The Jaguar D-type helped to establish the Coventry marque’s place in Le Mans 24 Hours folklore, thanks to three successive victories between 1955 and 1957. With its long, elegantly sculptured bonnet and distinctive tail fin, the D-type quickly became one of the world’s most recognisable sports racers – as well as one of the most successful in period. This book focuses on the fascinating history of XKD 526, one of only three D-types registered new in Australia. While its competition pedigree was forged at some internationally celebrated circuits – Bathurst and Longford, for instance – it also raced at delightfully named bygones such as Gnoo Blas and Catalina Park. This is a comprehensive history of its distinguished track record.
This book provides a detailed guide, in words and pictures, to correct factory specification and equipment of all models of the MG T-Series cars, from TA to TF1500, including the TA Tickford drophead coupé. However, for this book the cars featured have been photographed in considerably greater detail, providing more evidence of what is original and what is not in almost all respects. Body and exterior trim, chassis, interior furnishings and trim, dashboard, instruments and controls, lighting and electrics, brakes, steering and suspension, weather equipment, engine and transmission, paint and trim colours, options and tuning packages – all are covered, right down to the toolkit.
Written in collaboration with Gerry Coker, the designer responsible for the iconic Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, this volume represents the most complete account ever of the sports cars built at Warwick, Longbridge, Abingdon and West Bromwich. With unprecedented access to Donald and Geoffrey Healey’s private papers, diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums, corporate and financial records from BMC, Donald Healey Motor Company and Healey Automobile Consultants, the files of Jensen Motors and Nash-Kelvinator, dozens of personal interviews and exhaustive research into previously unavailable primary source material, this book provides a thorough account of the true story behind these automobiles and the individuals who created them.
Besides it covers the competition and record-breaking activities of the various models, specifications for every model produced, including the limited-production variants, and Donald Healey’s personal musings on racing and sports car design.
Rolls-Royce and Bentley relied upon standardised body designs after 1945, but for the next two decades both marques also supplied chassis frames separately, and it was possible to have these clothed with coachwork by bespoke coachbuilders like, for example, Mulliner, Park Ward and James Young in Britain, or Graber, Farina and Franay in Europe.
Many buyers took this route, and this highly illustrated book bears witness to the wide variety of styles that were built in this fascinating period. Chassis number lists for each coachbuilder, both in Britain and overseas, identify their creations, to make this a comprehensive and essential companion for anyone interested in Rolls-Royce and Bentley in the postwar era.
In this fully illustrated book, the history of the English house is revealed through an exhaustive and technical view of all the models produced from 1948 to the present day. Including technical features and a brief history of the logo.
In this book, the first in Porter Press’s new ‘Coachbuilt Cars’ series, author Richard Heseltine has untangled the Ghia Jaguar XK 120 Supersonic’s complicated story of British design brilliance and Italian design artistry.
Built on Jaguar XK 120 chassis number 679768, this car wasn’t unique: two other examples were made in 1954. But the trio was just one part of the charismatic Supersonic canon, which began with a one-off GT intended to contest the Mille Miglia.
This tale, of how Ghia wowed the car world with its jet-age styling, takes in several fascinating characters whose names have peppered the post-war story of Italian car design, engineering and racing.
Following on from Jim Stringer’s first book, ‘An Austin Anthology,’ this second volume unearths some more delightful vintage Austin stories, with original period photos, making this read a great pleasure for all Austin enthusiasts.
In 1935, when a small company in Coventry, England, launched a sporting saloon (i.e., sedan) called the Jaguar SS, it set in motion an inexorable process that would lead to Britain’s most beloved line of high-performance automobiles. The book covers the SS and all of the Jaguar's subsequent production models, from the original SS Jaguar to today’s F-Type sports cars, F-Pace SUV, X-Type sedans, as well as concept cars.
As with other books in the Complete Book Series, author Nigel Thorley organizes the content chronologically with entries for each year. Narratives for each discuss the cars and technology, while spec tables highlight key technical and performance specifications.
The MGA truly marked a revolution in MG sports car design, with its appearance quite unlike any previous production car from the celebrated British marque. Entering production in the summer of 1955, it broke with the time-honoured tradition of narrow-gutted, flat-sides, upright styling, with the distinctive large grille, exposed headlamps, separate wings and sharply cut-off tail that had serviced the majority of MG sports cars for well over thirty years. Many die-hard MG enthusiasts of the time were understandably outraged, but the decision to break with tradition proved to be a good one: over 100,000 cars were produced over the model's seven-year lifetime
Explores the design development and production of the Lotus Europa, Lotus’s first mid-engined road car. It covers the Renault-powered Series 1 and 2 cars, the Lotus Twin Cam-engined versions, and the Type 47 racing models.
Period Covered: 1966 to 1975
Models Covered: Lotus Europa 1966 - 1975. Covering the Europa S1 and S2, Twincam, and Special
The Ford Boss Mustang is the most iconic pony car ever created, and this book covers it more extensively than any other.
This book offers a complete history of the car—from its late 1960s origins in Ford's boardrooms through its Trans-Am successes and untimely demise in 1970, up to the conception and development of the spectacular, limited-edition 2012 and 2013 Boss Mustangs. Packed with brilliant photography and firsthand accounts from the people who created the original Boss, as well as the team that resurrected Ford's most iconic Mustang for the 21st century, this is the story every Mustang enthusiast has been waiting to read.
This book tells the story of Alvis and its cars, aero engines and military vehicles. Starting with the formation of the company in 1919, it traces the company's products through the 1920s and 1930s, and through its wartime exploits to its eventual takeover by Rover.
Contents:
The early four-cylinder cars
Early adventures with front wheel drive cars
The amazing six-cylinder cars produced through the 1920s and 1930s
Early ventures into armoured car and aero engine production
The post-World War II four-cylinder cars
The post-World War II six-cylinder cars
The Leonides range of post-World War II aero engines
The post-World War II military vehicles
James Taylor remembers very well the disappointment among his pretrol-head friends when the XJ-S was announced in 1975. It was not a replacement for the legendary E-type; its colours were uninspired; and its interior was drab. All credit, then, to those people at Jaguar who truly believed in the car and, over a period of nearly 20 years, turned the ugly duckling into a swan. From the moment the XJ-S HE arrived in 1981, there seemed to be renewed hope, and from then on, the car went from strength to strength to become the much-admirred grand tourer it always should have been. The book contains a timeline of the key events in the history of the XJ-S and an overview of the evolution of the XJS from the XJ27 prototype. There are Appendices covering identification/serial numbers, UK showroom prices through the years and sales in the US by year.
The Dax Cobra, Dax Tojeiro, Ram SC, Python Roadster, BRA 289, Brightwheel Viper and Southern Roadcraft SR V8 are the main subjects and each one of these famous Cobra replicas is comprehensively detailed with the history of its time in production, personalities involved and amusing anecdotes.
This book is designed to offer owners of TR6s an insight into some of the problems that can arise, and how to fix them. Arranged into easy to follow sections – engine, drive line, suspension, etc – you can see not only where the problems arise, but also how to solve them. Information is provided on improvements, owners’ clubs and spares suppliers to help keep your car in good condition and on the road.