The Cadillac Northstar V 8

Cadillac has had a long history in the automotive marketplace as General Motors' luxury car division. During the 1980s, Cadillac's management wanted to reestablish the brand as a leader in sophistication, innovation, refinement and prestige. Engineers conceived a new dual-overhead cam, four-valve-per-cylinder V-8 engine--the Northstar. This power plant was the heart of Cadillac's Northstar System, which included a greatly improved suspension and braking system. The division redesigned its entire line to incorporate these new technologies for the 1990s and beyond. The Northstar was the last engine designed and built by Cadillac before the 2005 establishment of GM Powertrain, which took over engine design for all GM divisions. This history of the Northstar V-8 and the cars it powered covers the first generation front-wheel drive Northstar, the second generation rear-wheel drive model, and the supercharged version, along with racing history and the most collectible Northstar-powered Cadillacs.

Cadillac has had a long history in the automotive marketplace as General Motors’ luxury car division. During the 1980s, Cadillac's management wanted to reestablish the brand as a leader in sophistication, innovation, refinement and prestige. Engineers conceived a new dual-overhead cam, four-valve-per-cylinder V-8 engine—the Northstar. This power plant was the heart of Cadillac’s Northstar System, which included a greatly improved suspension and braking system. The division redesigned its entire line to incorporate these new technologies for the 1990s and beyond. The Northstar was the last engine designed and built by Cadillac before the 2005 establishment of GM Powertrain, which took over engine design for all GM divisions. This history of the Northstar V-8 and the cars it powered covers the first generation front-wheel drive Northstar, the second generation rear-wheel drive model, and the supercharged version, along with racing history and the most collectible Northstar-powered Cadillacs.

Introduced as a 1987 model it was good looking but offered no serious competition to the European sporting cars. For the first two years sales were disappointing. 1989 saw an enlarged engine and reworked suspension and in 1990 it gained ABS and the new North Star V8 engine. However, this was too late and the car was withdrawn from production in 1993. This book is a compilation of contemporary road and comparison tests, technical and specification data, and model introductions. Models include: convertible, Northstar V8.

What Carroll Shelby wanted was a 2,400-pound sports car sheathed in carbon fiber that was the fastest road car in the world. What he got was quite a different matter! The Series 1 was one of the most highly anticipated sports cars in living memory. It was a magazine cover story seven times and countless more articles were written about it. The car was eventually produced early in 2000-but it reached its owners well behind schedule, at a higher price, and in smaller numbers than first projected. The story of the Shelby Series 1 "is about everything that could possibly go wrong and then did." It's a drama of gigantic and aspiring egos, petty prerogatives, awesome talent, bureaucratic bungling, and brilliant engineering. Of the many cars Shelby created over his career, none was as controversial as the Series 1. Snake Bit - an apt description of what happened to anyone and everyone involved in the project - is required and captivating reading for the thousands of Carroll Shelby fans throughout the world.

Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition departed England in 1845 with two Royal Navy bomb vessels, 129 men and three years' worth of provisions. None were seen again until nearly a decade later, when their bleached bones, broken instruments, books, papers and personal effects began to be recovered on Canada's King William Island. These relics have since had a life of their own--photographed, analyzed, cataloged and displayed in glass cases in London. This book gives a definitive history of their preservation and exhibition from the Victorian era to the present, richly illustrated with period engravings and photographs, many never before published. Appendices provide the first comprehensive accounting of all expedition relics recovered prior to the 2014 discovery of Franklin's ship HMS Erebus.