Kategoria BISAC: Transportation >> Automotive - History

This is the story of VW's timeless classic, the Type 2 Transporter, universally known as the "Bus." It is sixty years since the idea of VW's Transporter was conceived by Dutchman Ben Pon after seeing motorized trollies conveying components around the British-managed Wolfsburg factory in the mid-1940s. With blueprints complete by November 1948, the "Bulli" as it was known in Germany went into production a year later. The 100,000th Transporter was built in October 1954, the millionth in 1961 and the 3 millionth in 1971, the total number of vehicles exceeding 6.5 million. The Transporter...

Covering the design, development and manufacture of the car as well as its motorsport history, Triumph TR6 is dedicated to the last traditional open-topped TR sports car with a separate chassis. It shows how this last bastion of traditional British sports car motoring went against the grain of troubled automotive times, outstripping its predecessors in sales and popularity.

The R-Series BMW MINI had a lot to live up to.

Launched in 2001, it was riding in the wake of the classic 1959-2000 Mini. At the time, BMW were going to have to create something as special and innovative as its longstanding predecessor in order to silence the naysayers. And they did. Since its launch in 2001, BMW's modern MINI has become the pinnacle of small yet funky family cars in the premium small (and sometimes not so mall) car segment.

Now in its third generation, having unveiled the new F-Series in 2014, BMW MINI offers 3- and 5-door hatchback models and convertibles,...

As quintessentially British as a plate of fish and chips or a British Bulldog, the boxy, utilitarian Land Rover Defender has become an iconic part of what it is to be British.

It is said that for more than half the world's population, the first car they ever saw was a Land Rover Defender. It mirrors many of our national traits, stiff upper-lipped and slightly eccentric. The car has remained relatively unchanged for nearly seven decades and has spawned an industry that includes dozens of publications, car shows, clubs, associations and even model car collectors who dedicate their...

Not only has Cosworth designed and supplied many race car engines, which won F1, CART, and many other Championship races, but it has also produced many celebrated high-performance road-car engines. In more recent times, its growing expertise in developing electronic data capture components, and in providing ultra-high-tech engine manufacturing facilities, have made it a world leader at many levels. The expansion continues, and in this book the Cosworth story has been brought up-to-the-minute to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the legendary DFV F1 engine.

Rolls-Royce is one of Britain's legendary car brands, representing the pinnacle of engineering quality and luxury like no other manufacturer. Since 1904, when Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce began their collaboration, the Rolls-Royce name has earned respect and admiration the world over.

This is the full story of Britain's premier luxury car-maker, from the early experimental models through the 40/50 Silver Ghost, the Twenty, the Phantoms, the Wraiths and their post-1945 successors, with evocative names such as Silver Shadow and Silver Seraph. It celebrates more than...

American Cars An Illustrated Guide is a celebration of everything that is great about the all American automobile. 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 brought and reflected. From the horseless carriages of early times and the aero designs of the 1940's (inspired by WWII fighter planes), right through to the retro look of today's models. Technical details, modifications made from their automobile predecessors, their performance and handling on the road, and the public's...

You had to know there would be a backlash, and rat rods are the backlash to the extreme. As a response to the high-dollar billet-based street rod trend, budget-limited home-based rod builders looked to the past for...

There have been other generations of Jaguar XK since, but the definitive incarnation is the family of 6-cylinder sports cars that stretch from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, from XK120 to the E-Type. On road, on track and on rally stage, they built the foundations of Jaguar s sporty image and giant-killing reputation, not to mention its commercial roots - especially in America. By any definition, the 6-cylinder XKs are at the heart of everything that Jaguar grew into. This is the complete story of the whole 6-cylinder XK generation, the circumstances, the people and the events that...

During the 1960s, more specifically during the height of the muscle car era, each manufacturer had at least one dealership that pushed the envelope, that created muscle cars beyond the factory offerings, that created a reputation so legendary that collectors pay real money strictly for the original chrome trunk tags that told the world that your car came from somewhere special. Chevrolet had Yenko, Nickey, and Baldwin-Motion; Chrysler had Spaulding Dodge; and if you were into Ford performance, you had to go to Tasca Ford.

Tasca Ford was not only a dealership that sold and specialized in...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Garbology explores the hidden and costly wonders of our buy-it-now, get-it-today world of transportation, revealing the surprising truths, mounting challenges, and logistical magic behind every trip we take and every click we make.

Transportation dominates our daily existence. Thousands, even millions, of miles are embedded in everything we do and touch. We live in a door-to-door universe that works so well most Americans are scarcely aware of it. The grand ballet in which we move ourselves and our stuff is equivalent to...

All car enthusiasts know about Shelby Mustangs, but what really separates them from their production-line relatives? What really makes a Shelby a Shelby? This new book from Shelby American Auto Club (SAAC) historian and registrar Greg Kolasa details the specifics on the performance and appearance alterations with both descriptive text and superb photographs.

This book gives a detailed look at both the performance and styling characteristics of each year of the 1965-1970 Shelby Mustangs in text, photographs, and charts/graphs and clears up many myths and misconceptions surrounding these...