On the Road: Page turners for gearheads

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As the holiday season approaches, it’s time once again for the annual books as gifts guide for the gearhead.

Before settling a reader down with a book, however, here’s a suggestion. Put them in a Factory Supply Co. hot rod-themed shirt. Mark Dulmadge of Calgary is the mind behind Factory Supply Co. and has apparel for both young and old in a variety of logos from Brat Rods to Older & Wiser Speed Shop. Shop his online store here. Dulmadge ships via Canada Post, and if in Calgary, local pick up is an option.

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Now to the books, the first three of which are published by Motorbooks.

The NextGen Guide to Collecting Cars

If there’s someone young in your life interested in buying their first special interest vehicle, put The NextGen Guide to Collecting Cars in their hands. Written by Robert C. Yeager, its subtitle is How to Buy, Sell, Live With & Love a Collectible Car. At 192 pages, the book includes two chapters delving into automobile history, and further expands with discussions about some of the highest-priced vehicles ever sold. Yeager follows up with clear and concise suggestions about up-and-coming collector cars.

He writes, “In compiling the following three chapters, we’ve tried to cull some American, European and Japanese cars we think represent good value and offer a potential return on investment, be it modest or massive. But first and foremost, they are fun to drive!”

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For example, he offers up the 1966-1970 Oldsmobile Toronado, 2000-2004 Porsche Boxster S, and first-generation 1989-1997 Mazda MX5 Miata. The following chapters include tips on where to find and purchase a car, and how to avoid making any regrettable decisions. Yeager also talks about networking, either in person or online, and how to maintain a collector car.

Hot Rod Magazine: 75 Years

For those who appreciate custom cars, Hot Rod Magazine: 75 Years is the official hardcover book documenting more than seven decades of the magazine’s history.

Written by former Hot Rod editor Drew Hardin, the book is chockablock with black and white archival images of vehicles from the magazine’s very beginnings in January 1948 through to full-colour photographs taken during current times.
The book is separated into chapters focusing on each decade of publication and Hardin does a great job documenting through research and interviews with past Hot Rod editors how much impact Hot Rod has had on the automotive community.

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And, just how the magazine was published. In the 1990s, for example, “Many of the changes were behind the scenes,” Hardin writes. “Petersen Publishing was somewhat slow to adopt to the digital age. Writers were still working on typewriters until the late 1980s, and it took a few more years until art directors turned in their paste-up tools for MacIntosh computers.”

Now publishing in a digital age, the magazine has changed dramatically, but continues to have an influence in a number of different ways. Of the Hot Rod empire in the 2020s, Hardin concludes, “Let’s see what this baby can (still) do.”

Two other books worth putting under the Christmas tree are Tom Cotter’s Secrets of the Barn Find Hunter and Garry Foster’s Chrome and Colour.

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Secrets of the Barn Find Hunter

The first book documents Cotter’s near 50 year car hobby and career of finding hidden automotive gems – while the cars and trucks take centre stage, the book is also about the people who have owned and collected the vehicles they’ve squirrelled away. While Cotter disperses his automotive hunting wisdom throughout the book, in Chapter 4: Top 25 Barn Find Hunting Pro Tips, he lays out his best and most succinct advice to neophyte car hunters about locating, and hopefully purchasing, a cool car.

While the books aren’t related in content, Cotter also provided the foreword to Chrome and Colour, by Garry Foster of Victoria, B.C. Foster is an automotive writer and photographer who for the past 20 years has documented Vancouver Island car culture and those who are committed to preserving old and unique vehicles. He’s contributed his features to various national and international newspapers and magazines, and again, the stories are really all about the people.

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Chrome and Colour

Foster curated and compiled some of his favourite stories and self-published Chrome and Colour, a 213-page hardcover book. Of the effort he put into producing it, he says, “I ultimately put the book together to honour the men and women and their cars.”

Available to order only online for $49.95, proceeds from sales of Foster’s book support veterans via the David Lynch Foundation in the U.S. and the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative in Canada. Visit his website here. https://encomm.ca/chromeandcolour.html

Happy reading this holiday season.

Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or [email protected]