Kategoria BISAC: Antiques & Collectibles >> Transportation

In the aftermath of the World War II, the long established Rover company of Solihull was fighting to survive. It needed a vehicle that would give it an advantage over its rivals. Taking the American Willys Jeep as inspiration, Rover designers came up with a four-wheel drive utility vehicle that would become an all-time classic. The Land Rover has undergone a number of facelifts in its sixty year life, but the vehicle made today is fundamentally very close to the 1948 original.

In 1970 the original Land Rover was joined by the Range Rover, originally conceived as a more comfortable...

Scalextric, the ultimate boys' toy, hit the toyshops in 1957. The first ever electric slot-car system, with uncontrollable tinplate cars running on heavy rubber track, it brought the speed and glamor of motor racing to suburban living rooms up and down the land. Classic marques of the day such as Aston Martin, Jaguar and Lotus featured in the early 60s scalextric sets and over the years that followed all the classic Formula 1 battles were re-created in schoolboy form, followed by sports cars, rally cars, and classic film re-creations such as the James Bond set of 1968, Batman and Knight...

One of the sensations of the 1952 Motor Show was a two-seat sports car built by Donald Healey at a small factory in Warwick in the English Midlands. Before the show was over Leonard Lord, head of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) had struck a deal with Healey to mass produce the car, and the Austin-Healey was born.
This car, the 100, took both the British and US markets by storm. A beautiful, brutish car, it was what many sporting motorists had been waiting for, and its use of many standard BMC components made it relatively affordable.

In 1956 the four-cylinder engine of the...

Sir William Lyons enjoyed a seemingly unstoppable rise to fame and fortune in the motor industry, and the Jaguar brand which he introduced became world-famous. Yet it did not happen overnight. In the 1920s he was in Blackpool, styling motorcycle sidecars, in the 1930s he was in Coventry developing the SS motor car, and the stand-alone Jaguar company did not appear until 1945. Until 1972, when he retired from business, Sir William was the mainstream, the chairman, the chief stylist, and the inspiration of all things Jaguar.

Helped along by the amazing new XK engine of 1948, by motor...

Matchbox toys were ubiquitous items for children across the Western world. Originally labeled Christmas-cracker trash by retailers and shopkeepers, the small-scale 1-75 series soon began to see unprecedented worldwide sales in the 1950s. Smaller and cheaper than most of its competitors' toys, Matchbox models were also far more accurately modeled, but the company has nevertheless seen its own share of competition and challenging times over the years.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Matchbox collector Nick Jones tells the story of Matchbox and its most famous toys, from the...