Transportation Books

I guess you either love these guys or you hate them. My wife finds them incredibly annoying when she hears them on the radio.

Myself, I love them. Their accents are not off-putting to me, and I love how they laugh together.

What I've learned over time, though, is that the 'straight' answers they provide are actually pretty authoritative. They actually know what they're talking about, based not only on their extensive formal education but also based on their hands-on work with many, many cars.

But they don't know anything about animals - maybe that's why this collection is not as good as their best efforts.

If I personally found anything annoying, it's only their constant self-referencing which gets old. However, it's a part of their "shtick" which we would not want to do without...

We enjoy Car Talk so much and we really had fun with this! These guys are hilarious! The only problem is that it's too short!

On Saturdays when I take a break for listening to CDs, I usually
tune into Car Talk on my local NPR Radio station. I have a
fancy for the crazy antics of Click and Clack, the Tappet
Brothers.

In their show, they dispense humor and car repair information. I end up laughing at their crazy banter more than I get car repair tips. Plus when my car messes up, I take it to the shop-I don't want to be their next call!

In their current audio collection, Car Talk: Doesn't Anyone Screen These Calls? (One hour, one cd, radio selections, Highbridge), the Tappets take calls regarding animal and cars. It is funny with out trying. A few of these REAL people seem like they came out of crazy central casting (especially about the horse who ate the stering wheel)


If anyone hasn't heard these boys before on the radio or on their cds, you are in for a laughable treat for your ears. I am still laughing at this one. ENJOY!

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

Brothers Tommy and Ray Magliozzi have a call-in show on National Public Radio called "Car Talk." The calls range from the serious to hilarious--but rely on the "Tappett Brothers" to make even the mundane call funny.

Check your local listings to see when "Car Talk" comes on. Tommy and Ray are the only people that'd get me up and cheerful at 9 AM.

Their radio show has provided both my husband and I hours of laughter. Their website is also helpful for finding mechanics, buying cars, etc.

It's good to have them around if you need a laugh at other times. My only complaint is they could have packed a little more into this CD. Then again, "Car Talk" is never long enough for me, either!

Our son has all 4 in this series that are available and they have become his favorite which is amazing since he is 3 and a half and has over 100 books in his library. He especially likes them since dad has a John Deere lawn tractor and he has a John Deere Gator and Power Pull tractor.

This book is VERY good, it's informative, comprehensive, fun to read and goes a long way to improving your understanding of the "whys" rather than just the "hows". It's an excelent resource for someone looking to build their own race car. Anyone looking to attach something to something else or move a fluid from one place to another will get something out of this book. As an added bonus in the years since it was first written most of the fasteners that the author found hard to find have become available easily online.

...This book is indispensible. It's written for the race car driver who does at least a little bit of their own fabrication. And that's almost any club driver, and many entry-level pro drivers. Making sure additions to the car stay put, supsension bits adequately bear their loads and stresses, and repairing these things in a pinch, is no small part of winning races.

This book doesn't explain everything ther is to know about fasteners. And it isn't dripping with technical detail; ...

But this book does provide something more valuable: explanations. It looks at a couple dozen of the most popular fasteners in each category and explains why a fabricator or mechanic would or would not want to use them. Carroll uses his incredible experience and approachable, conversational writing type to discusses their strengths and weaknesses, applications, and design.

I think the book isn't limited to racing applications; it's useful for anyone who works metal, and will offer something of value to anyone who's ever tried to replace a fastener in an emergency. Were you overwhelmed when you went through the fastener aisles in your local hardware store or home supply center? This book can help.

The book is a little weak in two areas. First, there's few pages devoted to plumbing. Of course, this is about real plumbing: laying lines and connecting them with pressure-tight fasteners. It explains Army-Navy fasteners and their applications, and discusses all the subtleties of pipe flange fitting. The book isn't about stopping a leak behind your toilet.

Next, the book is showinng its age. It doesn't treat some of the materials that were not exactly commonplace ten or more years ago, but are quite common now. For instance, I can buy titanium lug bolts for my car. (Well, I could, if I had a spare $500 lying around.) Carroll doesn't make much mention of the more interesting alloys being used more commonly in fasteners these days. He also doesn't spend much time discussing the material to be fastened: holding down a carbon fiber body panel is different than getting the same bit fabricated from fiberglass to hold. Some of the illustrations look like they were drawn by a plotter 20 years ago: terrible resolution, confusing lines, poor perspective. Freshening some of the illustrations would be a real shot in the arm for the book.

Those shortcomings withstanding, I can't give this book less than five stars. Mr. Smith's incredible reputation and outstanding experience hold up a dry subject, and give the reader more background than a broader (or deeper) technical reference ever could.

Book contains poor photography and what appears to be over-reproduced images of hardware. Prospective buyer should look at some of the aviation publications that offer the same or better information to Experimental Aircraft builders. Some of the same principles apply.

You have to question a guy who claims to be an engineer, and glorifies the title to no end, and then goes on to say how he refuses to buy anything from China, France, Mexico, Italy, etc. Aside from that BS, this is a good book to read if you're like me and don't actually have the ability to learn what works out at race weekends.

Admittedly this is a dry subject, but this book should be considered required reading for anyone who is serious about building a safe race car. There's more to fastener technology than most of us realize and a right and wrong way to do things. Mr. Smith gets the information out in an easy to understand format with splashes of well-timed humor. While we have all blamed a poor performance at an event on a broken fastener, Mr. Smith explains how to eliminate these problems, plus your vehicle will be safer. You won't even think about using grade 8 bolts from the discount hardware store on that flywheel after reading this book. The section on plumbing was particularly helpful to me.

This isn't a book you sit down and read, take some notes on, or highlight. I found myself reading it lightly to familiarize myself with what info was where, then going back (many times) and studying short sections when I was thinking through some scenario, critiquing an earlier flight, or getting ready for a flight.

For students, this takes off-airport operations far beyond what you'll get from reading any required material. And probably tells you things you'll otherwise have to figure out on your own or from chance opportunities from flying with a high-timer. If I'd had it for my private, I'd have skimmed it right before starting confined space and pinnacle operations--this goes into way more detail than the RFM does. I can't imagine that this wouldn't also greatly benefit the commercial pilot or those moving from air taxi and tour operations to external loads and other cool skills (there are chapters on external load operations, night flying, and things I won't get to do for years).

On the downside, sometimes the writing is a little awkward and confusing. The perspective offered by this manual overrides any negative tho.

Frankly speaking,after having received "Helicopter Pilot's Handbook Of Mountain Flying & Advanced Techniques",I underestimated the value of the book,due to size,i.e. 96 pages.But the book prooved its value by reminding me its content.There are many advices for pilots who are earning their lives over mountainous terrain.
At the beginnig,i decided to highlight important lines,but I decided not to do so,because every line is essential to remember.

Noted nautical author Bill Miller has written a new and very fascinating book on doomed ocean liners. Quite wisely he elected to skip the "Titanic" tragedy as it has been so well covered in many other books. He elected to start the book with the sinking of the "Lusitania" on May 7, 1915, by a German submarine, the "U-20." It ends with the capsizing of the "Oriana" at her berth in China during a typhoon in March 2004. Between these two bookends, there are many liner tragedies summarized, including the famous like the "Morro Castle," "Normandie," "Bremen," "Rex," and "Andrea Doria" as well as ships virtually unknown except for those personally involved in the accident in question, such as the "Alcoa Corsair," "Viceroy of India," "Empire Windrush," and "Klipfontein."

The book provides a brief operational history of each ship as well as the vital statistics of each vessel. The accidents are examined in varying degrees of detail: after all there are no commonly available accounts of accidents like the fire that ravaged the "Skaubryn" in the Indian Ocean during 1958 (especially given that all passengers and crew were rescued). This points to a great strength of the book: less well-known accidents are presented here alongside famous disasters, and the lessons learned from all are valuable and interesting regardless of your exact motivation for reading the book. As an aside, I didn't keep track, but an inordinate number of losses occurred due to fire (and water from firefighting). This was especially the case among French built liners, an observation not overlooked by the author.

Overall this is an excellent effort. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It is not encyclopedic, nor does it claim to be, but it is an interesting book on a difficult subject to cover well.

I was quite disappointed with this book. Most of the cases used have been historically previously researched and written about. I was expecting to read much more on the deatail of the actual disaster but this was not the case. Maybe its because I am a former merchant marine officer and familiar with the case studies used. Possibly this book would appeal to non-seafarers.

I was expecting a lot from this and was let down. Usually the William Miller books are excellent. Some great photos that I hadn't seem before, like the Leonardo da Vince at sea with her famous roll, and the Hanseatic on fire in NY harbor.
There is just too much information for a small book like this. Lots of info got left out. It may have been more satisfying in a larger format. As an introduction to the topic it would be useful.

Pretty comprehensive manual considering the range of models and years it covers. I recommend putting index tabs throughout the sections you're about ready to use that are applicable to you model. Good schematics, breakdowns and fairly clear photos.

If youre in the USA (the Haynes manual is prefered if you're in the UK) and need a thorough well diagrammed and photographed repair and maintance manual, this is it. It tells you all of the tools you'll need for each project and goes over maintance procedures and fault diagnosis step by step. An invaluable resource.

A friend of mine that helped me fix up my old BMW has one of these, and we used it extensively as a reference, so I had to buy one. He has a couple of airheads himself and knows much about the general ideas behind the engine, but he does not have the same model as mine so we used this book for some of the specifications. I tend to like this book more than the Haynes manual, which my friend has as well. NOTE: I have read on some of the discussion forums that both the Clymer's and Haynes have a few errors/type-o's in them, and it is good to check multiple sources for any major job you have to do.

I needed a good book to detail the pieces of the R100GS fairing and control cluster, so I could re-assemble a bike that had been badly "customized" This manual had the diagrams, the pictures, and the wiring information I needed. Good history on the different BMW models in the preface as well.

If you are a auto hobbyist / enthusiast planning to rebuild a motor, or just want to know how a motor goes together, this video book is certainly one to have. I have not ventured into a small block myself yet, but this book (along with others) will give me the confidence to start, and presumably will be covered in grease soonafter I begin.

Excellent book and very well made DVD. I learned quite a bit that I didn't know. I would recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn small block engine repair.

I was impressed with the book and the DVD. As a novice to engine building I was able to follow the DVD and book with relative ease. There were a few areas of the process that are in the book that the DVD did not mention. Overall I think it is a very good tool for the novice like myself.

I recently read Jeff Hartman's book on Turbo charging titled "Turbocharging performance handbook", and I recommend this book to anyone wanting to build, own, or enjoy a boosted vehicle. As an individual working in the automotive area and using boosting devices I have found Jeff's detail and thoroughness informative and helpful in my development efforts. I have read most every book available and found this latest effort to be superior in readability, basic science, history, technology, and theory of engine boosting. The overall presentation is better then any I've seen and the science is top notch with useful and practical insight and "how to". A liberal assortment of project cars grounds Jeff's effort in reality.
This is a great book, I'd recommend to anyone with interest in vehicle performance beyond the mundane.

This is an excellent source for Turbocharger information, It covers all aspects from history and manufacturing through modern OEM applications. It is written in an almost texbook like manner. The book also extensively covers custom applications and performance gains. It is fairly numbers heavy, and it helps to have a good base knowledge of engine dynamics. Some of the early chapters may seem confusing, however the author builds onto explanations as the book progresses.

I have followed the turbo field beginning with the Turbo Buick in 1979 (hands on experience modifying it) and the original, as well as best book on turbo's -- Hugh MacInnes' book.

I bought this book on the strength of the author's last -- the one on fuel injection systems. While that was a fascinating and informative book, this one measures up only as fair.

I'm trying to be nice here, but the writing style is forced, at least for me, and requires major concentration to follow (and not due to the technical nature of the material). I found my mind repeatedly wandering while reading about a subject that typically finds me fascinated and unable to put a book down.

Maybe my experience is unique. At the very least, though, I'd advise you look the book over in person before committing cash.

This is a good book but compared to the excellent work Mr.Hartman did in his previous EFI tuning book, this book is merely "good". I now own all the available turbo books sold here on amazon and this book ranks third on my list of useful turbo books. Second place goes to mark warners book and well well into the lead in 1st place is A. Graham Bell which so far as pretty pictures goes is terrible but the information in the book is SO comprehensive it includes everything from all the other books and then some. Hartmans book fails to address the million and one details that bells book covers and that is why it gets a 3rd place.

Lehman does it again. The illustrations are luminous and the story engaging enough for all ages. My little ones love her books, and my big ones do too.

On a train trip between cityscapes young girls watches as her view in a black tunnel is replaced by a vibrant countryside. When the train is flagged down mysteriously the girl notices she is the only one on the train who isn't asleep. Stepping off the train she finds a group of people gathered around a tree where a person and their plane have become lodged. What isn't apparent until she reaches the tree is that the people are all tiny, as if the remained frozen the height they were from her train window perspective. While the people are as real as the girl, the plane in the tree is one of those balsa wood planes with a rubber band powering the propeller. Once she has rescued the tiny pilot she returns to the train and resumes her ride home, out the of the fantasy and out of the tunnel, back to the city where she lives.

Out in front of her townhouse, standing in her stone yard, she looks up and sees the rescued pilot and a co-pilot flying toward her. They come with a gift of thanks, a small seedling for an apple tree that is planted in the crack in her stone yard. As a parting shot the girl sits on her stoop admiring her now-grown tree while all over the city other trees have begun sprouting up, no doubt from kindred daydreaming souls looking to return nature to the cities.

Lehman set herself an impossible bar with The Red Book a few years back and, unfairly perhaps, everything since has been measured against that amazing snake-eating-its-tale fantasy. If the impression -- mine at least -- was that her subsequent books (Museum Trip, Rainstorm) were increasingly weaker attempts to capture lighting in a bottle, Trainstop manages to stand apart from the others, on its own and with very sturdy legs. As with her previous books Lehman mines the theme of a child's daydream world, but here the idea of an fantasy taking place while the rest of the world sleeps, coupled with the message of bringing nature back to the cities, is perhaps the strongest, most direct message delivered yet. Where in previous books the children imagine or discover worlds for their own purposes and keeping, Trainstop gives us a child looking to share her fantasy with the world. It's almost a subtle environmental message, a quiet Lorax making a last call on those with eyes and ears enough to still listen.

For those unfamiliar with Lehman's work, the book is as wordless as her previous books, filled with the same thick-outlined ligne claire illustrations that are her trademark. Probably the simplest of her picture books to date, but no less engaging. I think what I'd really like to see is what Lehman can do with the long-form: graphic novels. Her sense of pacing, her imagination, I think make her an ideal candidate for an extended fantasy romp a la Sara Varon's Robot Dreams or, on a more picture book level, Regis Faller's The Adventures of Polo.

Our son formed an early attachment to all things John Deere, so when we saw this in a bookstore it was an easy decision. The book is about 12 pages, each with about 8-10 flaps to lift. Each flap has a picture underneath, and a short line for parents to read. A few of them show the insides of the vehicles and how they work!

The overall story is of Barney Backhoe and his friends Danny Dozer, Grady Grader, Luke Loader and Eddie Excavator build a park in Deerfield Valley. It shows many of the different functions of the machinery, as they would be used to build a park.

I highly recommend this book and the series. They are darling books with wonderful pictures and pull-flaps that little people, like my grandson, Theo, just love.