General Automotive Reviews

"The American Road" is a fascinating historical work that chronicles an event that was of monumental importance that has been most forgotten in the public consciousness. In the summer of 1919, a U.S. Army convoy left Washington, D.C., bound for San Francisco. Two months later it arrived at its destination having fought incredible obstacles and hardships along the way. In doing so, the convoy dramatically pointed out to a nation just emrging from the first World War and entering the automobile age the need for good roads.

Author Pete Davies does a decent job of resurrecting the memory of The First Transcontinental Motor Train. He describes the trip in detail and recounts the contribution of its most colorful participants, including a young lieutenant colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower. The event was a spectacle all along the route, and even generated controversy between communities either included or left off the right of way. For most of the journey, the convoy followed the "Lincoln Highway," a privately funded project that was the first bicoastal road, but in 1919 in many places was actually little more than a line on the map.

As a work of history, "American Road" completes its mission well enough. Author Davies is a decent storyteller and he does a good job of setting the historical context and showing how the event was crucial to the development of America's national road system. The book's main drawback is that Davies chose to focus much of his attention on the relatively unintersting local political controversies along the route and not enough on the stories of individual soldiers in the convoy. Even the colorful "Ike" gets only a scant few pages of coverage in total. Also underutilized is the author's accounts of what the route looks like today, which are sprinkled in here and there without much rhyme or reason. On the plus side, the book contains a generous helping of photographs and a helpful route map on the inside covers.

Overall, a decent historical work that serves to rekindle the memory of the dawn of the American motor age.

Pete Davies has provided us with an interesting view on American history with his book American Road. I found the book interesting and engrossing, though Davies had a tendancy at times to divert off to a tangent that does not seem to be related to the topic at hand. Most of the topics he includes in the book give the reader a better understanding of how critical this transcontinental journey really was in forming modern America.

Davies' research is top-notch; he relies on primary sources including journals and newspaper accounts written at the time of the events.

The book is a great chronicle of early 20th Century Americana from a social perspective, including the trials and tribulations faced by the individuals during the cross-country journey.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the formation of modern America's motor age, but if you're only interested in understanding the Army's piece in this, you should consider skipping this book, because it doesn't do much with the military piece, despite the fact that the U.S. Army was responsible for the motorcade.

Pete Davies has done a spectacular job of capturing the enormity of this history-making undertaking. When you consider that less than 100 years ago there were less than 10 miles of paved road in the whole country and contrast that with today, it's mind-boggling what has been accomplished in such a short time.

And it's all because the automobile came along and people needed passable roads on which to drive them. The Trans-Continental Convoy held up an unavoidable magnifying glass for the citizens (and politicians) of the US so they would not need to ask, "What's wrong with our roads?" It became crystal clear. If you wanted your town and state to develop, you'd better get on the Good Roads bandwagon.

This book was particularly interesting to me because my father drove these trucks during World War One from the automotive centers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to Baltimore, using the Lincoln Highway. From Baltimore they were shipped overseas. In one of his letters, he remarked that it had been raining for three days straight, but they got by fairly well because most roads were gravel.

Although I'm sure the eastern most portions of the Lincoln Highway were probably in better repair than the western parts, The American Road gave me a good picture of what my father was up against.

The next time you drive down the Interstate, you can thank the foresight of some people in Detroit, the keen observation of a young Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower, and the sheer grit of the Convoy drivers, for showing the nation what had to be done.

Excellent book with the essencial info needed to understand the philosophy of the most famous car maker in the world. Customers looking for advanced technical information may feel disappointed, but the marvelous glossy pictures worth every buck spent.

'Ferrari,' quite simply, is the most beautifully photographed book on the cars from Maranello that I have ever seen. There is text, and it is helpful, but I find myself returning to this book time and time again just to drool over the pictures -- they are nothing less than stunning.

The book starts out with approximately 15 pages about Enzo Ferrari, the man; then there are maybe 10 pages about Ferrari, the marque; the next 330 pages(!) deal with the Ferrari cars in all their splendor: all color, many-times huge, (several full-spread -- roughly one foot high and two foot wide), highly-detailed and incredibly clear photos of the most gorgeous cars in the world.... perfect examples of priceless cars in absolutely wonderful settings; following the several hundred pages on the cars of Ferrari, there is one page devoted to the author and the photographer (Lehbrink, and Schlegelmilch, respectively); the book concludes with about 15 pages of specifications.

To provide a little more detail on the actual vehicles covered in the car section... There are more than 50 car-series included, starting with the Spider Touring (166 & 212) in 1948, and concluding with the F50 in 1995. The majority of the vehicles covered in this book are road cars, (many of those being the early road-and-racing cars, such as the original Testa Rossa; 250GT swb; GTO; etc), but other true competition vehicles are included -- a few examples would be the P-series cars (i.e. 330P4), the CanAm cars (350; 612; 712), and the 512M, 312PB, and 333SP. The number of photos for each series of cars range from about 6 to as many as 15 or more (often-times including interior, engine, and/or detail shots). There are roughly half-a-dozen paragraphs written about each car or series of cars (appearing first in English; then German; then French; then Spanish or Italian). As mentioned above, this section on the cars of Ferrari ends with the F50 introduced in 1995 (and therefore does not cover the 360 Modena nor the 550 Maranello).

As for the specifications part of the book... For each and every series of cars photographed and written about in the preceding section, there are corresponding details listed here. There are from 2 to 4 car-series on each page; for each series, there is a small line drawing representing the most common body-style for that particular series; then things such as all the model designations in that series, the years they were built, the total number built, and specifics for the engine, transmission, and chassis, as well as top speed, are listed.

For anyone who is looking strictly for reading material, whether it be the cold, hard facts, or someone's interpretation and personal bias on Ferrari... I would suggest you look to the myriad other books concerning themselves with the countless details about the history, drivers, race wins, squabbles, fights, and (sometimes) cars of Ferrari. However, if you want to "feel" Ferrari -- a 330GT sparkling in a field of Goldenrod; a 250GT Lusso patiently waiting on a damp, foggy road; or a 333SP tearing around a track with the surrounding scenery blurring by -- look no further. This book allows you enjoy the aesthetic side of the great Marque From Maranello -- it is photographic proof of the beauty of the rolling sculptures called Ferrari, and the artistry of (mostly) Pininfarina. This is the first book I've seen that lets you feel as if the cars are actually sitting in front of you -- it almost seems possible to reach out and touch these phenomenal machines.

Despite the correct comments on multilingual text by others, this is a fantastic book and a must have for any Ferrari library. The authors did several things correct. They created a large hard cover, high quality text, with many glossy color photos of great quality and interspersed useful information. They covered the full range of the car and gave due respect to some less popular, but no less worthy, models in the maker's history. You even get coverage on those Fiats with Ferrari engines etc. Overall a great book that does justice to a great car maker.

This is a good book for buying a Ferrari, it provides details on each model and provides useful insights. However, Ferraris should be seen in color and this book has only black & white pictures. Ferraris deserve to be seen in their brilliant colors and this book's pictures do not do the models justice. I have often said that there should be a law prohibiting publishers from printing black & white pictures of Ferraris and this book is no exception. Most Ferrari enthusiasts interested in buying a Ferrari would gladly pay more for this book to get color pics.

If you're just beginning the wonderful and endless journey into the universe of Ferrari, this book is a good place to start. Lots of useful background information, stats on models from inception to 1995 and helpful guidance on investment value. The black-and-white photos give this book a dated look, but the information is accurate and it's worth the price -- most Ferrari guides cost much more than this one. Good luck!

As a buyer who was unsure of the model i wanted, but knew i wanted a prancing horse in the garage, this book became well used. The information on each model, especially those that get less other text on the shelves at bookstores, was excellent. The worst part of this book was that it made me want to buy several models - a classic v12 and a newer v8. In summary, when i finally purchased my first ferrari, the pages of this book were as well worn as a shop manual at a sears automotive repair facility.

If you going to run biodiesel (or straight veggie oil) people are going to have lots of questions for you, because most people are still unaware of biodiesel and those that have heard of it may not know a lot. I always figure that to be ready to field questions on a complex subject such as biodiesel, you need to know the facts in quite a bit of detail so you can boil them down to simple responses without distorting the truth. This is the book that covers all these bases for anyone remotely interested in biodiesel: pros/cons, sustainability, pollution info, vehicle warranties, how biodiesel is made, veggie oil conversions, etc., it's all here. You must buy this book if you are even considering running biodiesel!

Tickell's groundbreaking work is filled with great information on the economics and potential of vegetable oil-based fuels, as well as detailed information on how to make biodiesel (suitable for any diesel engine), as well as how to modify a diesel car to run on free, recycled waste vegetable oil. I got a kit to do it myself, and drove my car from Colorado to Missouri and back, all for FREE on waste vegetable oil. It really works, folks. These simple ideas will change the petroleum economics that run our country and the world. Imagine, growing own own oil domestically. Bush family look out!

What can I say! Anyone who is tired of being ripped off by the big petroleum companies and tired of supporting all those middle east wars should buy this book now.
If you are worried about what your car is doing to the planet but don't know what to do about it, this book is for you also.

An easy to read step-by-step guide to multiple ways to run your diesel car on alternative, cleaner fuel.

Buy this book, implement the fuels as described and feel good about yourself.

This is a great book mainly because it is the only one of its kind. It covers many aspects of the science of pedal power.

I find that the data supporting some of the experiments, and the conclusions from that data, could use some more flesh. For example, I'm still not entirely sure why a larger diameter wheel has less rolling resistance, but the data supports that conclusion.

I agree with other readers that the book could use an update.

I think this is a great book IF you're a scientist (like me!). Like the other reviews say, it is a little dated - but results are results.
There is a wealth of info in this book, most of it is technical, and there is some fascinating things on human powered flight & HPVs.
I can't remember the exact figure that was quoted for the weights of some of the older historical bikes, but I find it hard to believe that there were such lightweights a hundred years ago (like 6kg). Knowing what I know, I just don't think it would have been feasible.

If you are interested, I wouldn't wait for an updated edition, because they might not make it, and this one is getting pretty darn hard to get.

Warning: I am an engineer with a Ph.D.. So I might enjoy some things that may other can't appreciate. Bicycling Science is for the bicyclist, or someone interested in human-powered vehicles (HPV), who has a background in science, engineering and/or mathematics. I absolutely love this book. There are few books that I've enjoyed more. The reasons why I don't give it five stars are below.

This book can help one separate reality from marketing hype. Does cutting down the weight of spokes really help much? How does crank length affect performance? What affect does cooling have on a cyclist? How much does the difference between cheap bearings and good bearings affect performance? How fast should you really pedal? Are aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber vastly superior to steel? How heavily is someone breathing when they begin breathing through their mouths? How efficient is a person on a bike (in energy per mass per person per speed) compared to a bus, moped, swimmer, horse or hopping bunny? How many wives can you trade your bike for in Nigeria? These questions, and many more, are answered in this book.

The style is very much that of an academic journal, and the book is a survey of the literature in the field. References abound. The authors do their best to combine the results from different sources into a coherent reference. If this style is familiar to you, then you will not feel out of place with this book.

Chapters in the book include those on human power generation, cyclist cooling, wind resistance, the wheel, mechanical friction, braking, balancing and steering, materials and stress, and future developments. I particularly like the chapter on stability, an apparently controversial topic. The chapter presents a plausible theory supported by experiment, and provides a simple equation to calculate a stability factor for a bike design. The book concludes with an interesting chapter on what advances can be made to bicycles and to the infrastructure to make biking more viable as a form of transportation.

I mainly did not give Bicycling Science five stars because it is getting out of date. I'm sure that much additional research has been performed since the 1982 copyright date, and many advances have been made in the last 20 years, particularly those as a result of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association (IHPVA). The materials section could add data for some of the newer materials used for bikes such as Reynolds 853 steel and some new titanium alloys. Also, the authors tried to present data from different sources on common graphs, and in some cases, I am still puzzled at how to interpret some of the plots. I also felt that sometimes I had a bunch of data dumped in my lap with no conclusions being drawn. For example, after reading the chapter on human power generation, I wasn't sure if one should always attempt to pedal at 90-100 RPM, or should reduce cadence for the required endurance.

My complaints are few and minor, however, and I highly recommend this book to the cyclist, or cycling aficionado, who relishes the math and physics.

The only book that I've heard of that seems to be similar is High-Tech Cycling by Edmund Burke. However, I've not seen it, and reviews of it seem few and far between.

I remember the original Cannoball race. I had hoped the book would contain some of the funnier moments from that one and all the subsequent ones. But instead it is mostly boring and disappointing, I think Brock Yates has lost his sense of humor. I went about a 1/3 into the book and put it down as it was getting painful to continue. I'd give it away but dont' know anyone that I dislike that much.

I read this book in two days. Very interesting if you're a car buff; probably dull if you're not. I think it's unfortunate and sadly ironic that Yates never saw "The Gumball Rally" because that film captured the spirit of the Cannonball race far better than "The Cannonball Run" movie that he was involved in. But as Yates points out, that's not his fault. Burt Reynolds took over the film and pretty much ruined the whole thing. When you watch "Gumball", you know it's a film put together by people that love cars and respect people that like to race them, eg. the scene where they roar through the empty streets of Manhattan at six a.m. will make you wish you're there. "Cannonball" is just a very badly written, cheaply executed comedy. The cars are merely an afterthought. (If you really want to experience a nightmare, watch "Cannonball Run II" - probably one of the three worst movies released in the eighties.)

I hope Yates will change his mind and give "Gumball" a viewing. Yeah, they stole the idea from him, as the copyright laws allow, but the film demonstrates why the race had to have been so intoxicating.

Brock Yates finally tells the real story behind the famous (or infamous, depending on one's POV) Cannonball Races. The reader finds out that although the movies tell some of the story, Yates and many of the participants tell the REAL story behind these illegal races. I fully agree with the picture of Car and Driver's December 1975 issue: The 55 speed limit WAS the dumbest law since Prohibition. It was interesting to see that many of the characters in the movies were based on real people-and you see some of them in the book (guys dressed as priests, the fake ambulance crew, etc., while some had to be left out of the movies for lack of space, it would have been nice to see the guys in the Suburban depicted in the movie, or the doctors in the Jaguar driving with a Igloo ice chest with a pair of pig's eyes in the cooler marked DONOR). A good read about a time when the roads were more open and many had the attitude about the 55 that Yates and company shared. I only wish that it was possible to run a Cannonball today-to quote a participant, Robin Miller (Now with ESPN's RPM2Night) "I'd do it in a New York minute." Now if only I could borrow Mom's new Chevy Tahoe for the race...

I think Bob Brant really wants to help you build an electric vehicle. I feel, however that his engineering background causes him to "talk down" to the reader, who thinks " It can't be really as complex as all this ! All these formulas , etc ! " How do we know the "flux level" for a motor we buy at a garage sale ? I am too old to get an engineering degree !
Lots of "shade tree" mechanics ( like me ) will have to look further for more practical information.Such as - a 10 HP motor in a Geo Metro will be fine for trips to the grocery store but no good for highway use. Also errors have crept in, and the schematic diagrams are incomplete and puzzling. Of course, the book was published nine years ago, and technology has advanced in the EV industry, as in everything else

Usefull information about EV. This give you some wide idea about electric cars. It's a good book for your technical library specially if you'r going to build one EV and are a beginer.

This is really an informative book. Except for the politically-charged chapter on saving the planet from the evils of the internal-combustion engine, I really enjoyed it. One problem the reader might have is that Electric Vehicle technology advances so rapidly that some of the information is dated. All in all, it is certainly worth the price!

This is a good book if you have an extremely low IQ and need chapters and chapters on how to select which car model you want to buy. If that is your biggest problem when it comes to buying a car, then you are either very rich or very stupid. There are much better books around on how to deal with dealers, getting the most for your used car, not getting screwed on a lease, etc. The only adivce this book had on bargaining with dealers was "if you're not comfortabe with what's going on in the dealership, walk out." Sorry, but there's a lot more to negotiating than that.

It was difficult finding things and confusing but overall it was a fine and dandy book.

I was a skeptic. How could everything you are warned about in this book really happen? I am sorry to say it's all true. In fact, I could write my own book about my car-buying experiences! As a single woman shopping alone for a new car, I thought this book was a reasonable investment. But it was so much more. Thanks to this book, I was prepared. I was informed. And I saved both my sanity and thousands in the end. There was a happy ending to my story thanks in large part to what I learned on those pages. Read this book if you are even considering buying a car. It's worth every single penny. I even made my fiance read it a year later -- before he bought his new car!

i had high hopes for this one. good table of contents and the few pages i skimmed at the store were decent. in fact the first half of the book was fine but after about page 200 it seemed the author's editor must have given up.
   i found it oddly funny that the first chapter discusses how to dissuade your son from getting a bike, then later Jim Bennett attempts some kind of stance to ostensibly include women in his survey of motorcycling by attempting to note special issues women may have when deciding to ride. these few paragraphs seemed clunky, contrived and a bit condescending.
   the book had some pictures and some advice and i might even be an iota or two smarter than i was before i picked up the book, but i came away disappointed. it's a quick survey for the complete beginner, but once read you know it could've been done a lot better and that there must be better survey-type books for beginners out there. maybe the "idiot's guide to motorcycles" referenced before would've been a better purchase for me.
   if you are a woman i might recommend The Perfect Vehicle by an actual woman Melissa Holbrook Pierson. not a survey of motorcycles, but a story about her experience as a beginning motorcyclist.

For someone who brings nothing more than enthusiasm to the art of motorcycle riding (in other words, you don't know the first thing about motorcycle parts and you have no idea what "countersteering" means), this book is a fairly good introduction. The author takes you through all aspects of motorcycle ownership, from deciding whether riding is right for you to the mechanics behind the combustible engine to making high speed turns. The information is reasonably detailed and well written, and all topics are covered.

My only complaints are: 1) many introductory books to motorcycles, such as The Idiot's Guide, give a more detailed breakdown of all bikes currently on the market... this book only covers a handful of bikes available (although it does have a section on used bikes), 2) there could have been more illustrations to accompany the explanations of motorcycle parts and functionality, and 3) certain sections use terms that the author never takes the time to define (at one point he makes numerous references to the "gasket" without telling the uninitiated where a gasket is, what it looks like, what it's function is, etc.).

But in the long run, my complaints are minor. This book is relatively comprehensive, and covers some issues that other books don't (such as the section on female riders). The author is well informed, clearly cares a great deal about the subject matter, and stresses safety. Anyone who is considering buying their first motorcycle would do well to buy this book (and maybe one or two others as well).

A really good book for beginners and a not to bad book for experienced riders. I recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about buying a bike or whose love one is about to buy a bike. This book is chock full of information, starting out with trying to answer the question ride or not ride and then going on to explain how to pick the right bike; how to buy a used or new bike; basic motorcycle maintenance; and safety tips.

I found this book to be a fast read and an informative history of the Interstate system, but I was disappointed by some of the factual errors in the book. For example, on the same page Lewis writes that Interstate 15 and California State Route 1 intersect in Victorville and that I-10 and I-15 meet in Mira Loma, CA. Neither are true and it's disappointing that someone writing a book on the highway system (or his editor) didn't do the minimal fact checking involved (with a map!). If such basic errors were allowed to slip by, I wonder what other "facts" in the book are questionable.

The Interstate Highway System forever changed American culture, but the engineers who build it were not thinking about that. They were concentrating on accomplishing the biggest building project in the history of the US. Lewis' book is a chronicle of what they built and how it affected the way we live today. In the pages of his book, we meet some of the people who made it happen. They built huge cloverleaf intersections, mighty elevated freeways, and blasted through mountains to join the east coast with the west coast, north with south.

The book is interesting reading, but goes off in too many directions, giving only a taste of the social changes wrought by the system and the citizen efforts in urban areas like New Orleans and San Francisco to stop ugly highways. The most surprising thing to me was the miscalculation by the highway designers of the social effects. They somehow thought expressways would bring people INTO cities, not thinking that these massive concrete strips would devastate neighborhoods and make it easier for people to live in the suburbs. Gradually, a nation began to learn that highways are not the answer to all our transportation problems.

In my own city -- Detroit -- the building of I-75 tore apart a thriving Hispanic neighborhood in the city, and out in the inner ring suburbs (where I live), a connecting freeway (I-696) was held up for ten years as the tiny municipality of Pleasant Ridge protested the gutting of its small area. In the end, they lost and the highway was built. Today there is a "sound barriar" wall along the freeway, which is down in a ditch, but the constant hum and buzz of the traffic is a steady background noise for the lovely homes that are adjacent to it. Pleasant Ridge is not quite as pleasant as it used to be.

It is good to look to the past to avoid repeating costly mistakes, Yes, we need the Interstate Highway System, and we can honor the memory of President Eisenhower who initiated this ambitious and far-reaching program to bring to America "better roads." The engineering accomplishments are stupendous. I personally watched as I-696 was built and marveled how the engineers tunneled under busy Woodward Avenue and never had to close it down; they built the freeway with little disruption of traffic and I remember the day it opened. It was immediately full of traffic, becoming part of an eventual beltway that will ring Detroit, much like Atlanta and Cinncinati have beltways. I am familiar with those because my family has made many trips down I-75 to Florida. How amazing it is to take one road that passes a few miles from my home in Michigan and just stay on that road all the way to the Sunshine State! I think Tom Lewis admirally captures the mixed feelings we all have about these interstates. Ugly and divisive, yes! Engineering marvels that let us travel safely at high speeds over long distances? You bet!

Mr. Lewis offers an insightful view to the history of the interstate system in the United States. While the first half of the book is a wonderfully interesting read, I think that the second half of the book becomes bogged down with too much of Lewis's opinion. I agree with his point that the interstate has changed the state of America for the worse; however, his argument would be better served by a factual analysis from which the reader could draw his or her own conclusions, rather than trying to lead us down the path to highway hatred.