The immediate post-war period from 1950 to the mid-1960s saw Fiat renew their entire model range, replacing carry-overs of the pre-war models once funds were available and the Italian economy had recovered some stability after years of penury. Engineering had progressed, technologies had advanced and some of the most gifted engineers in Italy (Dante Giacosa, Aurelio Lampredi, Oscar Montabone, Gaudenzio… Read more →
FIAT, the First Fifty Years 1899-1949, Volume 1
This new book traces the history of the FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) company from foundation in 1899, when a group of well-to-do young men decided to found one of the first Italian motorcar manufacturers in Turin, having watched imported French cars putter around and realising their country had no equivalent industry. One of the founders, Giovanni Agnelli, addressed a… Read more →
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in force from 25th May 2018
In line with new EU regulations, any historical personal data stored in computer email files or on this website’s server as a result of recently ordering books online will never be disclosed or divulged to third parties. This website is now protected by an HTTPS location and all communications to or from this website are SSL encrypted, rendering hacking virtually… Read more →
THE WILFRED SAGA- AUTOCYCLE ADVENTURES now reprinted and in stock.
Revised and amended, the text of The Wilfred Saga, first published in 2015, has now been reprinted so the third edition of this book is on sale again from the online shop. Read more →
PANHARD & LEVASSOR- Pioneers in Automobile Excellence
This new book covers the history of the Panhard & Levassor company from the very beginning as Périn, Panhard & Cie., a maker of woodworking machinery in the 1870s. By the mid-1880s Panhard & Levassor were making Daimler internal-combustion engines under licence and from there it was but a short step to making complete “motor-cars”, the first commercially-sold Panhard &… Read more →
PEGASO & RICART- From Hispano-Suiza to Pegaso; trucks, buses and sportscars. Vol. 2
The reprinted second volume of the Hispano-Suiza and Pegaso books is now available from the online shop. The book covers the career of Catalan engineer Wifredo Ricart and his early designs and creations of the 1920s and 1930s in Spain- (Ricart y Peréz 1922-26), S.A. Automóviles Ricart (1926-28) and Ricart España (1928-30). Ricart then moved to Italy and was employed… Read more →
Hispano-Suiza and Pegaso, Birkigt & Ricart vol. 1, reprint is now back in stock.
This is the first volume of two and principally covers Hispano-Suiza from 1904 to 1939 from the perspective of Barcelona rather than Bois-Colombes in France. I have used mainly Spanish-language sources and have written about Hispano-Suiza cars, aero-engines, military vehicles, trucks and buses, the satellite Guadalajara factory and its products, racing cars and competition successes. The evolution of the French Bois-Colombes… Read more →