Automotive History

America was made manifest by its cars. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66 and Jack Kerouac, America's history is a vehicular history-an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by the acclaimed author of Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster.

In 2007, the X Prize Foundation announced that it would give $10 million to anyone who could build a safe, mass-producible car that could travel one hundred miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas. The challenge attracted more than one hundred teams from all over the world, including dozens of amateurs. Many designed their cars entirely from scratch, rejecting decades of thinking about what a car should look like.

In the 1950s, America enjoyed massive growth and affluence, and no companies contributed more to its success than automakers. They were the biggest and best businesses in the world, their leadership revered, their methods imitated, and their brands synonymous with the nation's aspirations. But by the end of the 1960s, Detroit's profits had evaporated and its famed executives had become symbols of greed, arrogance, and incompetence.

As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, 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.

The world's foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain's greatest engineers and this is his fascinating, powerful memoir. How to Build a Car explores the story of Adrian's unrivalled 35-year career in Formula One through the prism of the cars he has designed, the drivers he has worked alongside and the races in which he's been involved.

Developed by experienced technicians and professionally narrated for easy listening, this course is a valuable tool when preparing for your ASE Certification A1 or Engine Repair Test. The audio is focused and high-yield, covering the most important topics you need to know to succeed on the A1 test. The material is accurate, up-to-date, and broken down into bite-sized chapters. There are quizzes and key takeaways sections following each chapter to review questions commonly tested and drive home key points.

Fantastic stories have swirled around the automobile since the first car appeared over 100 years ago. History’s Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed compiles a juicy selection covering subjects from racing to automakers, crime to pop culture, and historical to modern day. Did you know that after James Dean’s death behind the wheel of his Porsche 550 Spyder, parts of the car were sold off, and said parts then cursed their new owners? Or did they?

In Autonomy, former GM executive and current advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car project Lawrence Burns offers a sweeping history of the race to make the driverless car a reality. In the past decade, Silicon Valley companies like Google, Tesla and Uber have positioned themselves to revolutionize the way we move around by developing driverless vehicles while traditional auto companies like General Motors, Ford, and Daimler have been fighting back by partnering by with new tech start-ups.

Do you love cars? Do you love interesting stories about start-ups? Do you love crazy stories about founders and their ups and downs? If so, this book, and the books in this series, are for you.

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. This bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other infamous strategists. The 48 Laws of Power will fascinate any listener interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

In Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit's self-destruction inevitable? What were the key turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves? Ingrassia also describes dysfunctional corporate cultures (even as GM's market share plunged, the company continued business as usual) and Detroit's perverse system of "inverse layoffs" (which allowed union members to invoke seniority to avoid work).

The story of NASCAR's legendary racer - newly revised Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s name virtually assured that his life would not be ordinary. Over the past decade, he has fulfilled that destiny. His father, one of the most successful drivers in the history of international motorsports, gave his son more than his name. Dale Earnhardt Sr. placed Dale Jr. in position to follow the footsteps and tire tracks he had left from Darlington to Daytona, from coast to coast, from one championship to the next.

In this lively and entertaining work, Witold Rybczynski-hailed as "one of the best writers on design working today" by Publishers Weekly-tells the story of the most distinctive cars in history and the artists, engineers, dreamers, and gearheads who created them.

By the early 1960s, Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Baby boomers were taking to the roads in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort, and Ford didn’t offer what these young drivers wanted. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari lorded over the European racing scene, crafting beautiful, fast sports cars that epitomized style.

The Old Ford is a heartfelt tribute to a rugged little truck that has survived fire duty, family misadventures, mechanical overhauls, and the passage of nearly a century—86 of its years in one family. Manufactured in Long Beach in 1932, the Ford began its service with the San Luis Obispo County Fire Department. By 1939, it had passed into the hands of the Bullock family, purchased in a trade involving a Model A and a saddle horse. What followed was a lifetime of memories—starting with dirt roads, hunting trips, and engine swaps, and ending with a painstaking, multi-year restoration. ...

From the acclaimed author of Birdmen comes a revelatory new history of the birth of the automobile - an illuminating and entertaining true tale of invention, competition, and the visionaries, hustlers, and swindlers who came together to transform the world. With a narrative as propulsive as its subject, Drive! plunges us headlong into a time unlike any in history, when manic innovation and consumerist zeal coalesced to forever change the way people got from one place to another.

What’s it like to race across the blacktop of the nation’s most famous track? How does it feel to smash into a concrete wall while going over 200 miles per hour? This exciting, humorous, and poignant collection of tales takes listeners inside the most exciting race in America. Tales from the Indianapolis 500 captures horrific collisions and sweet victories from drivers past and present.

The innovators dilemma of our age, that sets out to restore the ability to forecast from first principles, in a world superficially changing too fast for traditional expertise to retain relevance. Described variously as extremely serious, densely packed, highly controversial - but not wrong, The Future History of Energy and Transportation, is a mental work out with the reward of delivering actionable working knowledge of the extraordinary.

Shelby, Miles, and Ford: The Triumphs and Tragedies" is a factual book that delves into the lives and careers of Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, and their collaboration with Ford Motor Company. The book explores Shelby's early life and career before his involvement with Ford, shedding light on his childhood, early influences, racing career, and automotive ventures. It also examines Shelby's reputation and expertise in the industry, setting the stage for his collaboration with Ford. The book then delves into Shelby's collaboration with Ford and his pivotal role in the development of the GT40. It ...

Written by racing enthusiast Leonard Wibberley (author of The Mouse that Roared) under the pen name Patrick O’Connor, The Black Tiger Series transports the reader back to a golden age of racing and American life to tell timeless stories of courage, teamwork, glory, heartbreak, and the human condition. THE BLACK TIGER BOOK SERIES Book 1: The Black Tiger Book 2: Mexican Road Race Book 3: Black Tiger at Le Mans Book 4: Black Tiger at Bonneville Book 5: Black Tiger at Indianapolis Book 6: A Car Called Camellia Each book in the series is complete to itself and can be enjoyed if read in any ...