Page-turners for gearheads
It’s become an annual tradition. For the past two years on this date I’ve written columns about giving books as Christmas gifts. Here, then, for the third year in a row is a list of suggested titles that should make any gearhead happy on Christmas morning.
Rockin’ Garages: Collecting, Racing & Riding With Rock’s Greatest Gearheads Cars and music have mixed in popular culture since the advent of the motoring age, and some of the best performers — whether guitarists, drummers or pianists — are also serious automotive enthusiasts.
Take, for example, Nick Mason. As the original drummer for Pink Floyd, Mason’s beats have been heard on some of the most influential music of our time. That Mason has a serious passion for vintage racing might come as a surprise. However, in Rockin’ Garages: Collecting, Racing & Riding With Rock’s Greatest Gearheads (Motorbooks, ISBN: 978-0-7603-4249-7, $39, www. motorbooks.com) Mason shares stories about both the band and his obsession with going fast in outdated automobiles. Mason isn’t the only rocker featured in the book. Authors Tom Cotter and Ken Gross captured the stories of 20 artists, from Arlo Guthrie to Brian Johnson (AC/DC) to Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac). Capturing the stars with their machines are 217 colour photographs shot by Michael Alan Ross. The diversity of iron is amazing, from custom hotrods to muscle cars to sports and race cars to motorcycles, and Ross was given a free pass to visit the musicians in their homes and garages. If you know someone who likes rock and roll — and cars — this hardcover book is for them. The Harley in the Barn:
More Great Tales of Motorcycle Archaeology Author Tom Cotter has been a busy writer. Not only did he coauthor Rockin’ Garages, he also found time to pen another title in his popular “In the Barn” series.
Famous for his The Cobra in the Barn, The Corvette in the Barn, The Hemi in the Barn and The Vincent in the Barn books, Cottar has managed to track down several more stories dealing with hidden treasure.
In The Harley in the Barn: More Great Tales of Motorcycle Archaeology (Motorbooks, ISBN: 978-0-7603-4234-3, $29, www. motorbooks.com), Cottar shares more than 40 tales detailing the thrill of discovering machines that time forgot — from BMWs to Indians.
Most of the stories are short — some less than a page or two — which makes for quick and easy reading. Like the tale of Dave Spilka, an automotive picker, who discovered a rare BSA Gold Star abandoned in a backyard. He was removing an old car from the property when he saw the BSA literally holding up a fence.
The owner told him to take it away, too. Spilka gave it to friends Jack Batson and Lanny Hyde, and they eventually restored the BSA as a vintage motocross machine.
There are many more tales of motorcycle archeology, and the tome is great armchair fodder for those who dream of discovering dust, grease, oil and metal. Automotive Mysteries Myths and Rumours
Revealed Tidbits of motoring fact and fiction are either confirmed or debunked in this interesting book from writers Preston Lerner and Matt Stone.
They pick apart some of the most enduring automotive stories, including delving into rumours that pieces of James Dean’s fateful Porsche brought bad luck to those who purchased them.
The chapter starts, “LEGEND: The Porsche that movie icon James Dean was driving when he died continued to kill and injure people long after his fatal crash.”
Very well researched, the story of Dean’s racing aspirations and his Porsche 550 Spyder, in which he and mechanic Rolf Wutherich were killed while driving on Highway 466 in California, are then laid out over the next 12 pages. Many rumours about the car postcrash have circulated, and this book shines a powerful light on them.
“VERDICT:” well, we can’t ruin the ending.
There are 25 stories in Automotive Mysteries Myths and Rumours Revealed (Motorbooks, ISBN: 978-0-7603-4260-2, $29, www.motorbooks.com), and they all start and end the same way, with a legend and a verdict. Several different motoring subjects are covered, from industry to racing to pop culture, from historical to modern day.
“Read it and be amazed,” claims the publisher’s news release. Indeed.
Art of the Hot Rod
Some automobiles are perceived to be utilitarian, function- ing to move family or cargo. Other automobiles, however, do more than move people. They move emotions.
There’s no shortage of car enthusiasts who proclaim the car is art, and Art of the Hotrod (Motorbooks, ISBN: 978-0-7603-4300-5, $32.99, www.motorbooks.com) showcases some of the finest examples of rolling sculpture found in North America.
First published as a hardcover book in 2008, Art of the Hotrod was reprinted in 2012 and is now a flexibound softcover. The covers don’t much matter. It’s what is captured between them.
Writer Ken Gross visits 20 of the best builders, delving into their backgrounds and then describing what each of them brings to the world of custom car construction.
Not to diminish Gross’s words, but it’s the 300 colour photographs by Peter Harholdt that make this book hard to put down.
For anyone on your shopping list who might be looking for inspiration on a current build, or who sees sheet metal fabrication and the subsequent machine as an art form, this book would be a delight if found all wrapped up under the tree.