General Automotive Reviews

Don't be surprised when you get a very small package from amazon! This is not a book, it is a two floppy disc set of unformatted ASCII text.

I rated this book with four instead of five stars because I expect a top notch book to be edited - these are far from edited - miss spellings galoar, bad punkshuashun, impropper gramer, edsedera, edsedera.

Iffin you think he is a college-edumacated writer - he's not, but he is a good mechanic and he knows where all the nuts and bolts go on this motor.

First off, some disclosure. I'm Chris Markham, past webmaster of the 356 Registry and editor of the "ABCs..." ver. 3.56www edition. This latest incarnation of the seminal work of the late "Maestro" Harry Pellow creates a true "e-book" of "The ABCs...", reviving the pictures missing from the floppy disk version, reconstructing the tables of data and correcting the myriad errors introduced to the text when the floppy disk version was created by scanning the paper version. The back story of the floppy version and why this new CD version exists is that the photo plates from the version 3.56 were lost in a flood and when the book went out of print the floppy was created by scanning and OCR-ing an unbound paper copy. Lost in this process were all the photographs that were in the v3.56. In addition, the Optical Character Recognition technology of the time was simply not up to the standards needed by a technical book and many typographical errors (of critical measurements!) were introduced as a result.

In 1999 I began an 18-month project to convert the ABCs from the electronic form to a modern CD delivery, and to Adobe PDF format. This new edition now includes all the photographs from v3.56 and indeed improves even on the book edition by locating the photgraphs close to the referring text.

Other improvements include use of modern, proportional fonts and italic emphasis (the Pellow books are famous for their monospaced typewriter font with ALL CAPS used by the author for emphasis). Tables were reconstructed and OCR typographic errors corrected. (This editor takes no responsibility for technical errors or omissions which were extant in the original print text; no improvements in content were done for this alternate format publication of the 3.56 edition.)

On the CD edition, there is included a screen version with "pages" wider than tall, using fonts optimized for screen viewing. Each chapter is also presented in a "print" version, which is formatted for desktop printing on 8.5" x 11" paper, using fonts optimized for print output. There is a navigation screen, some introductory help on how to use the CD edition, scans of the books' photographs provided independently of the book versions--which are necessarially scaled small to fit within the pages--in high-res format.

The screen version is one complete PDF file, allowing for easy searching of any word, so an index--a great lacking of the print edition--is rendered unnecessary. Links from the first page of each chapter of the screen edition take you to the same chapter of the print edition to make printing that one or two pages for the workshop an easy proposition.

Harry Pellow was kind enough to allow me this undertaking and ammended the preface introducing the new edition. This, the Polizei car pictures, and my allowed colophony chapter on the production details for the CD-ROM version are the only additions since the v3.56 print edition.

I will leave it to others to comment on the content and value of this book; the fact that I undertook the conversion for the good of the 356 community tells where my opinions lay. Suffice to say that in the CD-ROM form, the book has never been more useful, and certainly anyone with only the floppy-disk version owes it to themselves and their 356 to get this the latest edition.

Harry Pellow, aka The Maestro, has written, without a doubt, the most authoritative and interesting book on Porsche 356 and 912 engines ever written. You get "hands on" knowledge on how things work, humor, politics, and a whole lot more. If you care about your 356 or 912, you need this book in your library. Even if you don't own a Porsche, this book makes for a fine read.

Most factual, true to life book on what it takes to give quality service in the trucking industry. Should be read by trucking execs, all levels of management, and especially drivers. I highly recommend it.

We are using this little book this week to train our 887 employees in HOW to give our customers great, memorable service in the very competitive trucking industry. We have more competitors than ever before and the ideas Chuck Clowdis gives in his book will differentiate use from the mediocre! Thanks for the skill and experiemce so expertly, but simply, given in this text!

Roger Enright

I saw this book used as the center-piece for a motor carrier's training effort. It was superb and turned a mediocre operation into a customer-sensitive, and PROFITABLE operation in just a few months. The book addresses actual problems trucking people encounter and shows HOW to handle these situations and deliver QUALITY, a rare commodity in the US trucking industry.

Being an F1 fanatic, I had just finished the great book by Murray Walker. Looking for another 'good' book about F1, I found this gem on Amazon. Mad Dog is among other things, a fighter and you have to give him credit; getting into the worlds most expensive sport with no cash is quite a feat.

The book is very well written in a Conversational style that makes you feel like one of the 'rat pack'. Like F1, it's paced at the speed of taking Eau Rouge flat out. After reading this story, you certainly wish you were one of the blokes lined up to give him money. He has a charm and whit that is infectious and translates well in print. I strongly recommend this book. Not to learn about F1, but to learn about Perry. To learn something of risk, gambles and the will to succeed at all costs. The parallel stories of his mates; Hill, Blundell and Herbert are equally entertaining. The overall story of his father, who was foreshadowing Perry's own career choices and paths, is a welcome angle to this book as well. In short, this book was a total surprise and treat for anyone that just likes good stories of life and struggles in the motor racing world.

To Perry, I say good luck to you sir. You have had a difficult road to travel but what memories it has provided for you, and now me.

A well written and very funny account of breaking into formula 1.

I read 15-20 motor racing related books per year, and this one has to be right at the top of the list in entertainment value & a general lesson in life. When I purchased it, I had little knowledge of who the author was; I knew from following Formula One that he had flirted with a drive in that category, and I knew he had some sucess in sports car racing, but I knew nothing else about his career or life.
Mr. McCarthy has a truely unique style of writing that lets the reader re-live all of the ups & downs with him. He writes very freely, just as if he were talking to you; much like the style of Niki Lauda in his autobiography. Parts are as funny as anything I have read in this genre, & parts make you wonder why he keeps going back to bang his head against the wall, literally.
Through the entire book, & it sounds like his entire life, he never looses his sense of humour, or sight of his goal. This guy has perseverance!
I was totally entralled from cover to cover, but I do admit I was surprised that he didn't go into a little more detail concerning his races. I then realized that I could go to one of the many racing annuals & read race detail, but he was giving me a behind-the-scenes look at the sport, not usually available.
This is a great book, & I highly recommend it to anyone who either aspires to a goal, or has driven a car, or wants to drive a car...or has seen a car...

Generally, "GTO Red Book" is a good reference source for people wanting to restore their 1964-1974 Pontiac GTO. It has most of the information serious performance buffs are looking for. However, there are some faults with this book that range from trivial to irritating to serious. I agree this book will generally work for fans of the GTO's more-pedestrian sister models, the Tempest, Tempest Custom and LeMans (e.g., a grocery-getter Tempest Custom sedan or a Tempest coupe with a high-performance engine). However, there are some people out there interested in options and option codes for the Tempest and LeMans models, too. Also, a listing of dealer-installed and Custom accesories will definitely assist in helping the serious mid-sized Pontiac fan build anything from a taxi to family sedan to high-performance brute. Also, where are the installation rates of the various options and accessories? Sure, this information might not be available, and might be included in a future edition of this book, but it still is a glaring oversight that some might find valuable. While I hope there will be a future edition of "GTO Red Book" in the future, I think an even better idea might be to include Pontiac's other high-performance models (and their sister lines) as well (e.g., Catalina 2+2 and other related models, such as the base Catalina, Star Chief and Bonneville lines; Firebird; etc.). Though I rate this book at 4 stars, it could have been better. A book like this will undoubtedly meet many needs, but it ought to meet even more.

This book has a lot of very good information in it. The only thing I would like to see is more photos of options on the cars, like seats, gauges,shifters, etc. But overall it is a very informative book.

This book is a must have if you are serious about buying, selling, or restoring a GTO. The information it contains can save you alot of time, money, and aggervation.

I'll offer a dissenting opinion. I didn't find the information in the book to be all that informative. There's little if anything different from what the manufacturers claim in their literature. Some of the sections seemed to be direct quotes from the manufacturers. Too brief, too many short blurbs. For me, it didn't help to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff in the aftermarket.

Tom Currao put together an excellent book! I found each page to be exciting and filled with relevant detail. I was also able to identify with Tom's book because I also use the Mr. Gasket Desktop Dyno application for "figuring" out engine combinations. A handy list of suppliers is provided as is also an index. I feel that Tom's book has the best opportunity to become the defacto standard for replacing the now dated How to HOTROD Big-block CHEVYS book. I think that the book will be of special appeal to "grassroots" racers like me who need to be budget conscious while trying to go as fast as possible.

This book contains lot of recommendations during engine building. Only somebody with enough experience could write it. Don't miss it!

This excellent book does NOT cover all Nissan overhead cam engines, only the now-ancient L types. Since the title addresses overhead cam engines and the current edition is 1998, I had hoped my 1989 GA16i overhead cam engine would be covered. It isn't. So, if you have a newer Nissan engine, buy this book anyway for the great advice and techniques but also get a separate shop manual for your engine. And I hope the author will update this book soon to cover the newer engines.

This book was of great assistance to me during the rebuild of my Datsun 240Z. The information was instrumental and helpful all along the way. Compared to the Haynes and Chilton manuals, this book presented pictures and words which matched and cohered to what I was doing on the motor at the time. Also the amount of illustrations and clarity were excellent, as a picture is worth a thousand words. Aside from the Nissan shop manual which you can't get your hands on I feel this is the best publication to have at your side during any Nissan rebuild.

Bring back the Z-car!

I have just used this text in addition to a factory manual and another third party publication. Whenever there was ambiguous or missing information in the other two texts Monroe's always came through. The clear photo's were a real bonus when the words were hard to understand. I found the torque specs. to be spot on and this was confirmed by the factory manual. I guess you have to know your ft/lbs from your Nm's. I did not have any trouble fitting the front cover as per Monroe's instructions and the head gasket suffered no damage. The rebuild was made much easier with this manual and I would have no hesitation recommending it.

The sequel to "The Last Open Road" it is a must read for readers who loved it. As a stand alone book it isn't quite as good and might not be appreciated as much if read by itself. "The Last Open Road" is multi-dimensional, it is a great car tale and also a coming of age story of a young man who wants to be a sportscar mechanic and is pursuing a girlfriend at the same time. All three threads are intertwined. The book is wonderfully evocative of time and place, you can smell and feel the summer nights which he describes. In "Montezuma's Ferrari" the protagonist is a successful mechanic and married so the focus is mostly on the car tales and the descriptions are not as engrossing but the book is still wonderful.

This book is Beatufiuly written and is very entertaining. If you have not read any thing by Mr. Levy you must read this book.Like catcher in the rye? Read this book. the advertising section is beautifully done . Come on be cool.NOW BUY THIS BOOK AND ENJOY IT!

If you read "The Last Open Road" and enjoyed it, you'll enjoy "Montezuma's Ferrari" as well. There's more adventures involving an increasingly worldly and less awkward Buddy. Although this book would stand alone, it has more meaning after first reading Open Road. They are both books that make you laugh out loud in the wrong places...like airplanes and public transportation. Unfortunately, if you're like me, the book is so entertaining it ends all too quickly. And the ending is a little abrupt. So If you're reading Burt, let us please have some more.

For a T-Bird restoration enthusiast, this book is an amazing resource. The pictures are mostly in black and white. Color would've made it '5-stars'. Nontheless, without a shadow of doubt the book itself is truly a T-Bird lover's collector item. There is a great lot of detail on the A-40 (1954-1957) models. Since I'm doing a 1957, it truly works for me.

I have owned this book for about 16 or 17 years. It is a fine reference piece, but it should not be compared to current Thunderbird books. There are scores of close-up photographs that show the finer points of Thunderbirds, from the Volumatic Radio to the SwingAway Steering Wheel. The black and white photos do not in any way detract from the history or technological correctness of everything that is presented. If you need color photographs then look elsewhere. If you want well-researched data and wonderful close-ups, then this is the book for you. The book itself is a collector's item because of its period correctness and the fact that when it was published there was no other book that could come close to it in lavishness or completeness. I think that still holds true today.

This book has a lot of good information on 1955 thru 1966 Thunderbirds. Although not complete with respect to information on every aspect of a concours restoration, and hindered by mostly black and white photos of the details of each year, it is still an excellent resource for anyone restoring a 1966 or older Thunderbird. It is especially good for those interrested in the two seaters from 55 - 57. This is a good book for the Tbird owner as well as those who just plain love what is probably the most innovative and trend setting car of the post war era. A must have for any Thunderbird lover.

The title of the book is decieving for while the archival pictures are quiant, this is not a diffinative historical picture filled book on the Vespa. It's a pictorial book about the Douglas Motorcycle companies relationship with Vespa, nothing else. There are basic attempts to detail what happened in the two companies history and the models that were produced but it isn't what the title makes it out to be. Buy it if you just want to know more triva, not for hard core data like you would want to know on specific models Vespa made and when they made them.

This really is a great book with wonderful pictures. The title is very misleading in terms that it is in no way a definitive history of Vespa.

It is however a very valuable resource on the Vespa in the UK and Douglas motorcycles. If you already have an interest and other resources on the Vespa history at large, and a passing interest in the socio-economic conditions in the UK in relation to the rise and fall of British motorcycle companies (a stretch, but I certainly do), the book is a must have.

Some time is spent on the earlier Vespa clubs in the late 40s and early 50s, as well as detailed information on UK-only modifications and offerings well into the 1960s. Several pictures offer insight into Vespa production facilities and methods.

For those who don't know of Eric Brockway- this man was not only the honorary vespa club of Britain president for many years (sadly passed away but not forgotten!) he was also managing director of Douglas motorcycles during the years they imported and built Vespas in Bristol. Eric knew more about vespa (pre p-range and after) than anyone I've ever met or heard of- a lovely man with a wealth of hands-on experience. The book is well worth the price and no Vespa (or motorcycle/motor-scooter) book collection would be complete without it.

This is an extraordinary book. A great mix of photos and text, which includes not only bios of some of the famous truck lines, but information on technological progressions in fire fighting, and how this impacted the work of the individual fire fighter. Unless it's an action shot of an actual fire, with smoke and flames, each photo is taken on a beautiful, sunny day, on which each truck is also immaculate. This is a lot like each of our categorical memories of these trucks from earliest youth. There's just some kind of intense coolness factor that surrounds fire trucks, even as they became boxier and more industrial looking, especially after governmental rules were changed to require all personnel to ride inside, no longer allowed to cling to the back or ride on the running boards.

For years I kept this book in the lobby of our firm, and everyone loved it. Especially the fire dept. inspectors making their rounds to see if our fire extinguishers were at the proper height on the walls, and our "Exit" signs illuminated. Seeing them fixated on this book suggested that they'd rather be riding in the wind, with one of those emblematic Dalmations, then writing me up for having too many extension cords snaking back to a single outlet.

So why only 4 stars? Because the author missed including any W.S. Darley fire trucks, made right here in Illinois without interruption for almost 100 years. Add a Darley, and I give it 5 stars.

Great general reading / coffee table material on the fire engine and the fire services. Wonderful historical material and some great real life stories. This book covers the complete history of the fire service from the earlier horse drawn fire apparatus to modern equipment. Details what equipment has been used for over the years and how it has evolved to become what is is today. BEAUTIFUL Photography throughout. My only complaint is it is a bit slanted towards west coast fire departments (I believe the author is from California). Nonetheless, Highly recommended by this reader.

I really like this book, Mr. Halberstadt did and excellent job in describing the San Jose Fire Dept. and many other departments on the west coast of the USA. I think the Damaltion in the from cover is a very cute dog and the pictures of real action firefighters are great. The historic pictures are rare and some of the modern piece of apparatus are also depicted very well. You can tell that the author went through great lenght is researching his material and documenting it prior to publishing it.