Automotive Car Books? Who Collects?

[bill w]

They are showing up on my end, downloaded again.

Bill

[Dr. Cranky]

My collection has grown over the years, and I do keep it inside the house and not in the garage because I don't want any of it to get ruined.

[Albie D]

Here's my living room. I've got the rare and old stuff wrapped up in dry storage...

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[ZTony8]

I've got waaaaaaaay more car magazines than car books.But I do have more than just a few books.I think the prizes of my books are the early printing of mark Donohue's "Unfair Advantage" and the 1967 edition of "Ford-The Dust and the Glory" by Leo Levine(where the pictures are not all muddy and dark like the later printing).I do want to obtain more books- I need to own a car nut bookstore like The Auto Zone here in metro Detroit.

[Tom Geiger]

I've got my share of car books and magazines, but I also have thousands of car brochures. I collected these with a passion for at least 10 years. I have a good representation of just about everything American back to the early stuff. My Plymouth collection is near complete. I have also collected tons of International stuff, the odder the car the more likely I am to have it. And I have a big hoard of US manufacturers in other countries, especially South America, South Africa and Australia.

I have slowed down to stopped adding to this collection because I always saw it as my car reference collection. Today my first stop to find info is the Internet so I seldom access the stuff any more. And I found that car brochures weren't always the best source for accurate info. Sometimes they took artistic license, like a page showing all the engines, but each one painted a different color... ask me why I have a Jeep V6 engine in gold paint!

[Watertown]

I have quite a few, these represent the ones I enjoy the most. While I subscribe to many car-related mag's, (Model Cars included), the only ones I save are 'Rodder's Journal', (have all but the first 8), and 'Collectible Automobile', (only missing the first year and a half). As for the books, the most cherished is the Gene Winfield autobiography, signed by the man himself.

[zenrat]

Nice shelf Mike. that Mickey Thompson book worth getting?

[John Goschke]

I have a fairly large collection of automotive car books.

I've had difficulty collecting non-automotive car books.

[Watertown]

Nice shelf Mike. that Mickey Thompson book worth getting?

Mickey Thompson book was very good, two thumbs up!

[Sergey]

The topic is old, but I think it is the best place to ask:

Does anyone knows the best Dodge PickUp trucks book about photo history of these trucks and thair main features; with pictures for reference and inspiration? Time period: from 50-s to at least 2002.

Im looking for something like "Ford Trucks chronicle" but about Dodge.

Thanks in advance!

[The Junkman]

I don't have an answer to your question but the thread intrigued me.  This is just my car book collection, not extensive but just what interests me.  Yes, there is a Ford bias.  The upper r/h corner is my collection of Motor Racing Replica News/Motor Racing Models mags and the bottom shelf has  about 1/2 of my Vintage Motorsport mags.  I'd like to clear the space but you never know what might be important in the future.  The Model Cars mags are not in frame but they're around.

Edited September 17, 2017 by The Junkman

[waynehulsey]

These are my hard cover books, my magazines are packed in a box somewhere!

 

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Hosted on Fotki

Have most of those art books and more on graphics, typography, etc. Complete set of Automobile Quarterly, Hot Rod from V1N1 up to around 1980, Collectible Automobile up to around 2007, SAE full set, and hundreds more magazines, both art, graphics, aircraft and cars. 2 5-drawer office file cabinets full of dealer brochures, hundreds of automotive, aircraft, tractor and science fiction books. Sold off during the divorce my complete set of Phillip K Dick books, most 1st edition and William Burroughs set also along with around a thousand music, punk zines, and design magazines. Had to pay the lawyer someway. Here's a photo of the Ford (rt case), most of the tractor, Collectible Auto and poetry books. About 10 more cases like these full. And turned 68 a couple of months ago so getting close to expiration date so they'll probably wind up in the dump in a few years if I can get rid of them before hand.

[Lovefordgalaxie]

Have a good amount of books. 

All of them on FoMoCo cars, but nothing on cars newer than the late 60s. 

[Mike999]

For many years I lived fairly close to the Autobooks store in Burbank, CA.  I very rarely left that store without buying something, since it also carried a lot of aviation books, another wallet-trap. Sometimes I check the bookshelf, say "I'd forgot all about THAT one."  And then spend some happy hours reading. Or re-reading. 

Wish I'd gotten more of the Crestline books when they were available.  Here's a short 2012 article about them on the Hemmings site:

 "These books were published from the early 1970s through to the early 1990s, and none, we believe, were ever reproduced. A single print run for each is one of the reasons why each Crestline book is fairly hard to find to today; some more so than others.  Thus values vary – from $20 to $400, depending on the book’s title. Only American car companies were profiled, and included: Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, Buick, Cadillac-La Salle, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Hudson, Oldsmobile, Packard, Plymouth & De Soto, Pontiac-Oakland, Studebaker, Woodies & Wagons, International Harvester, American Funeral Cars & Ambulances, American Fire Engines, Steam Tractors & Engines, American Cars 1930-1942, American Cars 1946-1959, American Gas Engines, and U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles."

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2012/09/14/recommended-reading-crestline-books/

[waynehulsey]

I've glad that its about a 7 hour drive to Autobooks. I get in there once maybe twice a year and have a self-imposed $200 limit for a visit. Always when I get home its I should have got that one also maybe I'll run back over there next week. Fortunately I usually have stuff that keeps me from it. Have several of the Crestline books and yeah wish I'd gotten them all, especially the Steam Tractors & Engines. 

[Bernard Kron]

Seeing this thread pop up again reminds me that I recently found one of my holy grails: Scarab: Race Log of the All-American Specials 1957-1965 by Preston Lerner, a one-off publication by Autobooks in 1991, never to be seen again. For many years it was ultra-expensive and impossible to find, usually trading for north of $250.00. For some reason recently a whole bunch of them have hit the market and, while pricey when in mint condition (easily on either side of $200.00) I managed to luck out on a mint copy on eBay for just over $50.00 including shipping. Great read about an extraordinary period in American sportscar racing. When Lance Reventlow shut down the Scarab operation Carroll Shelby took it over virtually lock, stock and barrel to become the Cobra development team and, of course, the rest is history...
 

[waynehulsey]

Was over in Mesa today for an exhibit of Robert Williams' new paintings and stopped by Bookman's on the way home. Hadn't been finding much there lately, but today got a couple. "Veteran and Edwardian Motor-Cars" by David Scott-Moncrieff with a 1955 publication date and from Motorbooks "Traction Engines" by Andrew Morland. 14 bucks with tax for the 2 of them. Kind of stuff that doesn't turn up often, but is usually fairly inexpensive since I'm about the only one looking for them. The bummer is it usually means another old brass and steam guy has gone away and his family is dumping his collection.

[Jaguar man 21]

I always turn to books for great reference photos before the internet 

[Jaguar man 21]

I don't have an answer to your question but the thread intrigued me.  This is just my car book collection, not extensive but just what interests me.  Yes, there is a Ford bias.  The upper r/h corner is my collection of Motor Racing Replica News/Motor Racing Models mags and the bottom shelf has  about 1/2 of my Vintage Motorsport mags.  I'd like to clear the space but you never know what might be important in the future.  The Model Cars mags are not in frame but they're around.

there's a few there I've been looking to add to my stash! 

[gtx6970]

I used to.

 

Sold my National Dragster magazine collection earlier this year.

 

Thinking about selling my vintage magazine collection as well. It covers a lot from early sixties to early seventies.  I simply don't read them or refer to them for reference (thanks Google ) 

 

Its a verticle 4 drawer file cabinet..... that's pretty full.

Edited September 22, 2017 by gtx6970

[The Junkman]

there's a few there I've been looking to add to my stash! 

There's a lot of Christmas presents, bargain purchases, and "stumble upons" represented there. The current "Holy Grail" is Cobra Daytona Coupes by Brock/Friedman/Stauffer but $1350+ is way out of my league. Believe it or not I don't think I paid list price for any of them.  Sometimes I dive into the online book sites to see what they might be worth but its hard to tell with the algorithms they use.

Edited September 22, 2017 by The Junkman

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'm still buying car books, but primarily for my 'working' collection. Recent acquisitions were a factory Triumph Stag service manual, a complete set of Dodge Neon factory books, the Bosch electronic fuel injection manual, Motor's 1965 Crashbooks, factory '63-'64 Corvette manuals, and the factory Volvo 760 GLE manual (covers the PRV engine in the DeLorean much more thoroughly than the DeLorean manual does).

I'm still amazed that people will try to work on vintage cars with no research into correct specs and procedures, and want to trust the usually wrong BS posted on the internet by wannabes and people content to parrot the wrong info they got elsewhere...particularly YouTube. While there is indeed a lot of GOOD INFO on the web, you really have to know a lot about what you're doing to be able to determine what is idiocy and what is useful.

Thing is, occasionally even the FACTORY books are wrong, and if you don't have the full set of updates and corrections from a particular production run, you can make expensive mistakes. Mindlessly trusting internet gibberish to be technically correct is just...stupid.

 

Edited September 22, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[afx]

Seeing this thread pop up again reminds me that I recently found one of my holy grails: Scarab: Race Log of the All-American Specials 1957-1965 by Preston Lerner, a one-off publication by Autobooks in 1991, never to be seen again. For many years it was ultra-expensive and impossible to find, usually trading for north of $250.00. For some reason recently a whole bunch of them have hit the market and, while pricey when in mint condition (easily on either side of $200.00) I managed to luck out on a mint copy on eBay for just over $50.00 including shipping. Great read about an extraordinary period in American sportscar racing. When Lance Reventlow shut down the Scarab operation Carroll Shelby took it over virtually lock, stock and barrel to become the Cobra development team and, of course, the rest is history...
 

If you ever want to sell or trade your Scarab book Bernard, I would be interested.

[webestang]

I collect many automotive books. 75% are Ford Mustang books but I have many others, Ferrari, VW Bug, Racing, Old Fords. 

 

Just finished reading this wonderful book on the VW Beetle. If you love Bugs this is a must read. Still holds up since it was written in 1965. This is the 1970 edition. Next to it is a a vintage book I got from a co-worker that's knows I'm a car nut. This is the April 1958 second edition. It has been updated to 50 cars, some I have never heard of.....Gregoire, Nardi, Pegaso to name a few. 

Far as I know the VW book is still available but the Sports car book can only be bought second hand.

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by webestang

[Mike999]

Here's an example of the neat stuff in the Crestline books.  On top, a spiffy Marine Corps 1937 Ford 4-door sedan used as a staff car. It belonged to Headquarters, Fleet Marine Force in Norfolk, VA. (Nowadays known as Fleet Marine Force-Atlantic, or FMFLANT.) 

Bottom pic is the rarest 1938 Ford made, the 4-door convertible.  This one was driven by the lucky G.I.'s of Headquarters Co., 2d Battalion, 66th Infantry Brigade at Ft. Benning, GA. It has a front brush guard similar to the one used on the 1/2-ton Ford trucks converted to 4-wheel-drive by Marmon-Herrington.

Both photos are from "U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles" by Fred W. Crismon. Posted for discussion only etc.