Marián Šuman-Hreblay (Slovakia, former long-term member of the Society of Automotive Historians, Inc.) presents two very special books on coachbuilding history:

Read more: Dictionary & All Car Marques

The book shows he was a genius; and the car industry wouldn't be like it is without him...

Review by Wallace Wyss

When they throw around that phrase "pioneer in the auto industry" you can hardly get more pioneering in design than Harley Earl, not only a giant in the industry in America but at 6'6" a giant of a man. America’s car industry developed differently from that in Europe, England and Japan. We got hooked early on the three-year model change, what came to be called “Planned Obsolescence” and this book is about the genius that invented that. 

Read more: Fins – Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors and the Glory Days of Detroit

Many of the iconic vehicles of the second half of the 20th century, from simple, but beautiful Fiats, Citroëns and BMWs, to many astounding Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Maseratis and Lamborghinis, rolled out of the coachbuilding facilities of Carrozzeria Bertone, as well as the design studios of Stile Bertone. A succession of cutting-edge concept machines during the 1960s and the 1970s further cemented the belief that Bertone was not only the most audacious, but also arguably the most progressive and innovative of all the Italian design studios ever. 
Several of the important concept cars, as well as the emblematic production models from the Bertone design studio were either retained or later collected by the coachbuilder in a private museum, housed at the studio, Stile Bertone, near Turin. This book is about the many extraordinary cars from the Bertone Collection.

Topics covered include:
- The Bertone Story / The History of Bertone
- Designers, including: Franco Scaglione, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Marcello Gandini, Giuliano Maria Biasio
- Alfa Romeo, including: Giulia Sprint, Giulia Sprint Speciale, 2600 Sprint, Montreal
- Fiat, including: 850 Spider, Dino 2400 Coupé, 128 Coupe Shopping
- Lamborghini, including: Miura P400S, Espada II, Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole
- Others: Chrysler Simca Shake, Citroën GS Camargue, Bertone Suzuki Go, Mini Cooper S Works GP, Jaguar B99 and more.

• Title: The Bertone Collection
• Author: Gautam Sen and Michael Robinson
• Text: English and Italian languages (in one book)
• Pages: 356
• Images: 367, featuring photography by Makarand Baokar
• Size: 219mm x 290mm
• Contents: Encompassing 9 Design Directors and 63 cars from the Bertone Collection
• Price: $95,00

Read more: Book: The Bertone Collection

The Italian coachbuilding industry is something unique in the world. Amazing cars, incredible creativity and construction mastery that are impossible to find elsewhere, combined with an unbelievable number of people and companies that have been working for more than a century. This book, the result of a detailed and huge research that lasted many years, covers for the first time with the due historiographic method all the protagonists of this fascinating story. In fact, behind the most famous names, there are hundreds of other companies, workshops, craftsmen and designers that allowed such a big network to develop. The author and his team have been able to list little less than one thousand different entities, the wide part of which was totally forgotten and is re-discovered for the first time after decades.

The book is introduced by a foreword written by the renowned designer Leonardo Fioravanti and a text by Umberto Eco. 
The book is made by 2 large size volumes in slipcase, enriched by more than 3000-period pictures and is the ultimate reference, essential for car styling enthusiasts and automotive historians.
The manufacturing quality is as high as the contents, with a fine printing on heavy matt coated paper and a luxury hardcover in metallic paper.

• Title: Enciclopedia Dei Carrozzieri Italiani
• Author: Sannia Alessandro
• ISBN: 9788896796412
• Publisher: Societa' Editrice Il Cammello
• Publication date: 01-2017
• Text: Italian
• Pages: 664
• Size: 24 x 32 x 7 cm
• Webshop: Gilena International Motor Books
• Price: € 150,00

Carrozzeria Allemano was an automobile coachbuilder in Turin, Italy, founded in 1928 by Serafino Allemano. Allemano made various cars based on their own designs, and in some cases, externally made designs, such as those by Michelotti. Some of the earlier cars were Ferrari 166S, Alfa Romeo 2500 and Lancia Aurelia. For Fiat Allemano created three Fiats 1100 TV, some Fiats 600, 850 and 2200 and a few Abarths 750. For Maserati it made 21 Maseratis A6G 2000/54, prototype designs for Maserati 3500 (1957), and 22 Maseratis 5000 GT (1959-1965), many of these designed by Michelotti. There was also a Jaguar XK140, an Aston Martin DB2/4 (1953) a Panhard Dyna, as well as Renault Dauphine specials.
Thanks to the collaboration with Giovanni Michelotti and the high quality of craftsmanship Allemano's carrozzeria secured as a prestigious atelier a leading position in the history of Italian Style.
Carrozzeria Allemano ceased to exist in 1965.

• Title: CARROZZERIA ALLEMANO TORINO
• Author: Silli Giuliano
• Publication date: 2017
• Text: Italian / English
• Pages: 200
• Size: 23 x 30 cm
• Language: English, Italian
• Webshop: Gilena International Motor Books
• Price: € 32,00

> Encyclopedia: Allemano
> Forum: Allemano

Rocco Motto was the coachbuilder of several famous cars, often working behind the scenes and due to that was never as famous as he deserved. Specialising in aluminium work, both before and after WWII he coachbuilt countless sports cars which were raced successfully across Europe and America.In the 1950s he also built some wonderful granturismos before finally moving to the emerging touring caravan and motorhome industry.

This book tells the full history, illustrating it with a wide selection of pictures, often never published before.

• Title: CARROZZERIA MOTTO
• ISBN: 9788896796535
• Publication date: 12/2017
• Size: 21 x 30 x 1,5 cm
• Publisher: Societa' Editrice Il Cammel
• Language: English, Italian
• Price: € 39,90

> Encyclopedia: Motto
> Forum: Motto

The years between the two World Wars was an extraordinary period for the French luxury car trade and during this time, Carrosserie Gaston Grümmer was one of the leading coach building houses in Paris.

Descended from a long line of coach builders, Gaston Grümmer was the son of Antoine-Joseph whose company, J. Grümmer formerly V. Morel, produced first, from 1845, exceptional horse-drawn carriages and from the 1890s automotive bodies. Trained in the family business before World War I, Gaston Grümmer, spent the war as a soldier, first on horseback and in the trenches and then in the air as a pilot. At the end of hostilities, he brilliantly re-launched the family business transforming it into the Société Anonyme des Etablissements Grümmer. As the company moved towards the production of series bodywork for various manufacturers, Gaston decided that he wanted to break away to build custom cars and in 1924 he created his own company under the name of Carrosserie Gaston Grümmer. For the next ten years he achieved great success on both aesthetic and technical levels. 

Thanks to recently discovered and previously unpublished archives, his son, Philippe Grümmer, in association with one of the best French automotive historians, Laurent Friry, takes us back to this glorious period during the "Roaring Twenties" recalling the major events of the Concours d'Elégance and Les Salons de l'Auto, and describes the bodies that Gaston Grümmer produced for the chassis of around 54 manufacturers and the hundred or so prizes which he won. 

Read more: Book: Gaston Grümmer: The Art Of Carrosserie

This is the first book devoted exclusively to the Maserati 300S, one of the most beautiful sports racing cars ever built, and the main opponent of the Ferraris in the World Sportscar Championships of 1956 and 1957. Described by Stirling Moss as one of the best race car concepts of the Fifties, the 300S wrote motor sports history. With famous drivers like Juan-Manuel Fangio, Jean Behra, Harry Schell, Carroll Shelby and Stirling Moss, it raced with both great success and disappointing failure. Despite the often confusing and inaccurate records which make it difficult to establish the exact fate of these cars, the history of each of the twenty-eight 300S that were made by Officine Maserati S.p.A. in Modena, is listed chassis by chassis and profusely illustrated with period photographs. A section on the technical specifications of the 300S is also included, and an overview of the sports car racing scene of the time provides historical context. 

Read more: Book: Maserati 300S

DE TOMASO - From Buenos Aires to Modena: The History of a Visionary in the Automobile Industry

The first illustrated and complete book on one of the top marques of the Olympus of automotive history, written in collaboration with the de Tomaso family.

The volume traces the sporting and entrepreneurial story of Alejandro de Tomaso, exhaustively illustrating the characteristics of the models that have made the Automobili De Tomaso famous around the world, such as the Pantera, truly a cult object, especially in the United States. Many different dimensions are interwoven in de Tomaso’s story: the world of the gentlemen-sportsmen who animated the motor-racing competitions in the 1950s-1960s, the genuine and somewhat ‘provincial’ charisma of the artist-mechanics of the Modena area, and the story of the great American industrial dynasties and the intricate developments of the Italian automotive industry.

Read more: Book: DE TOMASO - From Buenos Aires to Modena

The Kellner Affair tells the fascinating story of some of the most influential people in the French luxury car business before the War and how they came together and fought bravely against the Nazi occupation force in Paris. It tells how they formed a resistance group and gathered intelligence ̶ how they were betrayed by double agents, and how they were executed in 1942. 

These people included the famous coachbuilder Jacques Kellner, the designer Georges Paulin, and Walter Sleator, the director of Rolls-Royce France, who survived. The book goes deeply into their talent, their work, their lives, their cars, their loved ones and relies on newly discovered archive material as well as private documents that have never previously been published. 

The Kellner Affair is the first factual account of these tragic and gripping events: what happened, how it happened, who was to blame, who was punished, and who was not. 

Read more: Book: The Kellner Affair