The Best Car Books of All Time

By the early 1960s, Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Baby boomers were taking to the roads in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort, and Ford didnâ t offer what these young drivers wanted. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari lorded over the European racing scene, crafting beautiful, fast sports cars that epitomized style. Baime tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer named Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company.

They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game, at the most prestigious and dangerous race in the world, the 24 Hours of LeMans. Go Like Hell transports readers to a golden era in racing when Fordâ s innovative strategy led to victories on the track and renewed respect for the American automobile.

From the adrenaline-filled 24 Hours of Le Mans to the legendary Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lake Como’s famed Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este to the premier Monterey Car Week, the collector car calendar and market has shown one of the most extraordinary growth trajectories of recent years. As thousands flock to specialized meet ups, rallies, auctions, and Concours d’Elegance around the globe, asking prices for the rarest motors have revved higher and higher. So much so, that the value of the 100 cars included in this book exceeds a staggering $ 1 billion.

For the seasoned car collector or the awestruck newcomer, this double-volume is the unrivaled collector car anthology. Curating 100 of the most exquisite, remarkable, and desirable cars of all time to tell a spellbinding story of automotive design-and-engineering endeavor in the tireless pursuit of ever-greater performance both on and off the track, from the first Indy 500-winning 1910 Marmon Wasp to the futuristic 2020 Aston Martin Valkyrie.Laps ahead of any generic catalog, this superlative volume exudes authority and elegance, settling for nothing less than the very best of the best, and presenting each model with the lavish spreads it deserves, complete with stunning imagery taken by the world’s leading car photographers alongside rare archival treasures, from original factory photos to famous motorsports event posters. Each entry is also accompanied by expert descriptive texts and specs, detailing each car’s make, model, year, engine size, horsepower, top speed, transmission, and all-important production numbers.By passionately tapping into their transatlantic expertise and insider knowledge of car auctions, museums, and collections around the world, design authors Peter and Charlotte Fiell survey the autoworld's finest cars of all time. Their carefully curated selection spans the whole history of the automobile, taking in such rare models as a 1912 Stutz Model A Bearcat, as well as lesser-known jewels such as the astonishing 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C SS “Goutte d’Eau” Coupé by Figoni et Falaschi.This definitive compendium includes a foreword from Rob Myers, the founder of RM Sotheby’s, and includes an introduction from the authors that gives a unique perspective on the ins and outs of car collecting at the highest level. The main content is interspersed with interviews with Dr. Frederick Simeone, founder of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum; The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival; Sandra Button, Chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance; John Collins, leading dealer of historic Ferraris; and Shelby Myers, global head of Private Sales at RM Sotheby’s, which offer key personal insights into the car-collecting world.

As seen in Vanity Fair, Car and Driver, Architectural Digest, British GQ, and The Times. A HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE SELECTION: Car & Driver, Wall Street Journal, Autocar, Cool Hunting, Autoblog. 'A high-octane feast for petrol heads and lovers of design. – The Times. A ground-breaking survey of more than 650 of the most exceptional cars ever designed, organized geographically. The Atlas of Car Design is a global survey of the world’s greatest car designs, featuring more than 650 of the most revered (and occasionally reviled) models, from more than 190 manufacturers and more than 30 countries.

Organized geographically then chronologically by decade, the book covers more than a century of exceptional and noteworthy car design – from Japanese cult classics, French Art-Deco masterpieces, German iconic models, Italian icons, and British performance machines, to American styling sensations, and pop culture and family favorites. This fresh take on an eternally popular subject, charts car design’s evolution across centuries and continents. Packed with images, combining period photography, studio shots, and original car advertising, the book’s oversized format generously displays the cars in all their remarkable detail. With captivating texts that tell stories of engineering feats, economic twists and turns, high-society lifestyles, and the desires of the masses, this book is a must-have for car and design fans of every kind.