Award winning
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton
Reid Railton

Reid Railton

Man of Speed

Regular price$196.00
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Author Karl Ludvigsen
ISBN: 9781910505250

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Reid Antony Railton, Cheshire-born automotive engineer par excellence, created an extraordinary range of cars. He rose to renown during the 1930s as chief engineer at Thomson & Taylor, Brooklands-based racing-car builders. There he realised the dreams of that era’s top men of speed, including Tim Birkin, Malcolm Campbell, Whitney Straight, John Cobb, Raymond Mays and Goldie Gardner. His great cars powered them all to sensational racing and record-breaking success. This magisterial book, by one of the world’s foremost automotive historians, tells Reid Railton’s personal and professional story in superb detail and fascinating depth, with special focus on Reid’s unique insights — amounting to genius — and technical accomplishments.
Royal Automobile Club Specialist Motoring Book of the Year, 2018 • Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award, Society of Automotive Historians (USA), 2019 • Mercedes-Benz Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy, Guild of Motoring Writers, 2018 • Michael Sedgwick Award, Society of Automotive Historians in Britain, 2018

Key content

• Record-breaking on land by evolving Railton-designed Blue Bird cars for Sir Malcolm Campbell, smashing the 300mph barrier in 1935.

• Designing and building chassis and suspension for the celebrated ERA, working with Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon.

• Creating the great Napier-Railton, with which John Cobb achieved the fastest-ever lap at Brooklands in 1935 and set numerous long-distance records at Bonneville.

• Railton’s supreme engineering achievement, John Cobb’s land-speed record challenger, takes the record ever higher, culminating at Bonneville in 1947 with 394.2mph – which remained unbroken for 16 years.

• More speed records in numerous classes with Goldie Gardner’s Railton-revised MG EX.135 either side of the war.

• The lure of speed on water: designing two successful record-breaking boats for Sir Malcolm Campbell and Crusader for John Cobb, who exceeded 200mph on Loch Ness in 1952 moments before crashing fatally.

• Road cars too: working with Parry Thomas on the Leyland Eight supercar of 1920–23, his own Arabs of 1925–27, road-going Railtons from 1933 and a decade of top-level consulting for America’s Hudson Motor Company.

• In WW2 working with America’s Hall-Scott on high-powered engines for Britain’s fast patrol boats.

Format: 280 x 235mm
Hardback, two volumes in slipcase
Page extent: 848pp
Illustration: 1,000 photographs, including colour

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“A great book on a seminal but intractably sprawling subject which manages to combine forensic attention to detail with an insightful overview of context... The quantity, quality and diversity of the illustrations is worth the price alone.”

“A biography of Reid Railton, the brilliant automotive and Land Speed Record engineer, has been long overdue, but at last the daunting task has been masterfully achieved… this mighty tome is highly recommended.”

“An amazing story, brilliantly compiled in unparalleled depth.”

“This is an immensely interesting book for historians, engineers and motoring enthusiasts… an important work, handled with consummate skill and beautifully produced.”

“A biography on Railton was long overdue… Karl Ludvigsen tackles Railton’s life’s work with poise and grace.”

“Over the last few years we have received into the office some truly magnificent books. The latest to arrive, though, literally takes your breath away on all levels.”

Karl Ludvigsen
Karl Ludvigsen first manifested his interest in supercharging in the early 1950s when he redirected a ventilation tube to the carburettor of his mother’s 1949 Buick Super convertible. Supposed to deliver more oxygen by ram effect, this succeeded only in leaning out the mixture, to the dismay of the Kalamazoo Buick dealer’s service staff. Karl learned that boost needed to be fed to the float bowl as well.

Ludvigsen has realised the ambition of a lifetime with this work on the subject of forced induction. He first tackled the early years of the technology in a 1970 issue of Automobile Quarterly, the research for which brought him in personal contact with some of the pioneers of this exotic art. This served him well when he committed to research and write an overall history of supercharging and turbocharging.

The publication of Power Unleashed marks more than 70 years of Ludvigsen’s activity as a journalist, author and historian. As author, co-author or editor he has more than six dozen books to his credit. Five of his books have received the Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award from the Society of Automotive Historians, which in 2002 gave him its highest accolade, Friend of Automotive History. In all he has received 73 awards for his high standard of writing and research.

Ludvigsen’s career has included the editorship of Car and Driver, a dozen years in the auto industry with General Motors, Fiat and Ford and 15 years as the head of a leading motor-industry management consultancy. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1934, Ludvigsen has lived in Britain since 1980. In addition to his work as an author and historian he is a contributor to leading periodicals and websites.

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