Description
Author: G.N.Georgano, Hardbound, 320 Pages, ISBN: 9780171480245, First Edition, 1970 -**Second-hand book in excellent unread condition**
A History of Sports Cars
Broadly speaking, sports cars are those in which performance takes priority over carrying capacity, but within these limits a tremendous variety of cars have been made over the past sixty years. This book begins by tracing the development of the sporting car from the tourer in pre-1914 days.
The touring events that bred the sporting car, the Herkomer and Prince Henry Trials in Germany, the Alpine Trials of Austria, and the formidable Russian Trials are described, together with the cars that competed in them — such as the Austro-Daimler, Vauxhall, Rolls-Royce, and Horch.
After World War 1 the sports car flourished in every country, and the chapters in Part Two cover the famous Bentleys, Bugattis, Alfa-Romeos and Mercedes-Benz, as well as the obscurer German sports cars and the spidery Spanish cyclecars developed from wheeled bobsleds.
The American chapters in the first two parts run from the Mercer and Stutz raceabouts of 1912 through the Paige-Daytona, Jordan, and Dupont speedsters of the twenties to the classic Cord and Auburn. The chapters on the 1930's (Part Three) describe the rise of the modestly
priced sports car derived from the mass-produced saloon, such as the M.G. Midget and Wolseley Hornet, as well as the revival of the large sports car in France in the shape of the Delahaye, Delage, and TalbotDarracq.
In the years following World War 2 the export of M.G.'s and Jaguars and Ferraris to the United States of America sparked tremendous enthusiasm which in turn led to native American sports cars such as the Cunningham and Chevrolet Corvette.
Despite overall speed limits in many countries, the sports car is as alive as ever in 1970, although there is a marked distinction between the road-going car and those used for sports-car racing.
The emergence of this distinction is discussed, and both types of car are described: the Austin-Healey Sprite and Shelby Ford Mustang on the one hand, and the Chevron, Porsche 908, and Ford GT 40 on the other.
Throughout the book the sports car is studied against its economic background, and sporting success is mentioned in every case. T
here are countless references to famous events, such as the Le Mans 24-Hour Race, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, and the Sebring 12-Hour Race, as well as to lesser events in Spain, Czechoslovakia, and Japan.
There are 250 black-and-white illustrations, many of them rare and unpublished, showing sports cars in action in their heyday, as well as restored examples in the hands of present-day enthusiasts.
In addition, there are 61 plates in full color, depicting sports cars from 1910 to 1969.
General trends are analyzed in an extended introduction and there is a comprehensive index.
The Author
G. N. Georgano was educated at Bryanston School and New College, Oxford. Before becoming a free-lance editor and writer he was a teacher for some eleven years.
He has always taken a great interest in the history of the motorcar - especially in the systematic listing of makes - and, in fact, his first list was compiled at the age of thirteen. He revised and edited G. R. Doyle's The World's Automobiles and is the author of The World's Commercial Vehicles.
A major task was editing the monumental The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885-1968 (London and New York; translations in Rome, Copenhagen and Malmo); he also wrote no less than a quarter of the text.
For his work on this book, the Antique Automobile Club of America awarded him the Thomas McKean Memorial Cup in 1968, and in the same year he was awarded the Veteran and Vintage Magazine Trophy "for major contribution and service to the veteran and vintage car movement".
This is the first occasion on which one book has received both awards. Since completing this present book he has written a history of the London taxicab and is presently engaged in compiling and editing an encyclopedia of motor sport.
