Classic Speedsters


Book Description

Classic Speedsters: The Cars, The Times, and The Characters Who Drove Them chronicles the most significant vehicles ever to have traveled American roads and racetracks. Speedsters were the pizzazz cars of their era. Speedsters were owned by entertainers, captains of industry, the wealthy, and in some cases, the everyday guy or gal. They were often expensive, but always fast and sexy. Speedsters were America's first sports cars.Each chapter frames the birth and evolution of a company that produced a speedster model in its lineup and includes a biography of a famous owner of the period. This book traces the journey of the speedster concept across several time periods and among twelve automotive companies. It answers three fundamental questions:· Why were these cars so important and influential?· Why did so many prominent people own them?· What message do they have for modern design?




Classic American Cars


Book Description

From the turn of the twentieth century through to the present day, the book traces the development of the automobile, reflecting the social change it both brought, and reflected.




American Cars of the 1950s


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Cars & Parts


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Classic Car


Book Description

From the Chevrolet Bel Air to the Ferrari Testarossa, this stunning book showcases the most iconic and important classic cars from every decade since the 1940s. Few things ignite such reverence as a classic car. With more than 250 iconic models from the 1940s to the early 1990s, photographed from every angle, this title is a glorious celebration of the stars in the classic car firmament. Classic Car brings you the story of more than 20 great marques, including household names Bentley, Mercedes, Ferrari, Cadillac and Aston Martin. Its lavish photography reveals every detail in close-up of models that range from the 1940s giant two-ton Daimler DE36, which ferried royals about in style, through to sleek Ferraris from the 1980s capable of smashing the 200mph barrier. It puts you in the driving seat of such icons as the Chevrolet Corvette, the Ford Thunderbird, and the Mercedes 300SL, and brings you the designers of these amazing machines and the story of their manufacturers. This ultimate guide to classic cars further features: - A comprehensive catalog that draw out the key features of each important model, with detailed profiles and specification. - Feature pages broaden the scope of the book, covering everything from the designers and manufacturers who created them to their evolution over the decades. - Stunningly shot DPS images add an extra layer of color and flavor to the book. - Written by award-winning author and expert on all aspects of motoring, Giles Chapman, Editor-in-Chief of DK's The Car Book, which has sold over 550,000 copies worldwide to date. Updates will include the key models that have grown in popularity since the last edition. Whether you dream of owning one of these super-cool cars, or you are a collector already, Classic Car is set to become a treasured favorite.







Auto Biography


Book Description

A brilliant blend of Shop Class as Soulcraft and The Orchid Thief, Earl Swift's wise, funny, and captivating Auto Biography follows an outlaw auto dealer as he struggles to save a rusted '57 Chevy—a car that has already passed through twelve pairs of hands before his—while financial ruin, government bureaucrats and the FBI close in on him. Slumped among hundreds of other decrepit hulks on a treeless, windswept moor in eastern North Carolina, the Chevy evokes none of the Jet Age mystique that made it the most beloved car to ever roll off an assembly line. It's open to the rain. Birds nest in its seats. Officials of the surrounding county consider it junk. To Tommy Arney, it's anything but: It's a fossil of the twentieth-century American experience, of a place and a people utterly devoted to the automobile and changed by it in myriad ways. It's a piece of history—especially so because its flaking skin conceals a rare asset: a complete provenance, stretching back more than fifty years. So, hassled by a growing assortment of challengers, the Chevy's thirteenth owner—an orphan, grade-school dropout and rounder, a felon arrested seventy-odd times, and a man who's been written off as a ruin himself--embarks on a mission to save the car and preserve long record of human experience it carries in its steel and upholstery. Written for both gearheads and Sunday drivers, Auto Biography charts the shifting nature of the American Dream and our strange and abiding relationship with the automobile, through an iconic classic and an improbable, unforgettable hero.




The Catalog of Catalogs VI


Book Description

The directory that saves time, money, and aggravation by providing thousands of mail-order sources in hundreds of subject areas is newly revised and updated. The sixth edition describes 15,000 catalogs--1,000 new listings--in more than 900 subject areas. Also new to this edition are 5,000 Internet addresses, which allow readers to browse catalogs on-line the same day they locate them in this handy reference.




Cuba's Car Culture


Book Description

Welcome to Cuba's automotive time capsule, filled with classic cars. The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in automotive time is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive purchasing of any Latin American country - its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. But when Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargo forced Cuba's car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, such as: Keeping a car alive with no opportunity to acquire replacement parts; customizing a car with no access to aftermarket parts; drag racing with no drag strip. In many ways, Cuba is an automotive time warp, where the newest car is a 1959 Chevy or perhaps one of the Soviet Ladas. Cuba's Car Culture offers an inside look at a unique car culture, populated with cars that have been cut off from the world so long that they've morphed into something else in the spirit of automotive survival. Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers of Cuba's Car Culture on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba's pre-Castro car and racing history and bringing us up to today's lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical photos as well as contemporary photos of Cuba's current car scene. For anyone who enjoys classic cars, from old Chevy Bel-Airs to Studebakers to Ford Fairlanes, a cruise around Cuba will make you feel like a kid in a candy store.




Superhobby Investing


Book Description

What is 'superhobby investing'?Superhobby Investing is at the intersection of investing, collecting and other serious hobbies. It's about examining how you can ratchet up a hobby or a collecting passion into an investment option.If you are a stock market investor, this book will show how you can use the tangible assets that are normally part and parcel of collecting as a means of diversifying your portfolio. Or maybe you already own, or have inherited, some superhobby assets - a stamp collection or a set of first editions, say - but never thought of them as potential investments.Using this book, you can find out how to assess their value and how to convert them into a durable and profitable portfolio. This book shows you why developing one or more superhobbies can be a good idea, and looks at various forms this tangible asset investing can take.In each case the book explains how the markets operate, what the risks are, what returns can be expected, and what knowledge and skills are required. Each asset profile includes: - The history of investment in the asset- The basic characteristics and features of the market- The examination of long term returns, with detailed figures- The tax angles (if applicable)- The major issues- How to buy and sell, including major dealers and auctioneers- Sources of information