In Legendary Car Engines, John Simister expertly dissects twenty of the greatest powerplants. With photos by Automobile Magazine contributor Tim Andrew and illustrations by the late, great Bob Freeman, it looks as good as it reads. - "Speed Reading" Automobile Magazine, October 2004This book examines the 20 best road-car engines ever: the most tuneful, the most beautiful, the most significant, the most highly-prized. A car's engine is its heart and its soul. It gives a car its voice and its muscle. Some engines do this so well they seem like living things. But which are they? The words reveal who designed them, and the how, when, and why, while Tim Andrews' fabulous photography captures the familiar face and the hidden depths. Discover the engine's design features, and why they matter. Find out which is the world's most prolific engine, which began as a fire-pump, and which has components that are reversible. Discover things you never knew about engine technology. John Simister gets to the heart of these celebrated power plants and describes them as he might describe old friends. Only the master of his subject could handle so complex a subject with so light a touch.

A narrative like no other: a cultural history that explores how cars have both propelled and reflected the American experience— from the Model T to the Prius. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66, from the lore of Jack Kerouac to the sex appeal of the Hot Rod, America’s history is a vehicular history—an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Paul Ingrassia. Ingrassia offers a wondrous epic in fifteen automobiles, including the Corvette, the Beetle, and the Chevy Corvair, as well as the personalities and tales behind them: Robert McNamara’s unlikely role in Lee Iacocca’s Mustang, John Z. DeLorean’s Pontiac GTO , Henry Ford’s Model T, as well as Honda’s Accord, the BMW 3 Series, and the Jeep, among others. Through these cars and these characters, Ingrassia shows how the car has expressed the particularly American tension between the lure of freedom and the obligations of utility. He also takes us through the rise of American manufacturing, the suburbanization of the country, the birth of the hippie and the yuppie, the emancipation of women, and many more fateful episodes and eras, including the car’s unintended consequences: trial lawyers, energy crises, and urban sprawl. Narrative history of the highest caliber, Engines of Change is an entirely edifying new way to look at the American story.

Hybrid drives and the operation of hybrid vehicles are characteristic of contemporary automotive technology. Together with the electronic driver assistant systems, hybrid technology is of the greatest importance and both cannot be ignored by today’s car drivers. This technical reference book provides the reader with a firsthand comprehensive description of significant components of automotive technology. All texts are complemented by numerous detailed illustrations.

This textbook presents a unified description and explanation of the fundamentals of the essential components of the motor vehicle, making extensive use of illustrations alongside the written material. The second edition brings into focus advancements in technology which include mechanical refinements, electrical applications and electronically controlled systems. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Various combinations of commercially available technologies could greatly reduce fuel consumption in passenger cars, sport-utility vehicles, minivans, and other light-duty vehicles without compromising vehicle performance or safety. Assessment of Technologies for Improving Light Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy estimates the potential fuel savings and costs to consumers of available technology combinations for three types of engines: spark-ignition gasoline, compression-ignition diesel, and hybrid. According to its estimates, adopting the full combination of improved technologies in medium and large cars and pickup trucks with spark-ignition engines could reduce fuel consumption by 29 percent at an additional cost of $2,200 to the consumer. Replacing spark-ignition engines with diesel engines and components would yield fuel savings of about 37 percent at an added cost of approximately $5,900 per vehicle, and replacing spark-ignition engines with hybrid engines and components would reduce fuel consumption by 43 percent at an increase of $6,000 per vehicle. The book focuses on fuel consumption-the amount of fuel consumed in a given driving distance-because energy savings are directly related to the amount of fuel used. In contrast, fuel economy measures how far a vehicle will travel with a gallon of fuel. Because fuel consumption data indicate money saved on fuel purchases and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the book finds that vehicle stickers should provide consumers with fuel consumption data in addition to fuel economy information.