WWII. There’s David Purley’s valiant attempt at rescuing a trapped Roger Williamson by overturning Willamson’s blazing march with his bare hands during the 1973 Grand Prix of Holland. And Alessandro Zanardi, who lost both his legs in a CART accident, yet still came back to win races. The lighter side of motor sport is also here, with Giannino Marzotto, who won the 1950 Mille Miglia wearing an immaculate double-breasted suit. Or Giovanni Bracco, who won the 1952 Mille Miglia as he swigged from a bottle of red wine! There are so many heroes and heroines in this sport. This book is about 100 of them.
Racing With Heroes
SIGNED BY ED PINK
The Remarkable Life and Times of Racing’s Most Versatile Engine Builder
Ed Pink’s gift for designing and building engines made him a motorsports icon. His handiwork has powered, among others, drag-racing superstars Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen, Indy Car legends Al Unser and Tom Sneva, sports car heroes Bob Wollek and Brian Redman, and USAC champions Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne.
But this is not a technical book. Pink began his long-awaited autobiography with one goal: that it would be more about people than engines.
Mission accomplished, yet again, for auto racing’s Old Master.
Hollywood is a transitory place. Stars and studios rise and fall. Genres and careers wax and wane. Movies and movie moguls and movie makers and movie palaces are acclaimed and patronized and loved and beloved, and then forgotten. And yet…
And yet one place in Southern California, built in the 1920s by (allegedly murdered) producer Thomas Ince, acquired by Cecil B. DeMille, now occupied by Amazon.com, has been the home for hundreds of the most iconic and legendary films and television shows in the world for a remarkable and star-studded fifty years. This bizarre, magical place was the location for Tara in Gone with The Wind, the home of King Kong and Superman, of Tarzan and Batman, of the Green Hornet, of Elliot Ness, of Barney Fife, of Tarzan, of Rebecca, of Citizen Kane, of Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle, of Lassie, of A Star is Born and Star Trek, and at least twice, of Jesus Christ. For decades, every conceivable star in Hollywood, from Clark Gable to Warren Beatty, worked and loved and gave indelible performances on the site.
And yet, today, it is completely forgotten.
Pretty much anyone alive today, from college professors to longshoremen, have probably heard of Paramount and of MGM, of Warner Bros. and of Universal, and of Disney and Fox and Columbia, but the place where many of these studio’s beloved classics were minted is today as mysterious and unknowable as the sphinx.
Hollywood’s Lost Backlot: 40 Acres of Glamour and Mystery will, for the first time ever, unwind the colorful and convoluted threads that make for the tale of one of the most influential and photographed places in the world. A place which most have visited, at least on screen, and which has contributed significantly and unexpectedly to the world’s popular culture, and yet which few people today, paradoxically, have ever heard of.
It Happened in Northern California takes readers on a rollicking, behind the scene look at some of the characters and episodes from the state’s storied past. Including famous tales, famous names as well as little known heroes, heroines, and happenings.
Northern California is well known for its towering redwoods, Spanish missions, and gold mines, but few know about the two-year-long Native American occupation of Alcatraz, efforts by some northern Californians to establish the US’s fifty-first state, or that John Sutter never capitalized on the gold rush that began on his land. It Happened in Northern California goes behind the scenes to tell these stories and many more, in short episodes that reveal the intriguing people and events that have shaped the Golden State.
Explore the thrilling illustrated story of NASCAR stock car racing in America with this stunning celebration filled with evocative photography, legendary drivers, and a decade-by-decade history.
NASCAR 75 Years captures the greatest moments throughout the decades: from the beaches of Daytona to the jaw-clenching competition, the mind-bending technology, the triumphs, the teamwork, and the high-speed thrills. Large-format photography from throughout NASCAR history brings it all to life alongside narratives written by a roster of veteran NASCAR reporters and historians.
Follow NASCAR’s growth from a small, innovative family business to a leader in sports entertainment, witnessed each week by millions in person and on national television. The authors show the evolution of the vehicles—from modified family sedans to 700-horsepower race-built behemoths, all the way through the “Next Gen” cars that debuted in 2022—and celebrate the drivers who have piloted them around tracks like Daytona, Talladega, Darlington, Las Vegas, and more —legendary heroes with names including Flock, Weatherly, Petty, Allison, Yarborough, Earnhardt, Waltrip, Gordon, Stewart, Johnson, Busch, all battling wheel to wheel, week after week, across the United States.
This beautifully designed and extensively illustrated book provides the ultimate history of the legendary series, celebrating the drivers, crew chiefs, pit crews, owners, and tracks, from the earliest days on Florida’s beaches right through to today’s superspeedways, short tracks, and road courses. Compiled by authors with a passion for motorsport, NASCAR 75 Years is a volume no fan can be without.
How five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed—until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice.
Fly Girls weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcée; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes—and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.
Raoul ‘Sonny’ Balcaen grew up in Los Angeles at a time when it became the epicentre of American motor racing, nurturing a vast talent pool of people whose influence has echoed through to today.
As a teenager, he successfully competed with his home-built Top Fuel dragster during the formative years of the sport. With Lance Reventlow, he worked on the famous Scarab sports cars and was standing in the dyno room when the team’s all-American Formula 1 engine was fired up for the first time. A period as Jim Hall’s crew chief and a close association with Carroll Shelby added to the know-how that guided him towards becoming a successful entrepreneur and led to all that followed.
- Aged 17, Balcaen built his own Top Fuel drag racer, the ‘Bantamweight Bomb’, which he developed relentlessly and drove to many successes.
- His role in the fabulous Scarab sports cars — the landmark all-American racers — and insights into life with their creator, the incomparable Lance Reventlow.
- Working as crew chief to the brilliant Jim Hall, preparing and running his Lotus Eleven and Lister-Chevrolet long before the famous Chaparrals emerged.
- A second spell with Scarab, this time with the Formula 1 project — the first American Grand Prix car — plus a special job for Reventlow converting a Scarab sports racer into a street car.
- Onwards into setting up his own successful business, IECO (Induction Engineering Co), to create and sell high-grade performance and appearance accessories, with Chevrolets — especially Corvair and Vega — featuring strongly.
- His many-faceted dealings with Carroll Shelby, leading to consultancy and even assignments as occasional Shelby American company pilot.
- Along the way we meet many other big names of the era, including Chuck Daigh, Bruce Kessler, Warren Olson, Dick Troutman, Tom Barnes, Phil Remington, Ken Miles, Leo Goossen, Jim Travers, Frank Coon, Ed Donovan and Pete Brock.
This engaging memoir is the very personal history of a momentous time and place in which we meet a who’s who of West Coast road-racing heroes.
Did you know that Richard Petty’s first win was overturned due to a protest . . . by his dad? That Ned Jarrett won his first race in a car he bought with a bad check, banking on the winnings to pay it off? That Mario Andretti defied team orders to bag his first NASCAR win? That Tiny Lund nabbed his first NASCAR victory because he rescued a fellow driver from a fiery wreck?
All this and more comes to light in 50 First Victories, which chronicles the journey of NASCAR’s best as they drive their way to that landmark first victory. You’ll read about Richard Petty at Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt Sr. at Bristol, Jimmie Johnson at Fontana, Chase Elliott at Watkins Glen, and more.
Journalists Al Pearce and Mike Hembree have been along for the ride for much of NASCAR’s long history. With a combined ninety years of coverage of one of America’s grassroots sports, they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the stories of these fast-and-furious heroes, drivers who ran to the ragged edge—and often past it—in pursuit of the checkered flag.
Here are all the sport’s stars—Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, David Pearson, Jimmie Johnson, Junior Johnson—and the inside stories of their success. Strap in for a rollicking ride to victory lane!
Motorsports greats on their rivals, teammates and heroes
Published in support of cancer charity Hope for Tomorrow, Drivers on Drivers features some of the greatest names in motor racing speaking candidly about their biggest rivals as well as their heroes, teammates and friends. It is a unique concept, with those interviewed ranging from legends of the 1950s such as Tony Brooks and 1960s rally icon Paddy Hopkirk, to Derek Bell, Mika Häkkinen, and current superstars such as Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Each driver is in conversation with a leading motorsport writer or broadcaster, and the book is illustrated with stunning photography throughout.
- Thirty-one revealing interviews, featuring motorsport legends opening up about their fellow drivers and offering unique insights into what separated the great from the good, who they looked up to and learnt from, and who to avoid on-track.
- Interviews include Tony Brooks on Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart on Jim Clark, Gerhard Berger on Ayrton Senna, Mark Webber on Sebastian Vettel, and many more…
- Interviewees include eight Formula One World Champions, nine winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and 13 Grand Prix winners.
- Interviews conducted by Philip Porter along with a team of leading motorsport writers and broadcasters – Mark Cole, Ben Edwards, Louise Goodman, Simon Taylor, David Tremayne, Peter Windsor and Ian Wagstaff.
- Contains stories of tragedy and humour, triumph and disaster, as these great names give personal insights into motor racing’s deepest friendships and fiercest rivalries.
- More than 100 superb photographs illustrating pivotal career moments, on-track battles, and candid shots of their interactions with fellow drivers.
