classic car

Here's my list of books that I have found good and helpful about classics, concepts, and other cars:

Number One is Cars: A Celebration by Quentin Wilson is a humongous book that has tons and tons of every type of car. Unlike other cars that only show two-doors in an attempt to make it look good, this book also has many four-doors.

Number Two: The Cobra in the Barn and The Hemi in the Barn by Tom Cotter are both amazing books about what we all dream of: the perfect barn find.

Numer 3: Sports Cars, by Peter Henshaw, is a mostly-illustration book that includes various less-known cars next to the classic Mustangs and Ferraris. This book has a definitive Section for each decade, and is a great resource for photos if you have a copier.

Number Four: Classic Cars, by Andrew Noakes, is one of my favorites because it has great photos and detailed descritpions on many classics, from Ferraris to Edsels to Volkswagens.

And Finally, Number Five: One of the best car books you can buy, 365 Cars You Must Drive is a thourogh book full of all cars from every corner of the world, including the Yugo and the Tucker. It is my overall favorite book, and is relatively small and doesn't weigh 10 puonds like the first book I mentioned. It also includes current value statistics that are right most of the time.

P.S. Actor Ricardo Montalban, who was in many Chrysler commercials in the 70's and 80's, just died three minutes ago. I saw it on the news just now. He was 88.

These are some photos I've shot with my new (as of two months ago) Fujifilm J10 digital high-res camera. For most of these sightings it was just chance cars I saw on the road, but for some it was planned. And for all they are my photos (even though some look like they're from commercials or magazines).

I just got my new issue of Car & Driver (I get C&D, Hot Rod, Automobile, and occasionally Road and Track), and there was a short story in the Upfront section that caught my eye. I thought I'd like to share it with those of you who don't get C&D or just stare at the photos instead of reading it.

Well, to the story: It seems that Caterham (who has the rights to the lotus 7, in case you didn't know) has set up a website that lets people enter design ideas for their new car they plan to sell in 2011. After all the entries are sorted out, a voting process will begin. C&D isn't quite clear on this, but I think they mean that anyone can vote on their favorite design. The website is www.splitwheel.com (or you can just click on this post's title)

I also realized something that Caterham probably realized, too. This saves them a ton of money in hiring designers and cuts design-to-production time. For a small company like Caterham, that can be a life saver.