NEW! Berliet-a Brief History

Though the Berliet company is known in France as a truck-maker, from 1899 to 1939 it also made automobiles. The founder, Marius Berliet, was an extraordinary character – a self-made man who established his business near Lyon, France’s second city, rather than near Paris where most other French manufacturers were based. Marius Berliet founded an industrial empire which, by 1967,… Read more →

New book: Hotchkiss – a History

This new title on the French Hotchkiss empire, which lasted from 1867 to the mid-1950s, has proved extremely popular, so much so that I’ve had to order a reprint! Founded by an American arms manufacturer in France at the behest of Napoleon III at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries the company began machining parts for the thriving French motor… Read more →

FIAT – Twenty More Years 1980-1999 Volume 3. ISBN 978-0-9547363-9-2

Volume 3 has been delivered from my printers and is now available from the shop, price £28. This last volume covers twenty years from 1980 to 1999, a period when many social conflicts occurred throughout Europe and Italy, where industrial relations between management and workers at Fiat and their supporters, the Italian unions, were at their lowest ebb. “People did… Read more →

The Stinkwheel Saga, Episode 2 v3 reprinted.

A newly revised, updated and extended edition of this title, first published in 2008, has been reprinted and is now available from the Shop. Following the success of The Stinkwheel Saga, Episode 1, first published in 2004 and now reprinted as Episode 1 v3, the second volume, Episode 2 v3, has also been reprinted. This second volume covers the lost-causes… Read more →

FIAT Thirty Years of Progress 1950-1979, Volume 2.

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 →