Team-BHP - Must-Read Car Books for automotive enthusiasts

Small wonder- The Making of Nano by Chacko Philip is a book that enjoyed the most.

Prior to reading this book, I would always mock Nano whenever I saw it on the road.

After reading this I had a new found respect for Nano. It is a moving account on the struggles and obstacles the Tata Motors and their engineers had to overcome to bring their dream product on to the road.clap:

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Originally Posted by rrsteer (Post 3557705)

Hi Everyone, is there a book which can help a novice come up to speed with the mechanics of an automobile.......

You can go through this link Books and Web Resources on Vehicle & Automobile tech

Automotive Mechanics by Crouse and Anglin is a good place to start.

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Originally Posted by Aditya (Post 3557200)

Gautam Sen has come out with a new book called A Million Cars for A Billion People. The book takes us through the history and evolution of the people's car in the Indian automobile scene.

Read a couple of chapters of this book. Interesting read, and a good insight into the history of the Indian car scene. However, it lacks depth. For instance, there's no real detail about the 309 & Uno fiasco of the nineties, Opel's failure, Daewoos exit etc. These were very important events.

A decent quick read. Will give it 3 stars out of 5.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rrsteer (Post 3557705)

Hi Everyone, is there a book which can help a novice come up to speed with the mechanics of an automobile. So a one stop book which can clearly explain in basic terms (but still being technical) how does an engine work, what are the basic parts and their functions, how does the steering system, the transmission, suspension etc work?

This book is the kind of guide you're looking for.

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Originally Posted by Auswechseln (Post 3557778)

Small wonder- The Making of Nano by Chacko Philip is a book that enjoyed the most.

Thanks! Hope it's available on Kindle soon. I gave up on paper a long time back.

For those interested in vintage & classic cars, George Bishop's "Classic Cars" is a good addition to one's collection. A fat, lavishly illustrated hard cover book, it covers most classic cars including the Minerva, Maybach, Talbot-Lago and most others of similar vintage. I see Amazon .com has it in its listing, but notes that it is "currently out of stock".

I bought it a long, long time ago from the Flora Fountain footpath stalls in Mumbai, sometime in the 80's.

Hello good people of Team-BHP,

My name is Ronak and this is my first thread on TeamBHP.

I am currently studying Master of Finance from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in Frankfurt, Germany.

As part of course curriculum, I am required to write a Master Thesis from a wide range of given topics, or, any other topic in which I have deep interests and would like to further research on it.

Being an automotive enthusiast, I am inclined towards writing a thesis on the automotive industry of India. My idea is to write a thesis covering the larger spectrum of the industry and not just limited to the sales number of cars and bikes. I plan to research on the growth and expansion of the industry, how the internal & external economy, technology, purchasing power, local & global tax rates, inflation, etc. helped grow and shape this industry and simultaneously, the shortfalls of such acts.

The entire industry (including 2, 3, 4 wheeler, commercial vehicles & future vehicles such as hybrid cars, electric cars & driverless cars) is based in the fastest growing economy and how country's growth will affect automotive industry seems to be a very interesting topic for my thesis. The working title of my thesis is "Empirical Study on Past, Present & Future of Indian Automotive Industry"

To help me research on my thesis, I request all the distinguished senior BHPians, fellow members of the community and friends to suggest to me some books/periodicals/journals/research papers/literature published over the course of years, which, more or less, describes the connection between the economy of India with its automotive sector. My thesis is due next year but I plan to order your suggested books/materials and start researching on the topic as early as possible.

Needless to say, all the due credits will be given in my thesis and I am absolutely aware of the anti-plagiarism rules and regulations that my college has imposed.

I look upon Team-BHP in high regards and believe this is the right place to ask for suggestions. I am sure members of this community won't disappoint me. Please help!

Thanks a lot @romydeora for this. I can use whatever books that this thread suggests for my book club discussions as well as personal reading lists.

For now I have two recommendations for you:

1) The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker: It's a book that would be a perfect starting point for your thesis. It covers fourteen management principles that were enforced in Toyota's Japan factories and has a dedicated chapter (a vivid insight that) into the Kanban principle. The best part about this book is that it reads like any other NYT Fiction bestseller. True it's not India specific but the topic is a very good tangent to understand the general history of Toyota cars. Goodreads link.

2) Small Wonder by Philip Chacko, Christabelle Noronha and Sujata Agrawal: Despite the varied opinions we have on the Tata Nano, the car's lifespan from its birth to what it is today is a story in itself. This one is an authorized biography, that lists the various stages in its product life-cycle. It's more of an overview than a deep insightful look into the teething engineering problems but still merits a read. Goodreads link.

You can look under the Non-Fiction label in Goodreads for further choices. And I shall hover over this thread if I find some notable recommendations from time to time.

I would suggest you to read "The Maruti Story" by R.C Bhargava. This book will surely provide you the background on how Maruti Suzuki was finalised by the government as a partner to manufacture cars in India tailored for Indian needs. Besides a lot many insights will make up for a good read and might help you in constructing the past of Indian Automotive Industry.
If you would have been based out of Bangalore, I would have lend my copy to you.

Not sure if this has been recommended before but another must read is Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt. It's on my Kindle and I'm yet to come around to reading this (I'm on a bit of a science fiction and crime non-fiction spree off late but that's :OT).

Some of it is scary and has an objective look at traffic. One particular thing that was told in a meet was that there's a person called traffic archeologist, whose main job is to find out why pedestrians are killed in New York. Sure seems like an interesting read. Goodreads link.

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Originally Posted by GTO (Post 1951301)

Here is a MUST-READ book for any Indian car enthusiast

The Maruti Story : RC Bhargava

I'm quoting a post from 2010:)

I read the book in 2017 and in these ten years, Maruti has grown even stronger.

It was great to know about the Maruti story. I have a new found respect for Maruti now. Having said that, a company which is a leader in so many aspects and is literally unchallengeable can do so much more on bringing in a second automobile revolution of sorts in terms of safety, emissions, performance etc.

Reading through the posts, I find that there are only a few posts on two wheeler related books. I just wondered if anyone can recollect these -

a. An illustrated book on Lambretta (this was about 40 years ago, when Lamby was a prized possession and one of the neighbourhood uncles not only had one but also this book, which was allowed to be touched under careful supervision)

b. Growing up, somewhere in the early 90s there was this Motorcycle Guide by (late) Dilip Bam (Penguin, if I am correct). It was like a Bible to a few of us.

If interested in Bam's narration, you can browse through his story about his trip across Sahara (on a KiHo - Kinetic Honda) as well as his Vietnam trip; both of which are available in his website. Remarkable first hand experience from a very hands-on two wheeler wizard (in a temporary phase of insanity, I had given away the entire collection of Indian Auto Journal (88 to 92) and Auto India (92 to 97) :Frustrati, where he was regularly contributing)

Coming to cars, remember these two -

1. A Rolls Royce & Bentley book, which describes how each car is 'crafted'. If my memory is correct, there was a mention of an Indian Maharaja or Godman(?) ordering 50 cars at a time with different a colour each!

2. After getting hooked on 'Back to the Future' film series, happened to read the story of DeLorean. Sad story. We had our own 'Standard Rover' in Chennai (late 80s) which had a very short life. We tended to believe the rumours that its success could have spelt doom for the Contessa and soon to come Maruti.

Just finished reading Mark Webber's autobiography - https://www.amazon.in/Aussie-Grit-Fo...inhydr18418-21. It offers an insight into how a Formula 1 career is built , the sacrifices the drivers go through and how the less financially endowed driver work their way up.

It also provided interesting anecdotes and insights from Webber's perspective on some contemporary drivers including Schumy, Vettel and Hamilton.

Drive on,
Shibu

Dropping a post here with an entry for BVR Subbu's book on the Santro:

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Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4338318)

Over halfway through with Subbu's book and I must say that it's a 'good' book, but NOT 'excellent'.

The Maruti Story by RC Bhargava remains the best book on Indian cars. Period.

Faults I find with Subbu's book:

1. He is too biased toward Hyundai, and h-a-t-e-s Maruti way too much. Both are too excessive. As an example, he spends way too much time explaining how his Maruti buying experience in the mid-90s went all wrong. I'd think an ex-industry manager would know better than to paint all dealers with the same brush because of one experience. Also, I bought a Zen & Esteem in the 90s and both experiences were splendid.

2. No attention to detail. While there is some good history & trivia in the book, he breezes through the actual launch of the Santro too quickly, without much detail. In comparison, Bhargava explained the 800's introduction with a lot more detail & fun. Even the dealership recruitment process isn't really explained properly.

It's still a must-read book for any petrolhead and there's a lot to learn from it. But it's nothing like 'The Maruti Story' which was just way more insightful (even though Bhargava himself was biased toward Maruti).

Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers

It's an old book published during 1994. This book really covers a lot of ground, geographically, historically and from an investing standpoint. The base story itself is pretty incredible, travelling across 6 continents on a motorcycle, which no one had ever done before. It's basically a motorcyclist's travelogue, with some nice inputs about respective country's economic scene.

I came across this book accidentally. One of my co-rider was just glued to this book, during our group ride to Jaisalmer. Curiously, I checked the contents of this book, and after that, I ordered it immediately. This book was published during 1994 and talks about Jim,s travel during 1991. A bit outdated, still a nice read.

Quote:

ABOUT INVESTMENT BIKER
Legendary investor Jim Rogers gives us his view of the world on a twenty-two-month, fifty-two-country motorcycle odyssey in his bestselling business/adventure book, Investment Biker, which has already sold more than 200,000 copies.

Before you invest another dollar anywhere in the world (including the United States), read this book by the man Time magazine calls “the Indiana Jones of finance.”

Jim Rogers became a Wall Street legend when he co-founded the Quantum Fund. Investment Biker is the fascinating story of Rogers’s global motorcycle journey/investing trip, with

Image and Review Source:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...9780812968712/