Synopses & Reviews
What began as a solution for transportation has evolved into a desire for speed, luxury, personal expression, and freedom. For many, the thrill of the drive has eclipsed the pure utility of the automobile. And the pursuit of that thrill is the driving force behind 365 Cars You Must Drive. From the Ford Model T to the Porsche Carrera GT, there are certain cars that any self-respecting auto enthusiast just has to know—and experience from the driver’s seat.
With homage to the greatest cars and good-natured mockery of the strangest, authors Matt Stone and John Matras detail which cars to drive and why, how to get behind the wheel, where to drive them, and who to invite along for the ride. Each entry contains a colorful spec box noting the car's claim to fame, a Did You Know? factoid, the author's clever suggestions for "The Perfect Passenger" and the "Soundtrack" coming out of the speakers, Behind the Wheel notes, and a "Perfect Drive" for the marque or model covered. Engine details, production information, the price when it debuted and the collectible price now - all of it adds up to at-a-glance fun reading to go with informative essays on each car, archival and full-color photos, and more.
See Motorbooks author Matt Stone interviewed by Jay Leno on JayLenosGarage.com: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/jays-book-club-matt-stone/1164286/
Review
Classic and Sports Car (UK), December 2006
“A good mix of images accompany text that crams in the information without being heavy: we particularly liked accompanying panels listing the ideal soundtrack, perfect passenger and the best place to drive each car.”
Shropshire Star (UK), Oct. 20, 2006
“Car nuts will love it.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 23, 2006
“Whether you agree with the selection of cars or not … you’ll enjoy the brief thumbnail sketches and beautiful photography and reproduction of advertisements that run all through this book … A lot of it is tongue in cheek, of course, but always great fun. It’s a blast to simply imagine yourself behind the wheel of some of these obscure, and not so obscure, cars and trucks.”
Review
New York Times, Dec. 10, 2006
"Matt Stone, the executive editor of Motor Trend and Motor Trend Classic, and John Matras, an automotive journalist, have put together an exhaustive list of cars that an enthusiast should experience firsthand, or at least vicariously ... The selections are far-ranging and nicely illustrated, often with color photos, everything from the 1955 Chrysler C-300 and the 1962-63 Thunderbird M Sports Roadster to the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray and the 1954 Porsche 550 Spyder ... In all, 365 Cars You Must Drive is fun to read, a tasty automotive snack delivered in bite-size daily servings."
Musclecar Enthusiast, December 2006
“The pithy comments which accompany each profile make the book well worth its modest $20 cover price.”
New Zealand Driver, Fall 2006
“God this is a great book. In fact, it’s a Great Book, so GREAT that I wish I had had the idea first … It’s a book that is written concisely, with a great deal of wry humor and wisdom ... If you love cars you’ve got to have a copy of this and I guarantee that you will leave it lying around to come back to time after time after time … One of the best car books that’s ever come my way!
Review
"One of the best car books you can buy, 365 Cars You Must Drive is a thorough book full of all cars from every corner of the world, including the Yugo and the Tucker. It is my overall favorite book, and is relatively small and doesn't weigh 10 pounds like the first book I mentioned. It also includes current value statistics that are right most of the time.” – The Car Nut
Review
Detroit News, Oct. 28, 2008
“Time well spent.”
Victory Lane, November 2006
“Great holiday reading!”
Gayot.com, Aug. 7, 2007
“For anyone who lives and breathes anything automotive, this is a must-have for your library.”
Synopsis
Imagine if you could drive a different car—any car—every single day for a whole year. How would you choose? Where would you drive it? What would you play on the radio? Who would you take along for the ride?
The 365 cars profiled in these pages range from objects of obsession to ridicule and represent the 365 most beautiful, outrageous, wretched, underappreciated, and exciting vehicles to grace our roadways since the inception of the automobile. Authors Matt Stone and John Matras have set out—with a touch of reverence and a tank full of humor—to vividly describe each car’s history, its significance, and what it’s hiding beneath the hood—or deck lid, as the case may be.
Did your dream car make the list? Go ahead. Flip through the pages and look for your favorites. Better yet, take it one step further. Accept the challenge: See how many you would want to drive . . . and how many you can.
Synopsis
To drive certain cars, like the 1927 Ford Model T, is to know a bit of twentieth-century history firsthand. The 1953 Volkswagen Beetle (with split rear windows) tells another story. The 1964 Maserati 5000 GT, hand-built for kings, speaks of riches beyond compare. And the 1992 Yugo GV is, well, dumb. Of the thousands of cars built since the invention of the automobile -- a modern moment marked here by the 1886 Benz Three-Wheeler -- there are some that any self-respecting automotive aficionado just has to know.
Motor Trend Exectuive Editor Matt Stone has singled out a years worth of cars from ultimate legends like the 1927 Rolls Silver Ghost to ultimate losers like the 1977 AMC Pacer, that will complete the auto enthusiast's education in absolutely necessary car lore. Richly illustrated, peppered with entertaining observations and driving advice, Stone's book of must-drive cars -- ranging from classic muscle cars, sports cars, and racing cars to cultural landmarks and automotive oddities -- gives readers all the scuttlebutt about getting behind the wheel, the perfect passenger, celebrity owners, ideal routes, and more. Whether your taste runs to the 1901 Curved Dash Olds or the 2005 BMW M5 (the worlds only 500-horsepower, V-10-powered sedan) or anything in between, this book has a car for you.
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Synopsis
What began as a solution for transportation has evolved into a desire for speed, luxury, personal expression, and freedom. For many, the thrill of the drive has eclipsed the pure utility of the automobile. And the pursuit of that thrill is the driving force behind
365 Cars You Must Drive. From the Ford Model T to the Porsche Carrera GT, there are certain cars that any self-respecting auto enthusiast just has to know—and experience from the driver’s seat.
With homage to the greatest cars and good-natured mockery of the strangest, authors Matt Stone and John Matras detail which cars to drive and why, how to get behind the wheel, where to drive them, and who to invite along for the ride. Each entry contains a colorful spec box noting the car's claim to fame, a Did You Know? factoid, the author's clever suggestions for "The Perfect Passenger" and the "Soundtrack" coming out of the speakers, Behind the Wheel notes, and a "Perfect Drive" for the marque or model covered. Engine details, production information, the price when it debuted and the collectible price now - all of it adds up to at-a-glance fun reading to go with informative essays on each car, archival and full-color photos, and more.
About the Author
Matt Stone, Editor of
Motor Trend Classic magazine and Senior Editor of
Motor Trend magazine, has been an automotive journalist and photographer since 1985. He serves as their history, auto design, and motorsport expert and is a member of SPEEDtv’s Barrett-Jackson Auction broadcast team. He has authored several books for Motorbooks, including
365 Cars You Must Drive (2006),
McQueen's Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon (2008) and
Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman (2009). A California native, Stone resides in Glendale, California.
John Matras began writing about cars in 1980 and became a full-time automotive journalist in 1988. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and Road and Track, and he takes the blame for the website carbuzzard.com. He was the 1995 recipient of the prestigious Ken W. Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism and the Washington Automotive Press Association’s Golden Quill Award. Matras lives in Tannersville, Pennsylvania.
Dan Gurney is one of the most important figures in the history of American auto racing and is one of only five American drivers to win a Formula One Grand Prix. and the only one to win in a car of his own manufacture. Gurney also won races in the Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, and Trans-Am Series.