A History of Motoring Through 100 Legendary Cars

A History of Motoring Through 100 Legendary Cars

We Were The Ramchargers: Inside Drag Racing’s Legendary Team, Second Edition

We Were The Ramchargers: Inside Drag Racing’s Legendary Team, Second Edition

With over 200 new images, the new edition of We Were the Ramchargers is perfect for drag racing enthusiasts. This book takes readers behind the scenes with the group of Chrysler engineers who, from the 1950s through the 1970s, became one of the most successful and influential drag racing teams of all time.

The only team of engineers from an automobile manufacturer to drag race successfully, the Ramchargers broke the most time barriers in drag racing history and earned the most National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Super Stock titles during the sport’s golden era of factory competition.

Author Dave Rockwell, a Ramcharger himself, interviewed more than 40 team members, competitors, and track operators for We Were the Ramchargers, making it the first and only book to provide inside details on all elements of the Ramchargers story.

In addition to chronicling the races they won and legendary cars they developed (including the High and Mighty, 426 Hemi, and first Funny Car), Rockwell opens corporate and personal files to take readers behind the doors at Chrysler (showing, among other things, how the Ramchargers helped pioneer the platform team concept), while revealing the personalities of the men who made it all happen.

Bronco Racing: Ford’s Legendary 4×4 in Off-road Competition

Bronco Racing: Ford’s Legendary 4×4 in Off-road Competition

Stuffed with never-before-seen photography, stories, and race results, Bronco Racing: Ford’s Legendary 4×4 in Off-Road Competition is the most definitive publication ever on this marque’s racing success!

In 1965, legendary builder and off-road aficionado Bill Stroppe was one of the first to test the new Bronco in off-road conditions. In March 1966, Stroppe introduced his racing Bronco to the press at the Bronco Roundup, where racing ace Ray Harvick pounded the Santa Ana river bottom with his tuned machine to win Top Eliminator at the Four-Wheel-Drive Grand Prix at Riverside, and the rest is history.

Ford’s Bronco dominated the off-road racing scene and captured coveted titles in the Mint 400, Baja 500 and dirt racing’s crowning achievement: the Mexican 1000/Baja 1000. As the first-generation Bronco gave way to the second-generation machine (1978), racing Broncos continued to devour the competition until Ford pulled the plug on the rig in 1996.

Complementing the legendary Broncos featured here, you will also hear the tales of their wranglers, including Parnelli Jones, Rod Hall, Larry Minor, Shelby Hall, James Garner, Don Barlow, James Duff, Bill Rush, and the aforementioned Ray Harvick and Bill Stroppe. The infamous mounts covered include Big Oly/Crazy Colt, Pony, Big Hoss, Crazy Horse, Stove, and Colt.

Diligently penned by Bronco racing historian John Elkin, this book is the most comprehensive collection of historical accuracy ever authored on this subject. Pull your belts tight and wipe your goggles clean one last time with Bronco Racing: Ford’s Legendary 4×4 in Off-Road Competition!

Ford Bronco: A History of Ford’s Legendary 4×4

Ford Bronco: A History of Ford’s Legendary 4×4

GIs returning after World War II created an entirely new automotive market niche when they bought surplus Jeeps and began exploring the rugged backcountry of the American West. This burgeoning market segment, which eventually became known as sport utility vehicles (SUVs), numbered about 40,000 units per year with offerings from Jeep, Scout, Toyota, and Land Rover. In 1966, Ford entered the fray with its Bronco, offering increased refinement, more power, and an innovative coil-spring front suspension. The Bronco caught on quickly and soon established a reputation as a solid backcountry performer. In Baja, the legendary accomplishments of racers such as Parnelli Jones, Rod Hall, and Bill Stroppe further cemented the bobtail’s reputation for toughness.

Ford moved upstream with the introduction of the larger Bronco for 1978, witnessing a huge increase in sales for the second-generation trucks. The Twin Traction Beam front end was introduced in the third generation, and further refinements including more aerodynamic styling, greater luxury, and more powerful fuel-injected engines came on board in the generations that followed. Through it all, the Bronco retained its reputation as a tough, versatile, and comfortable rig, both on and off the paved road. With the reintroduction of the Bronco for 2020, Ford is producing a vehicle for a whole new generation of enthusiasts that looks to bring modern styling and performance to the market while building on the 30-year heritage of the first five generations of the Bronco so dearly loved by their owners.

From the development process and details of the first trucks through the 1996 models, author Todd Zuercher shares technical details, rarely seen photos, and highlights of significant models along with the stories of those people whose lives have been intertwined with the Bronco for many years. This book will have new information for everyone and will be a must-have for longtime enthusiasts and new owners alike!

Bialbero – All the cars powered by the legendary twin cam engine

Bialbero – All the cars powered by the legendary twin cam engine

A new 304 page fully illustrated colour book with over 900 photographs, many never before published, based on all the Fiats, Lancias and Alfa Romeos that are powered by Aurelio Lampredi’s superb twin cam engine.

While some elements of the book are an expansion of the earlier works by the same author, the early chapters now include extracts from road tests by Auto Italia’s writers.

Also included in the first part of the book are one-offs and concepts like the Stola Dedica, Lancia Magia and Grama 2

‘Puntograle’, while modified cars include a 180bhp twin cam-engined Lada ‘124’ and a superb Abarth OT1600 tribute.

The second half of the book is dedicated to hands-on maintenance and restoration advice of a selection of popular classic twin cams. There is also the added bonus of invaluable, expert tuning information by the renowned and sadly recently deceased twin cam race engine preparer, Guy Croft.

This much anticipated publication is prolifically illustrated throughout with high quality photography of real world cars from collections and dynamic images from Auto Italia’s archives.

Many of the featured cars are owned by the magazine’s readers, in addition there is also a gallery of restored twin cams from around the world.

Neo Classics – From Factory to Legendary in 0 Seconds

Neo Classics – From Factory to Legendary in 0 Seconds

Special cars in a special book

The term Neo Classics® is a registered trademark and, at the same time, the focus of this book: it’s about vehicles that stand out for their price, their exclusivity, or their performance

A wonderful gift for all lovers of exceptional cars

Neo Classics® are rare manufactured vehicles, one-of-a-kind high-end cars, special short-run cars, and “young classics.” They are vehicles that become legends—and coveted collectors’ items—the moment they leave the factory. Faster, more powerful, more exclusive: whether they’re called supercars or hypercars, these are turbo-charged fantasies in chrome. For most of us, however, they will remain dreams on wheels. In this book, René Staud brings the dream a little closer. Page after gleaming page, the “Master of Light” brings these shining stars to our coffee table—from the Bugatti Chiron to the Lamborghini Huracán Spyder to the Mercedes AMG One. The images are accompanied by expert texts from the seasoned automotive writer and aficionado, Jürgen Lewandowski.

The Goddess―La Déesse: Investigations on the Legendary Citroën DS

The Goddess―La Déesse: Investigations on the Legendary Citroën DS

A celebration of the beloved Citroën DS, icon of screen, street and style, through drawings, photos and ephemera

From the moment of its debut in 1955, the Citroën DS was a sensation and a magnet for movie stars, designers, philosophers and politicians alike. No other automobile was able to combine form and technology so coherently and seemingly effortlessly. Radical in its implementation and revolutionary in terms of comfort and safety, the DS is one of the most innovative design icons of the 20th century.

In collaboration with Lars Müller Publishers, the Swiss architect Christian Sumi published the new edition of AS in DS (Alison Smithson in DS) in 2001. In this new book, he examines the characteristics of this classic vehicle, such as the body, the chassis or the legendary hydraulics, which he documents in carefully arranged picture series and with drawings by Flaminio Bertoni and the Citroën design team. Using image essays from advertising campaigns for the Citroën DS, Sumi critically examines its reception and iconization, along with theories that discuss the phenomenon in both a contemporary and philosophical context.

Formula One: The Champions 70 years of legendary F1 drivers

Formula One: The Champions 70 years of legendary F1 drivers

Since the Grand Prix’s start in 1950 just 33 men have achieved the accolade of F1 World Champion. For the first time, legendary F1 commentator Maurice Hamilton and award-winning photographers Bernard and Paul-Henri Cahier bring the heroes of this iconic sport together, in a stunning photographic portrayal of the poise, skill and winning mindset that separates the fast from the furious, the elite from the talented.

With exclusive quotes from icons such as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, and including Maurice’s historic interviews with the sport’s lost heroes – including James Hunt and Aryton Senna – F1: The Champions is a beautiful tribute to the most ferocious of sports and the incredible sportsmen who drive at the edge in pursuit of greatness.

Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best

Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best

SIGNED

A pulse-pounding tale of triumph by an improbable team of upstarts over Hitler’s fearsome Silver Arrows during the golden age of auto racing.

They were the unlikeliest of heroes. Rene Dreyfus, a former top driver on the international race car circuit, had been banned from the best European teams—and fastest cars—by the mid-1930s because of his Jewish heritage. Charles Weiffenbach, head of the down-on-its-luck automaker Delahaye, was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered toward the brink. And Lucy Schell, the adventurous daughter of an American multi-millionaire, yearned to reclaim the glory of her rally-driving days.

As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, these three misfits banded together to challenge Hitler’s dominance at the apex of motorsport: the Grand Prix. Their quest for redemption culminated in a remarkable race that is still talked about in racing circles to this day—but which, soon after it ended, Hitler attempted to completely erase from history.

Bringing to life this glamorous era and the sport that defined it, Faster chronicles one of the most inspiring, death-defying upsets of all time: a symbolic blow against the Nazis during history’s darkest hour.

Legendary The Porsche 919 Hybrid Project

Legendary The Porsche 919 Hybrid Project

A lavishly illustrated two-volume history of the world-class Porsche 919 Hybrid prototype racing car which made its competitive debut in 2014 and marked the return of Porsche to top-tier racing. This book explores all aspects of the creation and performance of this spectacular racing car, the first Class -1 sports prototype Porsche produced after the RS Spyder, which raced until 2010.

Volume I documents the history of the car, exploring the drama, successes, and setbacks that Porsche encountered. The text is by Heike Hientzsch, who was herself part of the LMP1 team. She takes the reader into the pits and behind the scenes of the Porsche racing department in Weissach, and interviews top race car drivers like Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard.

Volume 2 features insider photographs by Jürgen Tap, who accompanied the Porsche team with his own team of photographers. It is an illustrated chronology of this exciting epoch of racing history, and transports the reader on a fascinating journey around the world in the company of the Porsche 919 Hybrid.

Heike Heintzsch is a journalist and editor who works for the Porsche LMP1 communication team. She worked in Formula 1 for 13 years, until 2012, first for BMW and then for the Sauber team. Jürgen Tap is a Hamburg-based photographer who specializes in race car photography. His previous publications include 10 books about Porsche and Ferrari.

BOB GURR: Legendary Imagineer

BOB GURR: Legendary Imagineer

SIGNED

Life and Times – Disney and Beyond

Legendary Imagineer is a companion publication to DESIGN: Just for Fun,which is focused primarily on the major projects where Bob was the principal designer. It includes highlights of Bob’s childhood thru high school,which established the basic approach to his philosophy of design and to his passions for life experiences.BOB GURR: Legendary Imagineer probes deeper into his life and times.Starting with a detailed family genealogy, which was chronicled in his grandmother’s journal, compiled over a 53-year span of her life documenting the family history from 1635 thru 1953. While a few more of his projects are described, the primary tales that Bob weaves are about the passions and adventures in his life that the reader might find most interesting, quite beyond the general public knowledge of his connection with Walt Disney.These “tantalizing” tales explore his worlds of aviation, especially his fifty years of flying gliders. Automobiles and auto racing, historic auto collecting, and World travels are his passion. Photography, meteorology, and earth sciences have always been subjects of his curiosity. You’ll learn about his philosophies of living a happy and healthy life, such as mountain biking, starting at age 68when most folks just stay retired. Bob typically is active with perhaps fifty public appearances each year, enjoying the sharing of personal Walt Disney stories. BOB GURR: Legendary Imagineer is the story of a life well lived.

Professor Porsche’s Wars: The Secret Life of Ferdinand Porsche, the Legendary Engineer Who Armed Two Belligerents Through Four Decades

Professor Porsche’s Wars: The Secret Life of Ferdinand Porsche, the Legendary Engineer Who Armed Two Belligerents Through Four Decades

Regarded as one of the great automotive engineers of the twentieth century, Ferdinand Porsche is well remembered today for his remarkable automotive designs including the Volkswagen Beetle and Auto Union Grand Prix cars. Yet there is another side to his extraordinary career, for he was an equally inventive designer of military vehicles and machinery. In this field too he excelled. Indeed the sheer versatility of his contribution is astonishing. Karl Ludvigsen’s study is the definitive guide.

He tells the complete story, focusing on Porsche’s relations with the German armed forces and on the stream of advanced designs he was responsible for. Included are Austro Daimler’s pioneering aero engines, the Kübelwagen, Schwimmwagen, Type 100 Leopard tank, Ferdinand or Elefant tank destroyer and the astounding Type 205 Maus tank. He also describes Porsche’s creative work on aero engines, tank engines and even a turbojet for the V-1 flying bomb.

Karl Ludvigsen’s account confirms the preeminence of Ferdinand Porsche as a brilliant and prolific engineer, one of the most remarkable of his generation.

Speed Read Ferrari: The History, Technology and Design Behind Italy’s Legendary Automaker

Speed Read Ferrari: The History, Technology and Design Behind Italy’s Legendary Automaker

From the first complete car Enzo Ferrari constructed in 1940–the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815–to the masterpieces produced by Ferrari S.p.A. from 1947 to today, they’re all here.

The Speed Read series breaks subjects into easily understood sections, Ferrari: The History, Technology and Design Behind Italy’s Legendary Sports Cars covers 50 aspects key to understanding Ferrari’s amazing history, from racing to production cars to design and technology to the personal histories of key figures. This book will make anyone an instant Ferrari expert!

Accessible and compartmentalized sections illustrated with commissioned artwork come together to create a package attractive to neophytes, established enthusiasts, and those simply curious.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: The Illustrated History of America’s Legendary Mach 3 Spy Plane

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: The Illustrated History of America’s Legendary Mach 3 Spy Plane

The legendary SR-71 Blackbird spy plane was, and still is, the world’s only operational Mach 3 aircraft, and was designed, built, and tested by Lockheed’s famed “Skunk Works.” This new book covers all fifty Blackbirds built, from the first flight in 1962, to the last in 1999. As a replacement for the venerable U-2 spyplane, Lockheed went from contract signing to first flight in only thirty-two months starting in April 1958―from the beginning of design studies to the signing of a contract from the CIA to build the initial batch of A-12s in February 1960, to first flight in 1962. From the A-1 design through the completion of the very first Radar Cross Section models of the A-12, to the testing of every major system and subsystem, this book describes and illustrates the SR-71 as never before, using images from a variety of sources, as well as the author’s own superb, new photography.

Barry Sheene: The Official Photographic Celebration of the Legendary Motorcycle Champion

Barry Sheene: The Official Photographic Celebration of the Legendary Motorcycle Champion

Barry Sheene is arguably the greatest British motorcycle racing rider of all time. A chancer, lovable rogue and the leading sports star of his era, adored by the public and press alike, he won two world motorcycle championships in 1976 and 1977. He achieved iconic status by being involved in some horrific crashes and was dubbed ‘the bionic man’ on account of the amount of metal used to reconstruct his legs after a particularly bad accident. He later emigrated to Australia and became a leading commentator. He died of cancer in 2003.

For the first time Barry’s widow, Stephanie, and family have agreed to open up their personal archive to give an unprecedented insight into the two-time 500cc world champion. Via private photographs, memorabilia and letters, award-winning Times journalist and author Rick Broadbent will tell the story of a remarkable man in unprecedented fashion.

Rick Broadbent will paint a portrait of one of the sport’s most charismatic figures through the voices of the people who knew him best: his family, his fellow competitors, teammates and the many legends who have admired him from a distance in the years since his death. A celebrated motorcycle racing author, Rick Broadbent is perfectly placed to write Sheene’s story and he will have exclusive access to the family archives and photographs.

Published to mark the 40th anniversary of his second world championship win, this is the Barry Sheene story as told like never before by the people who knew him best. It delves deep into the family history to get inside the helmet and under the skin of an all-time sporting great.

The Toyota Land Cruiser: The Story of a Legendary 4×4

The Toyota Land Cruiser: The Story of a Legendary 4×4

The Land Cruiser is Toyota’s longest continually produced model. From its start as a utility vehicle built during a period of economic gloom and uncertainty after the Second World War, it is now a well-equipped, luxurious and highly capable prestige SUV.This book covers all the changes that have taken place over the years to provide a complete history of the Land Cruiser’s extraordinary heritage. The coverage includes the Land Cruiser’s outstanding success in some of the toughest environments of the world, and what it takes to modify it to meet the toughest of conditions.Author Nigel Fryatt follows the extensive range history of the Land Cruiser from its earliest models, through the utility models, right up to the prestigious versions that exist today. The author draws on his considerable experience of both on-road and off-road testing to provide his informed professional judgement on this extraordinary vehicle.

Carrera 2.7: The Soul of Porsche’s Legendary Carrera 2.7 RS Lives on Within the Carrera 2.7 MFI

Carrera 2.7: The Soul of Porsche’s Legendary Carrera 2.7 RS Lives on Within the Carrera 2.7 MFI

The soul of the legendary Carrera 2.7 RS lives on within the Carrera 2.7 MFI

Serious automotive enthusiasts consider Porsche’s Carrera 2.7 RS to be the archetypical 911…and deservedly so. The cars are light, responsive, purposeful and the type 911/83 engine delivers scintillating performance. Over the last 40 years the 2.7 RS has been covered in dozens of books and articles. Yet its successor – a car with the identical engine and similar DNA – remains either unknown or misunderstood even by long-time Porsche enthusiasts. That car is the Carrera 2.7 MFI. This book tells the complete story of these remarkable, unheralded sports cars.

The Carrera 2.7 book has been meticulously researched using the Porsche factory archives, private collections, period documentation and intensive study. The book attempts to cover everything an owner, restorer, historian or enthusiast would want to know about this intriguing 911 variant. Content includes comprehensive discussion of original options, photos of key details, insights into factory production, competition history and a considerable amount of material never before published. Although primarily focused on the top-of-the-line mechanically-fuel injected Carrera 2.7, this book will also prove valuable to enthusiasts of any of the Porsche 911 and 930 Turbo models produced during the mid-1970s.

The blue Limited Edition of 2,500 numbered hardcover copies is offered in English with five-color printing on high-quality paper and enclosed within a protective slipcase.

  • 10 ¼ × 11 ¾ inches (26.0 × 29.9 cm)
  • 406 pages, hardcover with slipcase
  • 684 color photos, 146 b/w photos, 50 illustrations
  • Over 530 never-before-published photos
Mitsubishi  Zero Japan’s Legendary Fighter

Mitsubishi Zero Japan’s Legendary Fighter

The Mitsubishi Zero is one of the great legendary fighter aircraft ever to have graced the skies. Symbolic of the might of Imperial Japan, she represented a peak of developmental prowess in the field of aviation during the early years of the Second World War. Engineered with maneuverability in mind, this lightweight, stripped-back aircraft had a performance that left her opponents totally outclassed. The dogfights she engaged in with the Chinese, British, Dutch and American warplanes in the 1941-42 period are the stuff of aviation legend. The Zero fighter had four major assets – agility, long-range, experienced and war-blooded pilots and, most importantly of all, a total inability of the Allies, particularly in the Pacific Theater of operations, to believe that Japan could produce such a machine. Despite a whole series of eyewitness reports from China, where she had swept the skies clean of all opposition, western minds were closed, and remained so until the brutal facts imposed themselves on their biased mindsets. All aircraft designs are a compromise of course, and the Zero had faults as well as strengths, two of which were to finally doom her; one was her lack of armor protection and the other was the inability of the Japanese to match the overwhelming production strength and innovation of Allied aircraft construction. Even so, she remained a potent threat until the end of the war, not least in her final role, that of a Kamikaze aircraft, in which she created as much havoc on the sea as she had done earlier in the air.

Peter C. Smith takes the reader on a journey from inspired inception to the blazing termination of this unique aircraft, the first Naval fighter to be superior to land-based aircraft. It describes in detail the many victories that punctuated the early days of its operational career as well as the desperate dying days of the Second World War which witnessed her final demise. Smith also lists the preserved Zero aircraft on display today. This is a fast-paced and fascinating history of a fighter aircraft like no other.