General Automotive Reviews

Excellent book with very good photography. Have purchased many books by Randy Leffingwell and happy with all of them. (This is the best though)

This book offers great pictures and unique insights into the background of some of the most desireable muscle cars of the 60s and 70s.

Of particular interest are the backgrounds offered with the Baldwin Motion, Yenko, & Shelby cars.

Great book.

A photographically rich history of the Motor Company. From the beginnings in 1903 up through the Evolution, this book covers the rich history of HD and the riders that have kept them going through the years

Big book for lovers of the big bikes, don't miss "THE SECOND COMING OF AGE" by: Vedrine

This book contains a plentitude of information about the 3 series from the "02" series to the second generation, including a generous M3 section. The only downside was the lack of differentiation between British and American models, which could be frustrating to some.

This is a very well-written book. It covers history of BMWs before and during the 5-Series. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Bimmers.

No NASCAR driver showed greater grit and determination than Robert Arther Allison. Born in Miami in a large family, Bobby Allison learned competitiveness right away. He started racing in Hialeah, Florida under an alias, and his mother's first sight of his racing came when he tumbled down the frontstretch right in front of her.

Ben White, of Winston Cup Scene, authors this overdue look back at a stock car career filled with triumph - and ultimately destroyed. He includes voluminous quotes from Bobby Allison on the entirety of his career.

Allison, his new wife Judy, and their year-old son David Carl moved from Miami to Hueytown, Alabama in 1962 to race on that state's rich short track circuit. Bobby was soon joined by younger brother Donnie, and the two built a race shop that soon became famous throughout the sport. It was in Alabama that Bobby struck up a friendship with Charles "Red" Farmer, perhaps the state's greatest short tracker, and a future winner of Daytona's Permatex 300 for superspeedway Late Model Sportsman cars. Bobby and Donnie would also take under their wing a happy-go-lucky pipe fitter who competed against them, named Neil Bonnett.

Bobby Allison competed in NASCAR's Modified Tour and finished high in points several times, but his goal was the Grand National Series. He began competing there almost immediately with his own equipment, and in 1966 at Oxford, Maine, he drove a well-worn Chevrolet to his first Grand National victory. He won several more times that year and early in 1967, but then came the first big break. Holman-Moody was the primary raceshop for Ford's Grand National efforts, and with Richard Petty driving his Plymouth to 27 wins that year, Ford went berserk looking for a driver who could stop him. Fred Lorenzen recommended Bobby Allison, and at the tail end of the 1967 season, Allison won at Rockingham and at Ashville-Weavervile, NC. The win at Ashville came after a heated car-banging duel with Petty - but the first of such showdowns.

By 1969 Allison had left Holman-Moody and joined up with Mario Rossi of Dodge. Campaigning Rossi's #22 Dodges and those fielded out of his own Hueytown shop, Bobby ran for the Grand National title, but finished a frustrating second to Bobby Isaac in 1970.

Along the way, Bobby had acquired sponsorship from Coca-Cola, and it proved vital over the next two seasons. The withdrawal of the factories from NASCAR injured the sport greatly, even though in 1971 Winston cigarettes came on board with a series sponsorship package that would eventually overcome the recession caused by the factory withdrawal. Without the factories, Allison left the defunct Rossi team and was very hard pressed to campaign his own cars. Finally, in May of that year, Ralph Moody of Holman-Moody came calling again, and Bobby took his Coke sponsorship into what would prove to be one of the strongest rides he'd ever had. Bobby rocketed to nine wins in the Holman-Moody Mercury and during this stretch challenged Richard Petty week in and week out. The result was some of the most exciting racing the sport had ever seen - and some of the nastiest, for no two personalities clashed more viciously than Richard Petty and Bobby Allison. The most dramatic clash of the two in 1971 came at the Talladega 500. Three wide with Pete Hamilton in the final mile, Allison slapped doors with Petty, sending him into Hamilton and sending both off the track.

When Holman-Moody disbanded after 1971, Allison took his Coke backing to the Chevrolet team of Charlotte Motor Speedway president Richard Howard, a car wrenched by winning team owner Junior Johnson. The key to the pairing was the hiring of engine builder Robert Yates, with whom Allison had worked at Holman-Moody. The combination pulled down ten victories and led over 4,000 laps, and it too everything Richard Petty could muster to win eight races and stave off the hard-charging Allison in the 1972 points race. This was most decisively shown at North Wilkesboro, NC in October of that year. The two fought ferociously over the course of the final 50 laps, and when Allison became trapped behind a lapped car, the resulting wreck would have eliminated anyone else, but Petty and Allison still went at it, Petty winning with a hard last lap pass. The crowd nearly rioted afterward, and Petty had to be taken to safety after a fan accosted him.

Such feuds were common with Bobby. White unwisely underplays the feuds Bobby had with other drivers, notably Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and Terry Labonte. Such feuds deserve retelling if for no other reason than for their frequency and ferocity. Allison's determination to win was his greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness, for it led to incidents that were generally avoidable.

One such incident was the controversial National 500 at Charlotte in 1973. Allison protested the 1-2 finish of Cale Yarborough (in the Howard/Johnson Chevrolet) and Richard Petty, claiming both cars ran engines with more cubic inches than allowed by the rules. It turned out Cale's engine was indeed illegal - White implies that Petty's engine was likewise illegal, failing to note that only three of Petty's eight cylinders were checked, and that they averaged out to the then-legal limit of 431 cubic inches - and when the race results stood, Allison filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, a suit dropped after a closed-door meeting with NASCAR president Billy France.

Losing the 1972 title contributed to Bobby leaving the Richard Howard-Junior Johnson team to try again with his own equipment, but each time he ran his own team, "he broke himself," said Donnie Allison. It got so bad that, in 1977, his health deteriorated, and he required trips to the Mayo clinic - trips that seemed to catch most observors off guard.

Allison continued to win in the 1970s, driving for Roger Penske and Bud Moore, but it was with DiGard Racing that Allison achieved his goal of the Winston Cup championship. This time Bobby's arch-enemy was Darrell Waltrip, in the Junior Johnson car. Allison missed no opportunity to taut the Waltrip/Johnson pairing as the NASCAR-approved "company car," and also missed no opportunity to beat them on the track. Allison's 1982 season was what any racer could want - sweeps of races at Daytona and Pocono, and wins at Dover, Michigan, Richmond, and Atlanta - but no championship. The title finally came in 1983, and was the apex of a superlative career.

It was downhill after that. DiGard team owners Jim and Bill Gardner - known in the sport as money guys, for their status as businessmen rather than racers - were essentially con artists, and their race team, built more as a tax write off than anything else, was neglected, especially after the 1983 championship. Ben White provides the alternately fascinating and depressing details of the fall of DiGard Racing, a downfall fully consummated when first Allison, then Robert Yates and crew chief Gary Nelson, quit in 1985.

Allison wound up with Bill and Mickey Stavola, and by the 1988 Daytona 500 his son Davey was a Winston Cup star. The two finished 1-2 in one of the sport's most poignant finishes - a poignancy that took on a more tragic quality that June. On the opening lap of the Miller 500 at Pocono, Allison hit the wall in Turn Two, slid low, and was slammed through the driver's door at full speed by part time racer Chauncy "Jocko" Maggiacomo. Only quick work by the track's safety crew kept Allison on the threshhold of life, but even though he would recover, the crash destroyed Bobby's career.

And it was just the beginning. Bobby formed a race team out of the remains of the team he had won Daytona with, and campaigned for seven seasons with such drivers as Hut Stricklin, Jimmy Spencer, and Derrike Cope. Bobby had a strong deal with Buick, and with them made a very strong effort for race wins in 1991, but when GM disbanded all non-Chevrolet racing efforts other than Pontiac's for 1992, it started the downfall of Bobby Allison Motorsports.

The deaths of Bobby's sons Clifford and Davey - followed by the death of Bobby's lifelong friend and protege Neil Bonnett in 1994 - accelerated the downfall, and affected Judy Allison all the worse. Everything - the race team, and the marriage of Bobby and Judy - finally collapsed in 1996, and by 1997 Bobby was essentially a ruined man; even the mammoth collection of racing trophies he had acquired over his years of racing had to be sold off.

It is a depressing story, not made any better by a somewhat overly optimistic quality in White's retelling. Even the title is a bit deceptive - what had been a Circle Of Triumph has become a Circle of Futility.

But for all that, Bobby Allison's life - and this excellent book - remain worth remembering

This man had an uphill climb right from the get-go,and it seems that EVERYTIME he got almost to the top, SOMETHING or SOMEONE would chop him off at the knees.Then he would start all over again. The WORST thing a father can do is bury a child... HE did 2, plus a couple of close friends along the way AND if that ain't enough.. his wife leaves him! HE starts climbing again. GET the book!

Motavalli has produced a stimulating, always readable account of the traffic woes that beset us, taking as his starting point the gridlock that faces commuters in southwestern Connecticut every morning. He considers new approaches such as ferries, "clean" buses, bicycles, light rail--his message is that just about anything that gets us out of our cars is good.

This book is best read as a companion to Motavalli's earlier book on the new non-polluting cars with hydrogen-fuel-cell technology that are just around the corner--although he recognizes the irony that clean cars are no less a cause of gridlock than their dirty brethren.

In the face of increasingly long and difficult commutes and rocketing gas prices comes a title which explores not one but a range of viable options for transportation. Introductory chapters examine the state of the U.S. transportation system and introduces the technology and choices which can help re-create systems for the future. Examinations of the nation's most congested suburbs and cities provide critiques and suggested models for future transportation alternatives. An important guide.

a good reference book for making a car purchase decision. we utilized a non-profit organization listed in this book to guide us through a safe car purchase

I read this entire book and when it was time to go and buy my first car it helped me a tonm it was defanitly worth every cent that i payed for it.

BUY IT!

If your looking for a book that can explain how various suspension designs and characteristics can effect the dynamics of motor vehicles this is for you.

You don't have to be an engineer to follow the concepts. An excellent starting point for budding automotive engineers. The book only lacks in not taking it to the next step, looking at specific setups with precise specifications, even as a case study.

To be fare though, the book does not set out to do this, but does extremely well what it does aim at - Giving an understanding of the concepts, pros and cons of most common auto suspension and drivetrain arrangements.

I tried this book because I wanted some introduction on car suspensions. Also I needed some some basics to help me on designing my own car suspension. I found this book with a good general introduction to what's already done, explanations for basics, principles and definitions, and full chapters talking about tyres, steering, handling, etc. It gives clear concepts and examples on the equations used to design and demonstrate what suspensions are about. In General, I found it with good examples, very well organized and by the way, Great pictures and diagrams. Good book!

This book has proved me with references for my models for every state except Hawaii of course. Although it is in B&W and not updated every year it is still a great buy.

This book was bought solely to be used as a reference source for my model making hobby. Well laid out and excellent photographs make this a must for the model fanatic. Living in England there is not a great deal of decent reference material of this nature. So it was a pleasant suprise to be able to order this book on line and receive it within days and at an excellent price. I really cannot reccomend this book enough.

This book has helped tremendously with my Carter 9605 carburetor. I had minimal understanding of carburetor function before reading this book, and now I have a solid understanding of carburetion in general and an even more detailed understanding of Carter carburetors. Everyone knows Holleys, but few know Carters and Edelbrock Performers (which are just dressed up Carter AFB's). They're not as complex as most are led to believe. The only downside is that the chapters aren't clearly titled. Chapter 6 "Carburetor Tuning" isn't at all carburetor related, although the information is still good. It gives tips on other components of the car. For carburetor tuning procedures you have to look under Chapter 5 "Modifications". Otherwise it's a great book.

A Complete Quide of all the Carter Thermo-Quad, AFB, AVS & WCFB models. Great tips on proper selection and installation as well as modifications for performance and rebuilding. A MUST have for all Cater carb owners.

Joe Sherman has done justice to the fact that we can't always get what we need. He hot only tells the story of James Worden and MIT but delves into the picture of the world oil producers, and the big three, as partners in making things the way they are... for good or ill, is left up to you to determine. Thought prvoking and a fast read, it will leave you with a lot of questions to pursue if you dare, and asking why can't I buy one!

This book beautifly outline the trials and tribulations of one of the most advanced solar car companies. Serious information and humor are inter-twined to make this book quick reading and very informative.