The Hemmings Motor News Book of Packards


Book Description

Selected from the pages of Special Interest Autos, 14 different Packard models are profiled, with full specifications, line drawings and loads of interesting detail photographs. You'll find comprehensive profiles of the 1930 Packard 734 Speedster, '35 Packard Eight, '47 Custom Super Eight, the '58 Packard, and many more. Plus there's an in-depth listing of Packard clubs, parts suppliers and specialists. Sftbd., 8 1/4" x 11 1/2", 120 pages, approx. 250 b&w ill.




Creative Industries of Detroit


Book Description

" The most exhaustive and complete account of the Creative Industries'Äôs 40-plus-year history of creating dream, prototype, concept, and one-off cars. Get the exclusive story behind the automotive creations at Creative Industries of Detroit from Dwight D. Eisenhower'Äôs 1950 Presidential Limousine to the 1993 Mustang Mach III concept cars and more. Dream cars examined, with great detail, in this volume include the Ford Atmos-FX, Mercury XM-800, Dodge Granada, Packard Balboa, Packard Panthers, Packard Request, Ford Mystere, Corvette Corvair, Dodge Daytona, Plymouth Superbird, DeLorean, and many more. An amazing amount of hardware was constructed, each made separate from the other and with a high level of secrecy. The careers of the company's founder, Fred Johnson, and his successor, Rex Terry, are featured to show how two former Chrysler employees led the most diverse automotive firm in all of Detroit. As America entered the postwar 1950s, a resurgence by the auto manufacturers enabled them to create the most eccentric and extravagant automobiles of all time. Fierce competition between designers from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and independents, such as Packard, all turned to one car builder nestled firmly in America's bustling automotive mecca to help design the most elaborate prototype and concept cars ever: Creative Industries of Detroit. This all-inclusive book is the first ever on the subject and features behind-the-scenes images and interviews that have never before been published. Whether you are a Creative Industries of Detroit guru, fan of concept cars, or a general automotive enthusiast, this book is an excellent addition to your shelf."




Packard


Book Description

Only the legendary Packard could command a book of such scope and expense. This monumental work has required ten years of research, documentation and photography. It represents many more decades of collecting Packard automobiles, facts, photographs, technical data and information to record for all time every aspect, every model, every achievement of the Packard motor car and the men who made its name an emblem and international byword for taste and refinement in automotive design and engineering. Over three years were spent in intensive writing, checking, cross-checking, rewriting, coordinating, editing, and winnowing thousands of rare and unpublished historic photographs. This volume represents the scholarly efforts of sixteen contributors and was written by ten highly qualified authorities on Packard lore.Winner of a Cugnot Award.




The Electric Car in America, 1890-1922


Book Description

The electric vehicle seemed poised in 1900 to be a leader in automotive production. Clean, odorless, noiseless and mechanically simple, electrics rarely broke down and were easy to operate. An electric car could be started instantly from the driver's seat; no other machine could claim that advantage. But then it all went wrong. As this history details, the hope and confidence of 1900 collapsed and just two decades later electric cars were effectively dead. They had remained expensive even as gasoline cars saw dramatic price reductions, and the storage battery was an endless source of problems. An increasingly frantic public relations campaign of lies and deceptive advertising could not turn the tide.




The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It


Book Description

In 1915, when a kitchen stove fire singed his sister Mabel's lashes and brows, Tom Lyle Williams watched in fascination as she performed a 'secret of the harem'-mixing petroleum jelly with coal dust and ash from a burnt cork and apply it to her lashes and brows. Mabel's simple beauty trick ignited Tom Lyle's imagination and he started what would become a billion-dollar business, one that remains a viable American icon after nearly a century. He named it Maybelline in her honor.Throughout the 20th century, the Maybelline Company inflated, collapsed, endured, and thrived in tandem with the nation's upheavals-as did the family that nurtured it. Setting up shop first in Chicago, Williams later, to avoid unwanted scrutiny of his private life, cloistered himself behind the gates of his Rudolph Valentino Villa and ran his empire from a distance.Now after nearly a century of silence, this true story celebrates the life of an American entrepreneur, a man whose vision rocketed him to success along with the woman held in his orbit, Evelyn Boecher-who became his lifelong fascination and muse. Captivated by her 'roaring charisma,' he affectionately called her the 'real Miss Maybelline' and based many of his advertising campaigns on the woman she represented: commandingly beautiful, hard-boiled and daring. Evelyn masterminded a life of vanity, but would fall prey to fortune hunters and a mysterious murder that even today remains unsolved.A fascinating and inspiring story of ambition, luck, secrecy-and surprisingly, above all, love and forgiveness, a tale both epic and intimate, alive with the clash, the hustle, the music, and dance of American enterprise.




Car Spy


Book Description

All automobile manufacturers go to great pains to keep their future models under wraps until they are ready for public unveiling. Huge proving grounds in remote locations with roving, menacing private security forces are enough to keep the casual observers away. But not everyone is a casual observer. Some are quite serious about clamping eyes (and lenses) on the latest design innovations, often years before they become available to the public. Jim Dunne is no casual observer; he's an automotive spy photographer. Car Spy is for anyone who has an interest in new-car design, the manufacturing process, and road testing secrets. With sometimes humorous stories, it uncovers the behind-the-scenes extremes that author Jim Dunne will go to in order to scoop a manufacturer's new car. This book is illustrated with more than 200 vintage black and white and modern color images of domestic and foreign cars in various stages of development and testing. Book jacket.




It's Only Original Once


Book Description

A chronicle of "time capsule" collector cars--those still wearing their original parts, paint, upholstery, and trim--that, like the cars themselves, offers a trip through time.




Studebaker, 1946-1966


Book Description




American Cars, 1973-1980


Book Description

The 1973 oil crisis forced the American automotive industry into a period of dramatic change, marked by stiff foreign competition, tougher product regulations and suddenly altered consumer demand. With gas prices soaring and the economy in a veritable tailspin, muscle cars and the massive "need-for-speed" engines of the late '60s were out, and fuel efficient compacts were in. By 1980, American manufacturers were churning out some of the most feature laden, yet smallest and most fuel efficient cars they had ever built. This exhaustive reference work details every model from each of the major American manufacturers from model years 1973 through 1980, including various "captive imports" (e.g. Dodge's Colt, built by Mitsubishi.) Within each model year, it reports on each manufacturer's significant news and details every model offered: its specifications, powertrain offerings, prices, standard features, major options, and production figures, among other facts. The work is heavily illustrated with approximately 1,300 photographs.




Boulevard Photographic


Book Description

The most striking, stunning, and memorable photos from Boulevard Photographic, the source for automotive advertising photography from the mid-1950s to the '80s, is presented here for the first time in any book.Photographers Jim Northmore and Mickey McGuire launched their Boulevard studio in 1955, and their innovative, imaginative style captured the elegance, power, and lifestyle imagery that auto makers wanted to convey in advertising.Their work was so effective that they worked for all the major US auto makers at the same time and for several European car companies. Whether shooting in studios or on location, the creative Boulevard Photographic staff captured the exact image auto makers wanted to present.Since even the oldest film was properly preserved -- and some of it was shot on enormous 8-1/2x11 -inch transparencies -- the quality of the photo reproductions throughout the book is breathtaking.