Download or read book The Rootes Brothers written by John Bullock and published by Motorbooks International. This book was released on 1993 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Billy and Reggie Rootes were among the most respected figures in the motor industry. This book, by a motoring writer who worked for the Rootes Group and has access to family material, tells how the brothers turned a small family business into an international motoring empire.
Download or read book Rootes Story written by Geoff Carverhill and published by The Crowood Press. This book was released on 2018-11-23 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rootes Story - The Making of a Global Automotive Empire traces the meteoric rise of the two Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, development of one of Britain's most important motor vehicle manufacturers. The Rootes Group acquired some of the most famous names in the British motor industry: Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam and Singer cars, as well as Commer and Karrier commercial vehicles. Over the years, some of the models built by Rootes would become household names: the Hillman Minx, Humber Super Snipe, Sunbeam Alpine, Singer Gazelle, Commer Superpoise and Karrier Bantam. In its heyday in the late 1950s, Rootes was the fourth largest manufacturer of cars and trucks in Britain, exporting to over 180 countries worldwide, becoming a global automotive empire. In this book, the people and various companies involved with Rootes are profiled, as are the cars and commercial vehicles built by them, with specifications of principal models. Personal insight from employees is given along with valuable contributions from the Rootes family themselves. This book celebrates the heyday of a truly global automotive empire and one of the most important British vehicle manufacturers of the twentieth century. This is the first book written about Rootes to be sanctioned by the Rootes family. Will be of great interest to owners and enthusiasts of Rootes cars, and those with an interest in British automotive and industrial history. Superbly illustrated with 52 colour and 361 black & white photographs.
Download or read book The Rootes Story Vol II The Chrysler Years written by Geoff Carverhill and published by The Crowood Press. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 714 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rootes Story – The Chrysler Years focuses on the Rootes Group during the 1960s and 70s, the vehicles produced by the company, the people that created them and the events that led to Rootes selling out to Chrysler Corporation of America and eventual acquisition by the French Peugeot company. A valuable backdrop to the events is provided throughout the book by ex- Rootes employees and management. Chronicles the Rootes Group's efforts to survive as a major car and truck manufacturer in Britain's turbulent 1960s and 1970s. From a position as a respected global name in manufacturing, the Rootes Group found itself struggling to compete in a new buyers' market, in which foreign competition was starting to overtake British manufacturers. Despite the challenges that confronted them, Rootes designed and built some of the most popular cars of the period: the Hillman Minx and Super Minx, the Singer Vogue and the Humber Sceptre, and the iconic but ill-fated Hillman Imp, as well as some of the most rugged and well-purposed vans and trucks, built by Commer, Karrier and Dodge. The book highlights the competition pedigree of the Sunbeam Rapier, the Alpine, the Imp and the Ford V8-engined Tiger. Famous names such as Paddy Hopkirk, Rosemary Smith and Peter Procter all give their stories as works drivers for Rootes, while engineers at 'comps' tell the background stories of how races and rallies were won and lost. Andrew Cowan, Rootes' works rally driver and winner of the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon in a Hillman Hunter, shares his story in what was a remarkable and unexpected victory for Rootes. This complex story is told through the eyes of ex-Rootes and Chrysler personnel, giving 'from the horse's mouth' accounts of the company and its exploits. Geoff Carverhill takes you inside the boardroom, into the drawing office and on to the production line to give the reader an insider's view of Rootes, Chrysler and Peugeot.
Download or read book The Life of the Automobile written by Steven Parissien and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Life of the Automobile is the first comprehensive world history of the car. The automobile has arguably shaped the modern era more profoundly than any other human invention, and author Steven Parissien examines the impact, development, and significance of the automobile over its turbulent and colorful 130-year history. Readers learn the grand and turbulent history of the motor car, from its earliest appearance in the 1880s—as little more than a powered quadricycle—and the innovations of the early pioneer carmakers. The author examines the advances of the interwar era, the Golden Age of the 1950s, and the iconic years of the 1960s to the decades of doubt and uncertainty following the oil crisis of 1973, the global mergers of the 1990s, the bailouts of the early twenty-first century, and the emergence of the electric car. This is not just a story of horsepower and performance but a tale of extraordinary people: of intuitive carmakers such as Karl Benz, Sir Henry Royce, Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), André Citroën, and Louis Renault; of exceptionally gifted designers such as the eccentric, Ohio-born Chris Bangle (BMW); and of visionary industrialists such as Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche (the Volkswagen Beetle), and Gene Bordinat (the Ford Mustang), among numerous other game changers. Above all, this comprehensive history demonstrates how the epic story of the car mirrors the history of the modern era, from the brave hopes and soaring ambitions of the early twentieth century to the cynicism and ecological concerns of a century later. Bringing to life the flamboyant entrepreneurs, shrewd businessmen, and gifted engineers that worked behind the scenes to bring us horsepower and performance, The Life of the Automobile is a globe-spanning account of the auto industry that is sure to rev the engines of entrepreneurs and gearheads alike.
Download or read book Forgotten Rootes written by Michael Burgess and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motoring historian Michael Burgess explores this forgotten chapter in the history of the iconic Rootes Group.
Download or read book The Rootes Group written by Richard Loveys and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the Rootes Group (1913-1978) and its subsidiaries - Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Karrier, and Commer. This is the story of the Rootes Group which was both an important British car manufacturer, and a significant contributor to the war effort in 1939–45, as it made large numbers of military aircraft and vehicles. The company was started by William and Reginald Rootes in Maidstone from a background of building and selling bicycles and was originally concerned with new car sales, but the brothers soon realized that there were additional benefits in making cars rather than from just selling them. The Rootes Group grew largely by taking over existing companies and rationalizing and developing their ranges of cars and commercial vehicles. Many famous names became part of the Group: among the best known were Humber, Hillman, Sunbeam, Singer, Commer, and Karrier. Fully illustrated throughout, this is a fascinating introduction to one of Britain's oldest car makers.
Download or read book The History of the Sunbeam Alpine written by John Willshire and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full history of the Sunbeam Alpine, including its design and racing history.
Download or read book Coventry s Motorcar Heritage written by Damien Kimberley and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2012-04-02 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coventry, home of the cycle industry, was also to become the birthplace of the motor industry when the Daimler Company became the first in Britain to mass produce cars in the late 1890s.Spearheaded by H.J. Lawson, Coventry soon became a hub of motoring activity, and by the early 1900s was teaming with small and large companies, testing cars, motor-bicycles and tricycles around the local streets and surrounding country lanes. Many of these companies had previously been established as cycle manufacturers, yet introduced engines to their cycle frames in various forms, as well as producing safer three- and four-wheeled experimental machines. Other companies were established solely as motor manufacturers, many were short-lived, but others would survive and prosper.This new-found industry soon attracted a new type of worker to Coventry, specialised in mechanical engineering. These men and their families came from all parts of the UK and beyond, and made new lives for themselves in the city.Coventry has been home to well in excess of 100 independent motor manufacturers, but in recent years the city has suffered greatly with the loss of huge companied like Jaguar and Peugeot. The legacy of many of these historic cars can, however, still be enjoyed through museums and private collections.This outstanding volume is illustrated with 200 archive photographs and ephemera from the collection held at Coventry Transport Museum, and is a valuable record of the motor companies and their machines, as well as the individuals who both founded and worked for these manufacturers.
Download or read book The Art of the Classic Sports Car written by Stuart Codling and published by Motorbooks. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Art of the Classic Sports Car offers a beautifully illustrated review of decades of high-performance cars from around the globe, all shot in the studio. Sports cars are the athletes of the automotive world. Always nimble and quick, often powerful, sports cars fly where other cars lumber, and dash where others plod. The definition of a sports car is somewhat fluid, still, most car fans feel that they know a sports car when they see one, and when asked to name a few will rattle off Jaguar, Corvette, Triumph, MG, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lotus, Alfa-Romeo, BMW, and many others. Sports cars have offered road and track excitement for nearly 100 years. The original cars evolved for racing, but their appeal and popularity ensured that production versions were soon available for those whose sporting intents never left the boulevard or winding back road. The Art of the Classic Sports Car offers enthusiasts a beautifully illustrated review of several decades of high-performance cars, featuring cars from around the globe all shot in the studio to ensure a handsome book. Each featured car includes a profile discussing the car's place in sports car history along with technical and performance specs as well as a smattering of historical images and period ads.
Download or read book Pulling Up Roots written by Christopher Eiben and published by Christopher J Eiben. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulling Up Roots: Book One follows a remarkable line of descent of Edmund Rootes, an educated gentleman who died penniless on September 13, 1613 in Ashford, England, leaving his young family in desperate financial circumstances. The Rootes family suffered but persevered. In 1635, Edmund’s three sons, Puritans, after enduring years of religious oppression, left England for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Upon their arrival in America, the Rootes boys settled in Salem, then more shantytown than village. Over the next fifty years, Salem grew into a commercially important seaport—and a troubled community that would become forever infamous for its witch trials and public executions in 1692. Among those falsely accused and cruelly punished was elderly Susannah Rootes. By the end of the 17th century, the Rootes family had uprooted again, moving away from Massachusetts, first to Connecticut and then on to the wilderness of Vermont. The Rootes family story provides a unique look at the evolution of America from a fragile English outpost to an independent nation—seen from the perspective of one family compelled by circumstances and chance to continue moving on and experiencing more of the young and growing country. A family history—particularly one going back centuries—faces the difficult task of telling the stories of people who are now largely unknowable. This book begins with Edmund Rootes. Who was he really? What was he like? Kind or callous? Good-natured or sullen? Handsome or hideous? We cannot know. But we can draw inferences by learning more about what these long-gone people experienced. By examining shreds of evidence from aged records and linking them with the sweep history, the dead gradually come into focus. Christopher Eiben is a writer and historical researcher who lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Download or read book Hillman Cars written by James Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Hillman started manufacturing cars in Coventry in 1907 before selling his company to the Rootes Brothers in 1928. Three years later came the Hillman Minx, the first of a line that would endure in multiple forms for nearly half a century, even after the remarkable Imp arrived in 1963 to claim a slice of the market opened by the BMC Mini. Rarely revolutionary, Hillman cars nevertheless carved out a special place in the hearts of the British people as well as many overseas customers. This beautifully illustrated introduction to a classic British marque traces Hillman's history from its first cars at the turn of the century until, weakened by industrial disputes, it disappeared in the mid-1970s.
Download or read book The Coventry Motor Industry written by David Thoms and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2000: Coventry is synonymous with both the creation and relative decline of the British motor car industry. This volume utilises the extensive range of primary sources on the subject to explore the relationship between the car industry in its local context and the wider economic, social and political environment. It analyses the emergence and early dominance of Coventry’s motor manufacturers, the rise of volume production in the 1930s and the instabilities and renaissance of the post-war era. Specific chapters deal with the industry’s response to the demands created by the two world wars. A number of themes run throughout the book including the structure of the industry and the relationship between its various sectors, resource provision, management and labour relations, and the nature and response to market demand. The book also provides fascinating insights into the history of some of the most evocative marques in the car industry, including Daimler, Jaguar, Alvis, Siddeley, Standard and Rover.
Download or read book The Mistress of Mayfair written by Lyndsy Spence and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The plot could have been inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, but unlike Waugh's novel – which parodies the era of the ‘Bright Young Things’ – The Mistress of Mayfair is a real-life story of scandal, greed, corruption and promiscuity at the heart of 1920s and ’30s high society, focusing on the wily, willful socialite Doris Delevingne and her doomed relationship with the gossip columnist Valentine Browne, Viscount Castlerosse. Marrying each other in pursuit of the finer things in life, their unlikely union was tempestuous from the off, rocked by affairs (with a whole host of society figures, including Cecil Beaton, Diana Mitford and Winston Churchill, amongst others) on both sides, and degenerated into one of London’s bitterest, and most talked about, divorce battles. In this compelling new book, Lyndsy Spence follows the rise and fall of their relationship, exploring their decadent society lives in revelatory detail and offering new insight into some of the mid twentieth century’s most prominent figures.
Download or read book The Motor Car Industry in Coventry Since the 1890 s written by David Thoms and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, originally published in 1985, examines the development of the car industry in Coventry within both its local context and the wider economic environment. It is a study of expansion and adjustment which reflects the broader pattern of Britain's industrial history. The book analyses the emergence and early dominance of Coventry's motor manufacturers, the appearance of the volume producers in the 1920s and the instability of the post-war era. The relationship between cars and other sectors of the local economy, particularly cycles, machine tools and aircraft, is discussed, while the significance of the two world wars receive special attention. Extensive use is made of original sources material, much of which, prior to publication, had received little or no attention from business historians.
Download or read book A History of Coventry written by David McGrory and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, well known as the writer of more books on the city than anyone, explores Coventry's history from Roman times through Earl Leofric, Godiva and the Norman castle, to monastic houses, including St Mary's priory. Coventry has a rich medieval heritage, and rose to power in the Wars of the Roses, when the royal court moved there. Major themes in the city's history are discussed, through previously unknown source material, covering the Siege and Civil War, education, health, the church, crime and punishment, and industries from medieval weaving to modern car-building.
Download or read book Echoes of the Coventry Blitz written by Gerry van Tonder and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smoke rises in the City of Three Spires, the smouldering remnant of the Nazi hate. Coventry and England will remember and repay.From August 1940, Hitlers Luftwaffe mercilessly and indiscriminately bombed cities and towns in Britain. The historic West Midlands city of Coventry did not escape the carnage as, night after night, high-explosive and incendiary bombs rained down on the hapless production centre of cars, munitions and aero engines.Today, the iconic shell of Coventrys once majestic medieval cathedral offers a silent memorial of remembrance to that dreadful night. For the citys residents of now, it is a poignant echo of a violent and destructive part of their history.With carefully selected photographs, Gerry van Tonder tells the story of Coventrys blitz through a series of ghost photographs, where historic wartime images are blended with their modern counterpart to create a fascinating window in to Coventrys past. Also drawing from contemporary press accounts of the Coventry Blitz, this book presents a totally unique comparative insight into the Nazi bombing of Coventry in the Second World War.
Download or read book British Car Advertising of the 1960s written by Heon Stevenson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-27 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1960s, the automobile finally secured its position as an indispensable component of daily life in Britain. Car ownership more than doubled from approximately one car for every 10 people in 1960 to one car for every 4.8 people by 1970. Consumers no longer asked "Do we need a car?" but "What car shall we have?" This well-illustrated history analyzes how both domestic car manufacturers and importers advertised their products in this growing market, identifying trends and themes. Over 180 advertisement illustrations are included.
