Cars have been present in the world since the 1880s. They easily replaced beasts of burden and won people’s minds. For more than 200 years, the automotive industry accumulated a lot of interesting success and failure stories that became a great base for books. It’s interesting to read how Volkswagen or Toyota came to their modern states. Besides, who doesn’t like books? Even if you are not really fond of reading, you can make books a design element: Just put them on a coffee table and enjoy the view.
Whether you are a car geek or just curious about new information in unfamiliar areas, a book will be a nice way to pick up new knowledge. Here are some books that will help you start and keep you entertained.
Million-Dollar Classics: The World’s Most Expensive Cars (Martin Derrick and Simon Clay)
This book is for you if you enjoy the visuals. Million-Dollar Classics is the high-quality photo album of the most luxurious cars that have ever existed. It includes cars made by companies like Aston Martin and Bugatti, so it will definitely look good on your bookshelf.
All photos are made by Simon Clay, a professional car photographer. Besides astonishing pictures, the book indicates the auction prices of vehicles. For sure, they go way over $1 million making these cars extremely fancy and extremely expensive. The book also has their characteristics and history so you would know why this or that car costs so much.
Lamborghini: 100 Years of Innovation in Half the Time (Luca Molinari, Raffaello Porro)
It’s easy to guess that this large-format book describes the full journey of the company, from the very first vehicles ever produced to the modern sports cars like Lamborghini Evo or Lamborghini Aventador. It mentions a lot of aspects that contributed to their success: technology, design, creators, and cultural elements.
The text is accompanied by more than 200 images to make this book both informative and beautiful. It will make a great gift for a Lamborghini fan.
Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans (A.J. Baime)
Besides dashing success stories, the car world is full of fascinating battles, wins, and losses. One of them is connected to the oldest and most famous endurance races in the world — the 24 hours of Le Mans. It takes place yearly in France and is a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The 1960s became especially remarkable in this race’s history. Ford’s “cars for masses” were losing popularity when Ferrari addressed the public need for speed, so Ford had an urgent need to prove they are still in the game. You will enjoy a more detailed story the book provides if you like a shorter version shown in the movie.
The DeLorean Story: The Car, the People, the Scandal (Nick Sutton)
DeLorean became well-known after 1985 when it appeared on big screens in Back to the Future. But the story of this car is not that glorious. The author Nick Sutton was one of the DeLorean managers for the whole lifetime of the company. He has an inside vision of its destiny. DeLorean could actually be an amazing sports car but its owner had a questionable reputation that prevented the company from success.
Formula 1: All the Races — The first 1000 (by Roger Smith)
It’s hard to talk about cars without mentioning F1. This book describes the competition race-by-race from the first one in 1950 to the 1000th one in 2019. The book is full of facts, descriptions, photos, and maps, so it’s easy to navigate between races and follow the evolution of Formula 1.
This book has a limited edition, so if you want to know more about F1’s history, don’t get too late.
Final thoughts
More than 200 years of the automotive industry does not end with these five books. This list is a good way to start or to grab some new facts about cars, but there are many more stories to be told. You can check out other car books and find something you truly love.
