Sports Car Design

1 The Development of the Sports Car.- Motor sport.- The sports car.- The history of the sports car.- The first sports car.- The fabulous years.- Historic sports cars.- The future of the sports car.- 2 The Engine: Combustion.- Cylinder head history.- Combustion chamber research.- Volumetric efficiency.- Knock.- Limiting compression ratio.- Types of combustion chamber.- 3 The Engine: Induction and Exhaust.- The induction system.- The 4-cylinder in-line engine.- The 6-cylinder in-line engine.- The V-8 engine.- Ramming induction pipes.- Ramming pipe theory.- Forward-ram intakes.- Cold-air intakes.

"As a design object beyond its practical purpose, the automobile has left an indelible mark on the world we live in. There is scarcely another everyday item which has been designed in a more sophisticated and inventive manner and which offers a larger projection area. This can be seen with particular clarity in the sports car. The volume pays homage to a selection of exclusive sports cars by legendary manufacturers, from Porsche to Ferrari to Jaguar, as artworks in their own right and as a unity of form, technology, design and emotions. Essays, selected texts and biographies shed light on the multi-layered development of automobile design and introduce the vehicles and their designers."--Publisher's description

VVRRUUMM! Did you hear that roaring sound? It's the revving engine of a powerful sports car. Car fans love the sleek curves, wide tires, and rumbling, turbocharged engines found in popular sports cars. Look under the hood to get a closer look at the special features that make sports cars some of the world's fastest and most eye-catching vehicles.

There are great cars, and then there are sports cars, those that have not only withstood the test of time but steadfastly defied it -- cars that have remained desirable and valuable for more than 50 years, to become the most treasured automotive artifacts of our time. Many of the automobiles pictured in this book are stunning examples of the motorcar and require no further credentials. Others have been selected because they were benchmarks in the history of the sports car in this century. Illustrated throughout, with more than three hundred color photos, this gorgeous profile of the most highly coveted cars on earth is sure to evoke the dream of all car enthusiasts: speed and adventure.

365 Sports Cars You Must Drive puts you in the driver's seat of a century's worth of sports car legends (and a few rather less legendary), each presented with a fun and informative profile and fact-and-spec box. It's the ultimate gearhead's bucket list and poses the challenge: How many have you driven? Whoever coined the phrase "getting there is half the fun" must have owned a sports car. And the wag who suggested that "it's the journey not the destination"? Probably driving a Lotus or MG at the time. From towering icons like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Corvette to everyman sportsters from Triumph, MG, Sunbeam, and Miata to oddballs like Crosley, Sabra, and DB, sports cars inspire passion and strong opinions as few other vehicles on the road can. In one beautiful book, long-time Road & Truck​ magazine chief photographer John Lamm, along with other top motoring contributors, gives the reader illustrated profiles of every sports car you've ever dreamed of driving! Now, imagine if you could drive a different sports car—any sports car—every single day for a year. Which would you choose?

The aim of this book is to provide information on the more advanced types of chassis and suspension in a form which will be understood by the large majority of motoring enthusiasts -- Preface.

Start your engines for a grand tour of the most stylish grand motoring automobiles ever created. Evoking an era when elegance, romance, and outright performance defined the automobile--and the fascinating stories that made them icons of the road. From the shark-inspired Maserati Ghibli to the fiery Lamborghini Miura, from European elegance with American firepower such as the Iso Grifo and Facel Vega to the groundbreaking designs of the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale and Renault Alpine and the advanced technology behind the Jensen FF or Porsche 918 Spyder--these cars are less transportation and more testaments to beauty, freedom, ambition, innovation, and speed. Beautiful Machines was conceived and edited by gestalten. The stories are written by automobile expert Blake Z. Rong with a preface by Classic Driver's Jan Baedeker and gestalten's Robert Klanten.