We’ve posted reviews and information on books about anything automotive, from racing to restoring to marque-specific tomes. All the books listed here can be purchased from our friends at Autobooks-Aerobooks in Van Nuys, California. Thanks to the wonder that is the Internet you can also purchase them from your computer. This locally-owned, specialty book store is a true destination that deserves the support from we auto nuts.
Confession: there are two books on my current-reading shelf for which I am supposed to write reviews. Both are by well-known motoring writers, both guys whose stuff I have read avidly in the past, columns I couldn’t get enough of.
In “Wheels of Change” Kevin Nelson has written a brisk, breezy book, an enjoyable ramble through the history of how California and the automobile became hopelessly infatuated with each other, and how this love affair changed both of them radically and permanently. Those looking for a history of the motor car and its design will not find it here, but rather a masterful investigation into how Californians uniquely grasped the possibilities of the automobile and its potential, and how that transformed their lives, their society, and the very structure of their state.
Ten days in Sicily is based on a story of four British young men who went to Sicily in May 1966 to watch the last real road race, the Targa Florio. Arriving in time for the Syracuse Grand Prix, they drove their Fiat 124 saloon press car to Syracuse to watch this first GP race in Europe for the new three-litre formula.
Racemaker Press has announced its new publication: Caribbean Capers: The Cuban Grand Prix Races of 1957, 1958 & 1960, by noted automotive historian Joel E. Finn. This remarkable volume captures the dramatic story of Cuba’s major sports car races, with all the international finance, political intrigue and competitive action that characterized the island nation at that time.
Will Owen