About this item
Charting the 130-years from the arrival of horseless carriages to the advent of driverless vehicles, celebrate the automobile and the romance of the open road.Beginning with the development of the first vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine, Drive explores the early glamour of driving, motor sport, and car design, and looks at how the automobile has shaped the modern world. Revealing the advances in technology and design that have made cars faster, safer, and better to drive, and transformed them from a means of transportation into objects of status, excitement, and desire, Drive tracks trends in auto manufacturing and the public's changing tastes in cars: whether it's Golden Era sports cars such as the MG, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, and Chevrolet, muscle cars like the Mustang, hot rods, custom cars, the hippie-standard VW, or modern-day hybrid cars. Trivia and fascinating facts covering the growth of car racing, the development of traffic lights, the boom in automobile advertising, the first car washes, and the craft of artisan-made cars complete the subject, making it a must-have for car enthusiasts.
About the Author
Giles Chapman is an award-winning writer and commentator on the industry, history and culture of cars. He began his career in 1984 in automotive consultancy, moving into magazine publishing in 1985. By 1991, he was editor of Classic & Sports Car, the world's best-selling classic car magazine. Since 1994, he's worked freelance across a huge variety of media. Today, he contributes to national newspapers and motoring publications, and was voted Jeep Consumer Journalist Of The Year in 2005, BCA Feature Writer Of The Year in 2008, and AA Environment Writer Of The Year 2011.He's the author of over 50 books including 'My Dad Had One Of Those' (co-written with Top Gear's Richard Porter) that was a non-fiction hardback best-seller in 2007 and has since sold almost 180,000 copies. This makes it one of the best-selling - and most popular - car books of all time.He has over 350 five-star reviews from Amazon customers.DK's The Classic Car Book, on which Giles acted as Editor In Chief, was awarded one of Auto Express magazine's Top 20 Motoring Products of 2016.His book 'Chapman's Car Compendium' won the Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy in 2008. Dorling Kindersley's 'The Car Book', published in 2011 and on which Giles Chapman was Editor-In-Chief, won wide acclaim as well as advance orders for 81.000 copies in several language editions. He's also worked with BBC Top Gear over many years.Giles Chapman's reputation for painstaking research and entertaining writing is reflected in praise from some of the most demanding independent critics. Here is a selection.Car Badges: 'Superbly researched... crammed with anecdotes, obscure facts on other key elements of car design, and highly authoritative' - London Evening Standard. 'This not only makes sitting in traffic jams more interesting but it's also social and industrial history' - The Spectator. 'Massive, valuable and interesting' - Motor Sport magazine.Chapman's Car Compendium: 'Open this book at any page and you're bound to find something fun' - Autoweek magazine. 'Even the best-informed petrolhead is guaranteed to learn something new' - 4car website.The Car Book: 'Everyone in our office was taken aback by the depth of this impressive work' - Classic & Sports Car magazine, where it was Book Of The Month in June 2011. 'This thumping hardback blows all preconceptions out of the weeds. With a decade-by-decade breakdown of automotive history, it's packed with detail' - Octane magazine.The Land Rover Story: 'Fine investigation into the development of the Land Rover' - Classic & Sports Car magazine. 'Chapman has produced another good 'un with this potted look at Britain's mighty Landie in all its flavours' - Octane magazine.His three new titles for 2019 are Mini 60 Years, The Range Rover Story and The Jaguar Story.
