Those with a deep appreciation for the beauty and function of classic engines will be more than satisfied with this brilliant history of straight eight engines in all their magnificent glory. Straight eight engines found their way into the most glamorous cars of the day with long sweeping hoodlines and performance to match.  Author Keith Ray has rendered a stunning chronicle  of the design, development and application of these much sought after engines with full details and beautiful photographs to support them. True engine aficionados have a strong penchant for studying the fine details, particularly on masterpiece engines such as those presented in Ray's book. He more than fulfills that desire with stunning full page photographs and detailed commentary on each engine.
The effort is well supported with an opening description of straight eight design and the challenges it presents, including its length, firing order torsional vibration, number of main bearing, carburetors and inlet and exhaust layouts. He addresses each of these concerns with a narrative about how designers solved the various issues to achieve powerful, smooth running engines that were the envy of their era. Ray presents every car ever powered by a straight eight engine with the details unique to each of them. The photographs are superb and the specs and charts are detailed and thorough. The production values and design layout of the book well exceeds typical collector's quality, yielding a magnificent piece that readers will treasure and return to time and again to immerse themselves in the lore and mechanical splendor of the straight engine. Well done Mr. Ray.

SOURCE
Dalton Watson Fine Books
Hard cover in dust jacket
219mm x 290mm
404 pages, 479 images
www.daltonwatson.com

Sample Pages