When we think of Porsche, we think of at least two things: that beautiful, distinctive design, and that incredible speed.
The new hardcover book, 111, Porsche Stories That You Should Know is filled with tales and historic photographs that reveal many fascinating aspects of this remarkable car, such as:
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behind the scenes in a desert camp during the Paris-Dakar Rally of 1984, waiting for René Metge to appear in the Porsche 911 Carrera 4×4;
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what happened to the very first two Porsches to arrive in Australia, a chestnut brown coupé and a fish-silver 356 cabriolet with the first right-hand drive;
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how the racing department tested and tortured Porsche brakes on the 21-km downhill run at Mont Ventoux…
…And 108 more stories of heroic drivers, grueling races, dramatic victories, and unique personalities that have been drawn to Porsche since the early days when 23-year-old Ferdinand Porsche started his first job in the automotive industry in 1899.
Author Wilfried Müller writes, “This is a book full of Porsche Stories. Not a history book, and not a work of reference – but 111 crisp and delicious stories to amaze you, to make you smile, to delight you.”
For lovers of this car in all its forms, for those who appreciate astounding engineering, and for those who simply appreciate its beauty, the Porsche comes to life in this uniquely wonderful book.
This lavishly illustrated book on the famous automobile manufacturer traces the Studebaker family from its arrival in America in 1736, to the beginnings of the wagon business under John M. Studebaker and his brothers in the nineteenth century, to the family’s entry into the automobile industry in 1902, to the last Studebaker automobile to roll off the assembly line in 1966. The book, however, is much more than the story of a family business; it is also, in microcosm, the story of the industrial development of America. The Studebakers had always been industrialists in the sense that they made their living by manufacturing things, albeit on a small scale. When the Industrial Revolution hit the country with full force, spurred on by the Civil War, it transformed America from a rural-agrarian society into an urban-industrial one. The fortunes of the Studebaker family were transformed with it. As the title suggests, the Studebaker story was mostly one of success. Studebaker wagons and carriages were long noted for their quality and popularity, and so, too, were Studebaker automobiles. The 1953 Starliner and the 1963 Avanti, designed under Raymond Loewy’s direction, are widely regarded as among the most innovative examples of American industrial design. The book deals in detail with the soaring prosperity of the company in the 1920s, the bankruptcy and miraculous recovery in the 1930s, the stupendous success of the early post-World War II period, and the eventual decline of the company’s fortunes in the mid-1950s. It describes the development of such famous models as the Lark, Avanti, and Gran Tourisimo Hawk, with special attention paid to the Avanti II, a surprisingly successful spinoff from the dying company that continued to be produced until 1991. The final chapter, on why Studebaker died, is tightly reasoned and more convincing than previous theories. Throughout, the author has used personal incident and characterization to bring to life the rich, tumultuous history of one of America’s longest enduring industrial empires.
It’s been over a quarter of a century since Steve and I first dreamt of documenting our three-and-a-half year relationship in this beautiful book. We were going to call it The Long Haul with me providing the pictures and Steve writing the passages recalling our crazy life and numerous adventures. But fate intervened when Steve was diagnosed with cancer in 1980. The project, like so many other things, fell to the wayside while we searched for his cure. Steve passed away that November after surgery in Mexico and I never picked up the camera again. My hundreds of pictures of him stayed tucked away in the closet for nearly 25 years. Then something happened inside me when I turned 50 recently – that’s the same age Steve was when he died. It was as if a veil had been lifted and I could finally look back on our life together and examine it without fear. This book is my fulfillment of our earlier dream. I know he would have been proud of it.
Steve McQueen found it hard to balance worldwide fame with a desperate need for solitude. Through performances that were effortless yet powerful, he connected with the people who saw him on stage, on television, in movie houses, and on magazine covers anywhere on earth. Sometimes more comfortable racing a motorcycle than in front of a camera, twice at the height of his stardom he took more than a year off from movies. Despite this, and despite dying young, he left an indelible imprint. Images, his own words, and the words of others chronicle his rise from juvenile delinquent to the highest paid star in Hollywood. The Hollywood Icon series: People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren’t actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, Taschen shows you. Hollywood Icons is a series of photo books that feature the most famous movie icons in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars. For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.
Popular motojournalist Clement Salvadori has been sharing his stories from the road with the readers of Rider magazine since 1988. Now, 101 of those engaging Road Tales have been brought together in one book, cleverly illustrated by his long-time friend Gary Brown. Salvadori loves to travel by motorcycle and loves to write. His combining the two has given him a thoroughtly satisfactory life, and his contentment and joy of living shine through this collection of columns from the past two decades. Though he does admit to being destination-oriented at times, many of his columns focus on the little things that make the journey itself the most memorable — the rhythm of the road, the music of the bike, the beauty of the ride, and the exhilaration of being at one with the bike and the road. Meet some of the characters he has encountered, laugh with him at some of his blunders, and join him for bread, cheese, wine, and a stupendous vista somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of humanity.
Even 30 years after his death, Steve McQueen remains an icon of cool. His image continues to appear in advertising and pop culture, and car, motorcycle, and racing fans embrace him as one of their own. Now comes this volume featuring rare photography and chronicling McQueen’s fascination with and passion for all things internal-combustion powered.
McQueen’s movie characters always had a great motorcycle or car—from the 650cc “BMW” motorcycle (a disguised Triumph) in The Great Escape (1963) to the Gulf Porsche 917 race car he raced in Le Mans (1971).
His need for speed propelled him from Hollywood into a number of top off-road motorcycle races, including the Baja 1000, Mint 400, and Elsinore Grand Prix. Determined to be ahead of the pack, McQueen trained vigorously, weight lifting, running, and studying martial arts.
Steve McQueen A Passion for Speed reflects a life lived in the moment and with the pedal to the metal.
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Released in celebration of his 80th Birthday, this fourth book in the popular series follows Sir Stirling Moss through his most turbulent, demanding and, ultimately, successful racing years.
Moss’s career was at its zenith and by 1960 he had secured his reputation as the greatest motor racing driver in the world – although the title World Champion still, frustratingly, eluded him.
He dominated every race arena. In Formula 1 he secured numerous landmark victories, including first GP wins for Vanwall, Cooper and Lotus. In Formula 2, he was all-conquering, driving Rob Walker’s Cooper-Borgward. He also helped Aston Martin to victory in the World Sports Car Championship.
Yet, for all his brilliance, Moss’s rise was far from simple. Racing first with Maserati, then Vanwall and finally the privateer Rob Walker team, he struggled frequently with the unreliability of his machinery but led the most fundamental change ever seen in GP racing – as F1 made the transition from front to rear-engined racers.
Things were equally complex off the track, where the pressures of fame coupled with the dangers of the sport impacted on his personal life.
Sir Stirling’s personal reminiscences bring alive the colour, atmosphere, danger and sheer exuberance of motor sport in its heyday
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