Car Wars Down Under

A rollicking ride through the early days of Australian Motorsport set in 1900-1918 in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, the true story of bitter rivalry between two Brisbane car importers/dealers: E.G.Eager Son and Canada Cycle and Motor (CCM). There are four main characters: Fred Z. Eager, Alec Fraser Jewell, E.G.Eager and CCM managing director A.V.Dodwell. The paths of speedsters Fred Eager and Alec Jewell collide on Christmas Day, 1916, on Southport Beach at the first attempt to set an Australian land speed record. Whitey in the premier motorsport event of hill climbs so they decided to stage an event of their own, bespoke for Studebaker. This race would nullify Fred Eagers driving skills and suit the big-engined Studey: A straight line speed contest against the clock on the firm low-tide sand of Southport (Surfers Paradise) beach. Only one of them could win ... Or could they?

This is the story of our love affair with the car and how it changed a city.

The world of Champ Car auto racing was changing in the 1970s. As cars became more sophisticated, the cost of supporting a team had skyrocketed, making things difficult for team owners. In an effort to increase purses paid by racing promoters and win lucrative television contracts, a group of owners formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1978. Soon after, CART split from its sanctioning body, the United States Auto Club (USAC). Though Champ Cars ran on numerous tracks, the Indianapolis 500 was the payday that supported most teams through the season. From the beginning, CART had most of the successful teams and popular drivers, and they focused on driving a wedge between the track owners and the USAC. Over the next 30 years, the tension between CART and USAC ebbed and flowed until all parties realized that reunification was needed for the sake of the sport. This book details the fight over control of Champ Car racing before reunification in 2008.

Dinner at Australia Square’s revolving Summit Restaurant, sipping cocktails at the Chevron in Potts Point, hanging out at a Skyline drive-in … Mid-twentieth-century Sydneysiders embraced leisure like never before. Leisure Space details the architecture and design that transformed their city – through its new hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping centres, drive-ins and golf courses, including landmark buildings such as the Gazebo and the Wentworth Hotel. With stunning images from Max Dupain, Mark Strizic and other outstanding Australian photographers, Leisure Space explores a dynamic period in Sydney’s history and the dramatic impact of modernism on the city’s built environment.

Ferdinand Porsche, widely revered as the inventor of the VW Beetle, stole the plans for the "people's car" from a Czech designer with Hitler's help. General Motors manufactured jet engines for Hitler's army, then got $33 million in tax exemptions from the U.S. government for damages sustained by Allied bombing of its German factories. Packed with these and other tales of greed and treachery, Car Wars is a must-read lesson in industrial strategy and a fascinating, behind-the-scenes history of the world's best-known automobiles.

The resurgence of the electric car in modern life is a tale of adventurers, men and women who bucked the complete dominance of the fossil fueled car to seek something cleaner, simpler and cheaper. Award-winning former Wall Sreet Journal reporter John Fialka documents the early days of the electric car, from the M.I.T./Caltech race between prototypes in the summer of 1968 to the 1987 victory of the Sunraycer in the world's first race featuring solar powered cars. Thirty years later, the electric has captured the imagination and pocketbooks of American consumers. Organizations like the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of California, along with companies from the old-guard of General Motors and Toyota as well as upstart young players like Tesla Motors and Elon Musk have embraced the once-extinct technology. The electric car has steadily gained traction in the U.S. and around the world. We are watching the start of a trillion dollar, worldwide race to see who will dominate one of the biggest commercial upheavals of the 21st century. Drawing from the last decade of his 26-year career at the Wall Street Journal, where he covered energy and environmental matters, ClimateWire founder and industry insider John Fialka brings to life this thrilling and important story about American's rejection and second obsession with the electric car.