History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed: James Dean's Killer Porsche, NASCAR's Fastest Monkey, Bonnie and Clyde's Getaway Car, and More - Softcover

Stone, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076034714X ISBN 13: 9780760347140

Publisher: Motorbooks, 2014

Synopsis

All of the weird, wonderful, and amazing tales of cars and the characters who drove them.

The automotive world is filled with crazy stories, mysteries, myths, rumors, and legends. Here are just a few covered in History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed.

- After James Dean's death behind the wheel, parts of his car were sold off -- and cursed their subsequent owners.

- Bonnie and Clyde almost exclusively stole Ford V8s as their getaway cars because they were the fastest cars of their day. Clyde Barrow even wrote Henry Ford a thank-you note for his unsuspecting help.

- Peanuts in the shell are considered bad luck at NASCAR races.

- James Brown's wife once claimed diplomatic immunity when fighting a traffic ticket because her husband was "the ambassador of soul."

- Harry Houdini learned to drive late in life only because he needed to get to an airport for a stunt, and it was the only drive he ever made.

- There is a myth of a 200-miles-per-gallon carburetor that oil companies and auto manufacturers are rumored to have kept hidden from the public.

- A mechanic working in a car's trunk was once mistaken for a kidnapping victim.

History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed covers every aspect of the intersection between people and their machines. The racing, manufacturing, crime, pop culture, and mechanical lives of cars are explained, along with the shockingly poor judgment of some human characters. Separate the fact from the fiction and learn where the truth lies!

About this title

From the Back Cover

Did you know that after James Dean’s death behind the wheel, parts of his car were sold off and cursed their owners?Did you know Bonnie and Clyde almost exclusively stole Ford V-8s as their getaway cars because they were the fastest cars of their day? And Clyde Barrow even wrote Henry Ford a thank-you card?Did you know that a monkey named Jocko Flocko won as many NASCAR Grand National races as Mario Andretti, Buddy Shuman, and Mark Donohue?Did you know that a Ford Pinto could fly?Did you know that one of the Aston Martin DB5s James Bond drove in Goldfinger and Thunderball may have been thrown from an airplane and dumped in the ocean off the coast of Florida as part of an insurance scam?Did you know the Edsel could have been called the Utopian Turtletop?Did you know that oil heiress Sandra Ilene West is buried in her beloved Ferrari? The automotive world is filled with crazy stories, mysteries, myths, rumors, and legends. History’s Greatest Automotive Mysteries: James Dean’s Killer Porsche, Isadora Duncan’s Last Ride, Bonnie and Clyde’s Getaway Car, and More compiles some of the most intriguing ones, separating fact from fiction and exploring their origins. Sometimes the stories prove to be true; other times, facts really are stranger than fiction.

About the Author

Matt Stone (Glendale, CA), former executive editor of Motor Trend magazine, has been a professional automotive journalist and photographer since 1985. He is the author and photographer of several books, including Motorbooks' best-selling 365 Cars You Must Drive (2006), My First Car (2011), McQueen's Machines (2010), and McQueen's Motorcycles (2017). He is the co-author, with Preston Lerner, of Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman (2014) and History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed (2014).

Preston Lerner, a regular contributor to Automobile magazine, has written about motorsports for publications ranging from Sports Illustrated to the New York Times. Lerner has co-authored Motorbooks titles Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman and History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed with Matt Stone.

Edition details

• Publisher: Motorbooks
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 076034714X
• ISBN 13: 9780760347140
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256