This is the history of the Ford Motor Company's achievements and products during World Wars I and II. It demonstrates how, in addition to well-known contributions like jeeps, Eagle Boats and B-24 Liberators, Ford also produced key items ranging from squad tents and the ultra precision gun director to tanks and aircraft engines. Details on each product and how Ford produced it are included. During both wars, the automotive giant used precision manufacturing methods and innovative designs and procedures to increase quantity and quality while lowering production costs.

A roadtest compilation on the Alfa Romeo Giulia SS produced by Unique Motor Books.

A hot rod enthusiast and builder since the early 1950s, Albert "Bud" Drake has experienced rod and custom car culture to the fullest. This collection of his columns from Rod Action and Goodguys Gazette over the past quarter century, also incorporating several unpublished pieces, offers a wealth of historical information and insights. The colorful writing illuminates the people, machines, movies and cultural events that shaped hot rod culture.

The first generation of Sunbeam Alpine was produced in 1953-54 and was named after the prestigious Alpine Rally which ran through the mountains of France and Italy. The name was resurrected in 1959 for a new model, the principle subject of this book. It was launched in July of that year on the French Riviera and remained in production until 1968. The Alpine was used in racing and rallying in many places including Britain, continental Europe, the United States and Canada. In this book, author John Willshire looks at the history of the Sunbeam Alpine, its development and production history, the different variants produced and its use as a rally and race car as well as advising those who want to own and operate their own Alpine today. The first book dedicated to the history of the Sunbeam Alpine alone for more than twenty years, this is the first book on the subject with such a wide range of historic and modern photographs.

A compilation of magazine road tests, along the lines of the Brooklands Books Road Test Books. A compilation of period road tests and servicing information on the Triumph TR4 TR5 and TR6. Compiled by Unique Motor Books.

In July 1965, an Artesian Turquoise Chevrolet Biscayne rolled off a General Motors assembly line destined for a dealership in Utica, New York, where it caught the eye and the imagination of the author. When he and his father purchased it on August 11, little did James Ward know that this car would become a member of the family, playing a role in his honeymoon, years of graduate school, the birth of his daughter and her first driving lesson, among countless other memories. Four decades - and a lot of history - later, the author still owns and drives this rolling historical artifact dubbed Phoebe. Using the family car as a narrative thread, this first-person account explores American history over the last forty years as experienced by the author. From Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, from the automotive industry to fast food franchises, it chronicles American life since the mid - 1960s. In his faithful Phoebe, the author witnessed a KKK cross burning, took part in a civil rights march, passed through the eye of a major hurricane and drove across the back roads of twenty-first century America, he and the car aging together. Photographs accompany this unique memoir.

It was brash and it was loud - the 1980s put paid to the glumness of the '70s and nowhere was that more obvious than in the cars we drove, which took a quantum leap in durability, performance, equipment and style. They had to: Japanese quality and European design were luring away ever more customers. Features such as fuel injection, turbochargers, computer-controlled systems and four-wheel drive became commonplace. This was also the decade that brought us the people-carrier and the off-roader, new classes of car that radically reshaped family transport. Meanwhile, seatbelt-wearing became law, the M25 opened, speed cameras appeared and ram-raiding was the new motoring nemesis. Relive everything car-related in Britain in the 1980s with Giles Chapman.

At the Berlin Auto Show in 1938, Adolf Hitler presented the prototype for a small, oddly shaped, inexpensive family car that all good Aryans could enjoy. Decades later, that automobile-the Volkswagen Beetle-was one of the most beloved in the world. Bernhard Rieger examines culture and technology, politics and economics, and industrial design and advertising genius to reveal how a car commissioned by Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche became an exceptional global commodity on a par with Coca-Cola. Beyond its quality and low cost, the Beetle's success hinged on its uncanny ability to capture the imaginations of people across nations and cultures. In West Germany, it came to stand for the postwar "economic miracle" and helped propel Europe into the age of mass motorization. In the United States, it was embraced in the suburbs, and then prized by the hippie counterculture as an antidote to suburban conformity. As its popularity waned in the First World, the Beetle crawled across Mexico and Latin America, where it symbolized a sturdy toughness necessary to thrive amid economic instability. Drawing from a wealth of sources in multiple languages, The People's Car presents an international cast of characters-executives and engineers, journalists and advertisers, assembly line workers and car collectors, and everyday drivers-who made the Beetle into a global icon. The Beetle's improbable story as a failed prestige project of the Third Reich which became a world-renowned brand illuminates the multiple origins, creative adaptations, and persisting inequalities that characterized twentieth-century globalization.

Prior to World War I, auto racing featured expensive machines and teams financed by auto factories. The teams toured the country, and most of the races were held in large cities, so the vast majority of Americans never saw a race. All this changed after World War I, though, and in the 1920s and 1930s there were approximately 1,000 dirt tracks in the United States and Canada. The dirt tracks offered small-time racing--little prize money and minimal publicity--but people loved it. This pictorial history documents dirt track racing, with what are today called sprint cars, around the United States from 1919 to 1941. Information on dirt track racing in Canada during this time is also provided. Regionally divided chapters detail the drivers, tracks, and specific races of each area of the country. Some of the drivers went on to win fame and fortune while others faded into obscurity. Tracks included well known facilities as well as out-of-the-way sites few people had ever heard of. The cars ranged from state of the art machines to the more common home built specials based on Model T or Model A Ford parts. Taken together, the drivers, tracks, and races of this era were instrumental in making auto racing the popular sport it is today.

This first comprehensive biography of Rudolf Uhlenhaut, illustrated with many previously unpublished photographs, depicts his life and technical accomplishments, including a complete compilation of his patents which puts them into a technical and historical context. An engineer and designer for Daimler-Benz, he became famous for his achievements regarding the Silver Arrows, the 300 SL with the famous gull wing doors, the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, and the various record-breaking experimental C 111 versions.Based on numerous interviews with Uhlenhaut himself, contemporary witnesses, colleagues and family members, the book paints a vivid picture of the person behind the technical innovations and explores his character and motivation. Born in 1906 in London, the son of an English mother and a German father, Rudolf Uhlenhaut joined Daimler-Benz in 1931 after finishing his mechanical engineering studies in Munich. In 1936 he took over as head of the racing department and conducted the Silver Arrows and Rudolf Caracciola to their 1937 European championship.After World War II, he created the road versions W 198 and the smaller open-topped W 121 of the 300 SL "Gullwing," both launched at the International Motor Sports Show in New York 1954. Uhlenhaut's official company car, a 300 SLR with a top speed of 290 km/h was the Uhlenhaut Coupe - the fastest car of its day authorized for road use.

This is a biography about the British motor industry's most influential and controversial engineer, Sir Alec Issignois. Wood exposes a behind-the-scenes impression of the personal and corporate struggles within the declining British car industry, a complex process in which Issigonis played a famous role. THE COLLAPSE in 2005 of MG Rover marked the end of Britain's indigenous motor industry as a volume car manufacturer. Yet back in the 1960s its Longbridge-based British Motor Corporation predecessor dominated the market with the iconic Mini and stylish 1100. Both were the work, together with the legendary Morris Minor, of Sir Alec Issigonis, CBE, FRS, the British motor industry's most influential and controversial engineer. In this full-length biography, published to commemorate the centenary of its subject's birth, which falls in 2006, award-winning motoring historian Jonathan Wood chronicles the rise and fall of Issigonis, born in Turkey of Greek/Bavarian parentage, who arrived in Britain as a near-penniless refugee and became the most powerful automobile engineer in the land. His ingenious and effective designs had a deep, lasting influence on the evolution of the motor car and on the wider history of industrial design, and he deserves to be ranked with the other giants of the field like Ferdinand Porsche in Germany and Dante Giacosa in Italy. Wood's candid and meticulously researched account, which exposes Sir Alec's public and private faces, and is the product of some 30 years of research, is complemented by interviews conducted with many of Issigonis' former colleagues and friends, including: Ronald Barker, John Cooper, Jack Daniels, Christopher Dowson, Paddy Hopkirk, Spen King, Dr Alex Moulton, Dr Bernd Pischetsrieder, Lord Snowdon and Stuart Turner. The finished volume is a balanced view of a remarkable, immensely talented man, with a behind-the-scenes impression of the personal and corporate struggles within the declining British car industry, a complex process in which Issigonis played a famous role.

The definitive history of the internationally popular Porsche 924, including motorsport. Expert guidance on buying a 924. Over 220 illustrations, mainly in colour, acquired with the full assistance of Porsche.

In this book, MG Y Type owner and expert Neil Cairns provides the reader with a detailed history of the development of the MG Y as well as descriptions of the different models - the YA, the YT and the YB. Based on his own twenty-five years' experience of owning and driving an MG Y, the book is packed with advice, hints and tips for buying and owning this classic post-war MG saloon. Although based on a pre-war body design, the MG Y Type was more radical than it looked. It was the first MG with independent front suspension, the first MG with rack and pinion steering and the first with a left-hand drive option. This book covers the development of the XPAG engine as well as other mechanical information covering the gearbox, chassis and rear axle. There is also a chapter on restoration and how to deal with corrosion.

Once upon a time it was easy to tell one make of car from another. The shape of the grille or a distinctive badge was all that was required to tell the onlooker what they were looking at. Sadly those days are behind us, but the rich history of those identifying features lives on for those with an inquisitive mind. Some marques, such as Aston Martin, only ever had one badge, while others went through a range of insignia over the years. Some badges, such as Ferrari, were inspired by local heraldic devices, while others were based on flags. The names of these companies have equally fascinating stories. Some, like Ford, were derived from the names of their founders, while local history played a role in the naming of companies such as Lada. This book tells the stories of many of these names and badges, detailing their origins and development and accompanied by a range of interesting illustrations.