date: sometime in 1992
to: [email protected]
subject: Dave's Reference Library, take 2

 Now that I am to the point of cutting and joining metal for the 
Marauder, I figured I'd fill in some holes in my technical library.  
You can only afford so many books (my house may yet collapse under 
their weight!) but what's a couple hundred bucks if I come across some 
neat new trick in a book I don't have yet?  I got out my Classic 
Motorbooks catalog and plastic.

 Classic Motorbooks seems to have gone into the publishing business - 
several of the books below were published or printed by Motorbooks 
International, their parent company.

RIP:  Staniforth's "Race and Rally Car Source Book" is out of print
      Bastow's "Car Suspension and Handling" is out of print

 Slightly over two hundred US dollars brought the following to my door:


"Building a Race Car Picture by Picture"
Steve Smith, Steve Smith Autosports, 1976
 
 This one is only 50 pages long.  OK, more or less, but not worth the 
money.  I thought I'd get some chassis and suspension ideas; mostly I 
was surprised how old-timey mid-'70s NASCAR iron was.  There are some 
useful ideas if you're running a Late Model or Modified dirt car, 
otherwise pass this one up.


"Boyd Coddington's How to Build Hot Rod Chassis"
Timothy Remus, Motorbooks International, 1992       ($17.95)
                                                          
 The street rod guys think nothing of building their own chassis and 
suspension systems.  Some of the most interesting come out of Boyd 
Coddington's shop.  I expected lots of detail and shop pictures, maybe 
a few design studies.  Alas, the author doesn't seem to know much about 
cars in general, doesn't have an eye for photography, and the text 
would be useful only to the barest novice.  There are a few photos of 
Coddington stuff, but mostly "generic" street rod stuff.  To cap it 
off, there's a gratuitous eco-Nazi chapter with ravings about recycling 
brake pads and the like.  This book is not only a waste of money, it is 
a waste of cellulose.


"Boyd Coddington's How to Build Hot Rod Bodywork"
Timothy Remus, Motorbooks International, 1993      ($17.95)

 This book is even worse than Remus' first book.  Same lack of 
substance, same eco-Nazi ravings.  Buy any two street rod magazines and 
you'll get more useable information, even if you're a total newbie.


"Best of Tech Tips"
Steve Smith, Steve Smith Autosports, 1977

 This is some general circle track setup info, very old.  None of the 
Smith books I purchase appear to have ever been updated or corrected 
since their original publications.  Has some minorly useful stuff, but 
not worth the price.


"Race Car Fabrication and Preparation"
Steve Smith, Steve Smith Autosports, 1977

 This one is ancient too, but chock-full of useful stuff if you're 
building a dirt car, much of it useful for other racing and even 
street.  It's not pretty, but the information is there.


"Anatomy and Development of the Sports Prototype Racing Car"
Ian Bamsey, Haynes Publishing (printed in USA by Motorbooks), 1991  ($29.95)
(hardback)

 This book is about full bodied "Sports Prototypes" such as the Group
C and GTP cars.  About half is aerodynamics, wings and tunnels and 
stuff.  Technically interesting, ancient history rules-wise.  Some nice 
photos of how the high-roller racing teams do things.  Very nice if 
you're a GTP fan wanting more information about your favorite cars; not 
tremendously useful for anyone building or modifying a car.


"The Racer's Guide to Fabricating Shop Equipment"
John Block, Steve Smith Autosports, 1985, 1990  ($12.95)

 This books promises to tell you how to build shop equipment, but the 
ads didn't say what.  It covers an engine stand, hydraulic press, 
engine hoist (cherry picker), a sheet metal brake, a flame cutter, and 
a chassis stand (rotisserie).  The only one I was really interested in 
was the metal brake, but the book not only doesn't give you any plans, 
the photos make it hard to tell what the finished equipment is supposed 
to look like.  I was pretty unimpressed.  56 pages.


"Racecar Engineering Magazine"
three recent issues, $6.95 each

 Motorbooks had 'em, I bought 'em.  They cover Formula 1, GTP, and so 
forth.  Lots of nice photography, lots of stuff about the cars, a 
little about the designers.  No driver or team manager interviews 
(good), no solid tech or hands-on stuff (bad).  I was a bit 
disappointed, but I may pick up a few future issues.


"Peformance Handling - How to Make Your Car Handle - Techniques for the 
1990s"
Don Alexander, Motorbooks International, 1991

 The book doesn't quite live up to its impressive title, but it isn't 
bad.  Roughly equivalent to Puhn's book, but not a copy.  The book is 
sort of rough around the edges and the arrangement is peculiar, but 
Alexander knows his stuff, and has replaced Herb Adams as Circle 
Track's handling editor.  His stuff in Circle Track is much more 
refined and polished than what's in this book.  The book is only OK 
now, but if/when Alexander does a second edition, I will expect a lot.


"Competition Car Suspension - Design - Construction - Tuning"
Allan Staniforth, Haynes, 1988, 1991    ($39.95, hardback)

 This one isn't as technical as I'd like either, but it does a fair job 
of the basics, shows the current state of the art, and has some design 
information.  A little weak in theory, and no how-to at all.  It's not 
bad, but it costs too much money for what it gives, at least in US 
dollars. (it's a Brit book, and someone made a killing doing the 
import)


"The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine"
Sir Harry Ricardo, 1923, 1931, 1935 - third edition revised by H.S.
Glyde, 1941.   Interscience Publishers, 1941 (no price)

 This is it - the original source for much of the data you see quoted
in other books.  I got it through from the University of Fayetteville's
engineering department on an inter-library loan.  Alas, it doesn't 
look like anyone there has used it much - the card showed it had only 
been checked out a few times, and the 53-year-old book looked almost 
new.

 The book covers combustion processes in detail, but much of the data
isn't useable, as it deals with gasoline compositions entirely unlike
modern fuels, and compression ratios no higher than 7:1.  The auto
engine design stuff is antique a best, and the majority of stuff is
oriented toward either stationary power plants or battle tanks.  On
the other hand, Ricardo was one of the pioneers, and even if his data 
doesn't match up with current ideas, his stuff is backed up by 
thousands of hours of dyno testing and engineering.

 As I said, much of the data isn't useable, but there are hundreds of 
little info factoids in there, and some of the best stuff isn't the
information, but the approaches they used to obtain it.  This book
won't really tell you anything earthshaking, but it'll show you some
different ways of looking at what you thought you already knew.




 Conclusion:

 The "Boyd Coddington" books are a thinly disguised rip-off.  Most of
the Steve Smith Autosports books are too old to be worth much - as 
heavily advertised as they are, I was surprised to find some had been 
in print 20 years without updates.  A lot has happened in 20 years.
I don't feel I got much return for my $200.  Sometimes there are
disadvantages to living in the ass-end of nowhere where there are no
bookstores.