The fascinating story of Daimler’s daring glass fibre sports car, including its commercial feasibility at the time, and key role in Daimler’s future, its development, production, and the proposal that could have seen it built into the 1970s. A bold new design, the 'Dart', as it was originally to be called, should have been Daimler’s saviour and a springboard to a range of new models, including saloons and coupés. Sadly, Jaguar − a company with its own sports cars − bought Daimler before the car was allowed to evolve. Contains contemporary material and photography throughout to help owners seeking to restore their vehicles in period guise.
British Sports Cars In America 1946-1981 Jonathan A. Stein The intriguing tale of the meteoric rise and fall of British marques in America following WWII. Marques the likes of Triumph, MG, and Austin Healey, as well as the lesser known Ginetta, Elva and Berkeley are thoroughly explored. Filled with beautiful and rare color photographs.
What prompted staid and traditional Daimler to build a fibreglass-bodied sportscar with a 2.5 litre V8 engine? In this, the only book on the subject, Daimler expert Brian Long tells the inside story of the 'Dart' (officially SP250) sportscar: a uniquely stylish and now much appreciated classic from the years 1959 to 1964.
Packed with more than a hundred completely charismatic classic cars, this book is the ideal gift for anyone driven to admire these majestic machines. Author Quentin Wilson has hand-picked the most astonishing, appealing, and all-round awesome cars ever to hit the highway. Multi-angle photography reveals the true craftsmanship and beauty of these stunning rides, and the text pays tribute to each vehicle and explains why it's destined to be a classic, now and forever. Test drive this essential car guide, and you'll be hooked.
E-type Jaguar; Triumph Spitfire; MGA; Austin-Healey – nobody built sports cars like British manufacturers in the 1950s and '60s. There was something very special about the combination of low-slung open two-seater bodywork and spartan interior, a slick sporting gearchange and a throaty exhaust note. This was wind-in-the-hair motoring, and it was affordable by the average young man – at least, until he got married and had a family. MG and Triumph stood out as the market leaders, but many other c companies thrived, from luxury manufacturers like Jaguar and even daimler to other more affordable marques. This colourfully illustrated history tells the exciting story of the British sports car in the 1950s and '60s.
Jaguar Century is a lavishly illustrated large-format retrospective examining 100 years of Jaguar, one of the most acclaimed marques in automotive history.
Step inside his home and you'll see papier-mâché birds, a life-sized cardboard tiger, model cars; his work bench a vibrant collage of creativity, from hand-drawn maps and postcards to newly devised toys for his beloved grandchildren. Tom Karen is a toymaker, creative genius, award-winning designer and one of the world's most remarkable inventors. From inventing the Marble Run to designing the iconic Raleigh Chopper bike and creating the Bond Bug, Tom's designs are cherished the world over, but behind these fantastical creations lies an equally remarkable life. Born in the 1920s into a wealthy family and raised in Czechoslovakia by nannies, Tom had a lonely upbringing and longed for pencils, paper, paints and brushes. His childhood was short-lived when Tom and his family had to flee for their lives following the rise of Nazi Germany. It was this formative experience that would transform Tom's life. Arriving in the UK, Tom would establish himself as a creator slowly building the career that would see him dubbed 'the man who designed the seventies'. Told through the prism of Tom's incredible designs, Toymaker is a story about life, about imagination, about being in the present and existing in the past; about painting, drawing, chopping and changing; about thinking, discussing, arguing and listening. Tom's life is a tale of a century of creativity and how 'things' come to define who we are - and help us look ahead to where we're going.
During the 1960s, the automobile finally secured its position as an indispensable component of daily life in Britain. Car ownership more than doubled from approximately one car for every 10 people in 1960 to one car for every 4.8 people by 1970. Consumers no longer asked "Do we need a car?" but "What car shall we have?" This well-illustrated history analyzes how both domestic car manufacturers and importers advertised their products in this growing market, identifying trends and themes. Over 180 advertisement illustrations are included.
The Austin Healey - or 'Big' Healey - is one of the iconic British sports cars. The first Austin-Healey 100 model was unveiled at the 1952 Earls Court Motor Show, and when the last car rolled off the production line in 1967, over 73,000 examples had been built.
