From descriptive how-to books that spell out how components work and/or can be restored or modified, to lavishly illustrated histories, we've got another selection of Corvette-themed and Corvette-related books for you. We'll start with the historical tomes first.
Build That Coffee Table! We've Got Vette Books for It
We get a lot of books that are best-described as "coffee-table" books--whose size, lavish visuals and historical information demand that they only be placed on the best coffee tables (yours). Here are some for yours--especially if you're building the ultimate Corvette-related coffee table.
This book that should be the first one on it: Jerry Burton's Corvette: America's Sports Car Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow. It's big--in fact, it weighs almost as much as an aluminum smallblock cylinder head--and it contains one of the bigger treasure-troves of Vette photographs, illustrations, factory art work, etc., this side of The General's archives.
You can thank Jerry Burton for the must-read stories in each chapter. The founding editor of Corvette Quarterly, who also wrote the definitive biography of Corvette engineer Zora Arkus Duntov, tells the complete story of the Corvette, from the EX-122 "Opel" prototype to the "Blue Devil" ZR1.
Corvette: America's Sports...
Corvette: America's Sports Car Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow
Universe Publishing (A division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.)
www.rizzoliusa.com
$75.00 +Shipping
When we said treasure-trove of images, we mean it--over 400 in all, including factory photos (including shots of styling clays and prototypes), on-track action photos, plus page after page of museum-quality Vette illustrations and photographs.
Get it, and you'll know why Karl Ludvigsen (author of the classic Corvette: America's Star-Spangled Sports Car) says, "Only owning a Corvette will offer more pleasure than owning this book."
Sometimes the most eloquent ideas have the shortest names....so it is with Robert Genat's new book Fuelies. It's a lavishly-illustrated history not only of the 1957-65 Corvettes that were equipped with the Rochester mechanical fuel injection system, but it includes info and pictures of steel-bodied Chevys and Pontiacs that also offered that fuel system as an option.
One story regarding the fuelie's option status in its last year is debunked in these pages. Robert says that instead of being discontinued when the 396 joined the Corvette option list in March of that year, the RPO L84 fuel-injected 327 was available throughout the entire 1965 model run. Another story relates to how a "test-fitting" killed the proposed four-seat Sting Ray...read it and see for yourself.
There's also a chapter dedicated to the workings of the Rochester system that includes factory schematic drawings, plus close-ups of system sub-assemblies and individual-part photos of the components that made up the Rochester system--and which ones were updated from year-to-year.
History (From One of Our Historians)
You've no doubt read Tom Falconer's monthly "Righthand Drive" columns in Corvette Fever for years--his adventures with America's Only True Sports Car in the U.K. and in Europe. And, more than a few of you have read his previous book, Collector's Originality Guide: Corvette 1953-1962, not only for its exquisite photography but also for the information you need to authenticate your C1, written in his most-informative style.