The book's rather pretentious subtitle is by no accident; Barrett-Jackson auctions are grand in the big-top Barnum & Bailey fashion. This book details the precedents that a family-run company set for other automotive auctions to follow, and due to Edsall's editing background, it's a good read. Best of all, Edsall devotes a great part of this book to some pretty noteworthy iron.
While most of us can't afford the six-digit gavel drops just to experience latent exotics like Chevrolet Camaros or Dodge Darts, this book offers great value; it takes us behind the scenes to show us how selling cars created a new generation of enthusiasts.
American Horsepower, 100 Years Of Great Car Engines
Motorbooks
If the engine is the soul of the car, "American Horsepower, 100 Years of Great Car Engines" is the gearhead's bible. True to the book's name, editor Mike Mueller compiled a list of the greatest soul-stirring American powerplants. Then, he did something near impossible: He pared that number down to 25.
These engines run the gamut from four to 16 cylinders, 20 to 500 horsepower, and 140 to 488 cubic inches. Every one of them was mass produced at one time or another, so it's not like he peppered the pot with a manufacturer's wet dream. Most importantly, he treats every engine equally.
The latter must've proved especially difficult, as only a bona-fide car nut could tell a compelling story about an engine, and every bona-fide car nut I know has a personal bias; however, Mueller approaches every engine with the zeal of its most ardent admirer. He sets the context with a back-story, goes into the events that transpired to create the engine, practically reads us the blueprints, and proves to us the engine's significance.
While this book retells the story of already famous engines like Ford and Chevrolet's V-8s, it does something more: It rekindles the fire for long-obsolete engines from long-defunct companies like Mercer and Hudson. Every one of these engines, no matter how obscure, is a stepping-stone of automotive history, and this book offers its reader a broad perspective. Who knows? After reading it, you might sound like you know what you're talking about!
Up In Flames, The Art Of Flame Painting
Motorbooks
It ain't a hot rod 'til it's flamed, or so the saying goes. By that note, a library ain't complete 'til it's got Tim Phelps and "Yosemite" Sam Radoff's "Up in Flames, the Art of Flame Painting." Phelps and Radoff teamed up with photographer Paul Westbrook to create what's quite possibly the most comprehensive-if not the only-compilation of practicing flame painters to date.
Phelps digs into these 18 artists' biographies to tell their stories. Even though each artist comes from different generations, different backgrounds, and different parts of the country even, a common thread binds their stories. They simultaneously illustrate how veteran artists influenced their junior contemporaries in the past and how old hands and protgs alike influence each other's work to this day.
Aside from showcasing examples of each artist's work, Paul Westbrook's detailed photography serves as a field guide for anyone looking for just the right flames for a particular project. Despite the fact that this is in fact a car book, he treats his human subjects with as much or more reverence than their four-wheeled counterparts.
If you're a fan of flames-whether on a flying fish or flanking an old Ford-"Up in Flames" will find a welcome place in your collection. We must warn you though; this book may inspire some weaker-willed readers to flame everything in sight!
Pinstripe Planet, Fine Lines From The World's Best
Motorbooks
Of all hot rod and custom practices, pinstriping may captivate enthusiasts the most. It's everywhere, as nearly every automotive expression from horse-drawn carriages to Top Fuel dragsters bear the mark of the local sword; it's easy to pick up, as anybody with a brush and some enamel paint is theoretically a pinstriper; it's also captivating, as success with that brush and paint eludes all but the dedicated.
That elite group is exactly who Herb Martinez focused on for "Pinstripe Planet, Fine Lines from the World's Best." Like "Up in Flames," "Pinstripe Planet" features detailed profiles of renowned pinstripers. The book addresses these artists in their respective geographic location per chapter: one for the U.S., another for Europe, and a third for Japan and Australia.
Thematically speaking, this book's first chapter differentiates "Pinstripe Planet" from "Up in Flames." Whereas "Flames" chronicles its genre's practicing artists, "Planet" makes no distinction; it extends its profiles to the pinstriping world's seminal players, some who are no longer with us. As a result, we get great synapses on guys we know well, like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, and guys we really should know better, like Tommy "The Greek" Hrones.
As a result of Martinez's perspective, we're treated to a chronological history-an unbroken line, if you will-that tells the modern pinstripe's story. "Pinstripe Planet," like "Up in Flames," constitutes a relatively new book genre that presents formerly overlooked automotive subcultures in the art-book venue, and for that reason they'll ultimately become cornerstones of any well-stocked automotive library.
Differentials, Identification, Restoration & Repair
Ring & Pinion Services
To count the number of automotive technical books would take a lot of fingers and toes. Then again, think of the last one you saw specifically devoted to axles and dedicated specifically to differentials. Writer and ASE-certified Master Tech Jim Allen and Randy Lyman-the latter best known as engineer and CEO of Randy's Ring & Pinion-noted this deficiency in the automotive aftermarket library and compiled "Differentials, Identification, Restoration & Repair." And from a gearhead perspective, it's one of the more-if not the most-comprehensive drivetrain-specific books.