Auto Review Books from Oxford Diecast
Auto Review is a series of A5 32-page monographs on subjects related to transport, collecting and popular culture, which began publication in 1996. First, a little about how it all started: We began to publish the Auto Review series in early 1996, after deciding on the subject matter, size and presentation of this series of compact, concise, affordable monographs on subjects related to transport, collecting and popular culture.
The first six titles included 32 A5 size pages, all in mono (black and white) plus stiff card outer covers in colour, and they were priced at only £2.95 each. Those titles are still that price today. Over the next two years the range grew, and the price increased to £3.95 each. The authors of the early books were in a network of friends and co-contributors to Model Auto Review magazine.
You may notice that 19 numbers are missing from the early sequence of Auto Review titles. 16 of them were issues of avia mini, a publication for collectors of model and toy aircraft. All of the old avia mini issues are still available, but they are not listed in this catalogue.
After publication of Auto Review 17: Vehicles of the RAC, personal circumstances forced us to suspend publication of three titles which were planned for release at that time (on motor coaches, Ford Thunderbirds and taxicabs), and their numbers were abandoned.
We considered re-launching Auto Review at various times, but it was almost ten years before we did so, encouraged by a friend who needed two publications for his own commercial purposes. We therefore re-designed the format, introducing eight pages of full colour into the 32 A5 pages, now at a cover price of £5.95. Those two publications were on Mini and Spitfire (Auto Review 31 and 32), making us look again at some of the titles suspended a decade earlier. The revived series was so well-received that a production programme was soon put under way, the rate of release increasing to one per month. Some are written by world-renowned experts on their subject, such as Paul Nieuwenhuis (DAF) and C David Conway (Citroen), but most of the others carry my name on the cover. Don’t be misled, however; every Auto Review title is a joint effort by a wide-ranging group of enthusiasts from all over the world. Some of them provide considerable amounts of text, others offer snippets and anecdotes. Illustrations are sourced from archives of photographs, sales catalogues and other ephemera belonging to our team of contributors.
Oxford Diecast has supported Auto Review for many years and distributes the range of titles.
Auto Review Ford cars in the USA Part II - cars since 1945
Product code: AR212£6.45Here we have the second part of the story of the Ford Motor Company in the USA; cars and car-derived vans or pickups made after 1948, into the 21st century. Sub-ranges and models such as the Falcon, Torino, Fairlane, Pi...£6.45
Auto Review Fine Bodies II European coachbuilders
Product code: AR211£6.45In Auto Review 055 Fine Bodies we described a selection of British coachbuilders, as well as providing some background information on the process of coachbuilding, and we reproduced charts of the many types of body styl...£6.45
Auto Review McLaren Album
Product code: AR210£6.45Bruce McLaren was born in New Zealand in 1937. He moved to England in 1958 to pursue a career as a racing driver. In 1964 he set up his own company to make sports-racing cars, and began the M series of designs, which ra...£6.45
Auto Review Chevrolet Part 1 up to 1960
Product code: AR209£6.45This publication begins our coverage of the Chevrolet marque, which will span three titles in the Auto Review series. Here we cover the inception of the Chevrolet brand, along with the lives of Billy Durant, creator of ...£6.45
Auto-Review Made in Korea - North and South Album
Product code: AR208£6.45The names of Kia and Hyundai are now well-known and respected around the world, though it took time for them to become established motor manufacturers, and it seems that some owners still have no idea that their cars co...£6.45
Auto Review Ford USA cars part 1 - up to 1948 Album
Product code: AR207£6.45Here we have the first part of the story of the Ford Motor Company in the USA; cars and car-derived vans or pickups made from the beginning, up to 1948. A large part of this account concerns Henry Ford himself, includin...£6.45
The White Saga Auto Review
Product code: AR206£6.45Here we have the story of an American family which began its industrial life as a successful manufacturer of sewing machines. At the end of the 19th century the three sons of the White family branched out into the new a...£6.45
The Other Nordics Auto Review
Product code: AR205£6.45Not Just Volvo, Saab and Scania - Vehicles Made in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Iceland. Two previous Auto Review books have been devoted to the leading Swedish brands, Volvo and Saab...£6.45
MAN Album
Product code: AR204£6.45Including Büssing-NAG and other stories Here we have the complex history of a leading truck and bus manufacturer, which begins with the early days of MAN, which began licence-building Saurer vehicles during the Great Wa...£6.45
Pontiac Album
Product code: AR203£6.45Including the story of Oakland The General Motors Pontiac brand, created in 1926, made much of its Indian name, with bonnet mascots representing the chief (or a brave). In fact the name originated with a predecessor com...£6.45
Suzuki Album. They also made cars: Plus Isuzu, Hino and Daihatsu
Product code: AR202£6.45All of the Japanese companies described here made cars, but each of them was previously or primarily better-known for making other automotive products. Suzuki were best-known for their world-famous motorcycles, but the ...£6.45
Commercial Vehicle Album 2. Minor postwar UK Manufacturers
Product code: AR201£6.45In Auto Review 189 we told the stories of some companies which made minor contributions to British commercial vehicle history, from the earliest days up to the Second World War. In this publication we look at another se...£6.45
Auto Review Plymouth Album
Product code: AR200£6.45Walter P Chrysler was a name to conjure with in the 1920s. He had rescued Willys and in 1921 he had taken over Maxwell-Chalmers. In 1924 he launched the Chrysler Six, and the old Maxwell became the Chrysler Four. In 192...£6.45
Auto Review Cars produced in Latin America
Product code: AR199£6.45Latin America refers to countries on the American continent where Romance languages derived from Latin are spoken, mostly Spanish or Portuguese. This includes Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, most of Central a...£6.45
Auto Review Armour on Wheels
Product code: AR198£6.45The story of wheeled armoured fighting vehicles In this publication we tell the story of Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) on wheels, so tracked AFVs and half-tracks are not described here. Early ‘armed cars’, without a...£6.45
Auto Review Oldsmobile Album AR197
Product code: AR197£6.45Ransom E Olds set up the Olds Motor Vehicle Co in 1897, and for many years Oldsmobile was the oldest American car marque still extant. Oldsmobile closed in 2004, however after producing more than 35 million vehicles, al...£6.45
Auto-Review The Roadmakers Rollers, earthmovers and construction equipment
Product code: AR196£6.45The history of our roads is told in this Auto Review publication, as they improved from muddy tracks and dusty lanes to a system of fast metalled roads. We go on to tell the story of the roadmaking process, to cover mos...£6.45
Auto Review Tesla and the new electrics
Product code: AR195£6.45As Tesla grew to be one of the biggest car brands in the world, and other new start-up companies were pouring into the electric vehicle market, it was obvious that Auto Review should cover the topic. The story of batter...£6.45
Auto Review US Classic Volume 2
Product code: AR192£6.45AR192 American Classic; 2 And the men behind the marques In Auto Review 181 we looked at American Classic car marques regarded by car enthusiasts as ‘orphan makes’ because they were never absorbed into any of the large ...£6.45
Auto Review Mazda Album
Product code: AR191£6.45AR191 Mazda Album And the story of the Wankel engine The Toyo Cork Kogyo Co Ltd was founded in Hiroshima in 1920. It diversified from cork products into machine tools, then motorcycles, before deciding that its future l...£6.45
Auto Review Mercury Album Plus Edsel and Mercury Canada
Product code: AR188£6.45Mercury was created as a car marque in 1938 by Edsel Ford, to fill the gap between Ford and Lincoln-Zephyr, competing against middle-priced models from General Motors, Chrysler and other manufacturers. After the Second W...£6.45
Auto Review Berliet Album
Product code: AR187£6.45In the early years of the 20th century the company established by Marius Berliet made cars which were so advanced that they formed the basis of early Sunbeam cars in England, and Alco cars in the USA. Primarily a car ma...£6.45
Auto Review The other US car makers Album
Product code: AR186£6.45The Auto Review series has covered all the principal smaller US car-making groups of the postwar era; Kaiser-Frazer, Willys, American Motors, Studebaker-Packard, and it is gradually working its way marque by marque thro...£6.45
Auto Review Hanomag Album
Product code: AR185£6.45Hanomag was a long-established steam locomotive manufacturer which in 1905 took out a licence to make steam road vehicles and railcars. In 1912 the firm further diversified into building motor tractors, which became a p...£6.45
Auto Review MINI Album: BMW's Baby and its Mini heritage
Product code: AR184£6.45Auto Review 031 A Mini Album , the first volume in the relaunched Auto Review series, published in 2007, tells the story of the original Austin Se7en and Morris Mini Minor. It describes all of the many versions and vari...£6.45
Auto Review Dodge Album: cars, trucks and military vehicles
Product code: AR183£6.45Dodge Brothers cars and light trucks were made from 1914 onwards, based on experience making cars and components for other companies. The tough, hard-drinking Dodge brothers, John and Horace, died within months of each ...£6.45
Auto Review Shelvoke Album
Product code: AR182£6.45Here we have the story of Shelvoke & Drewry (S&D), a company which found a profitable niche in the commercial vehicle market. This was due initially to the inventive genius of its co-founder James Drewry, who designed t...£6.45
Auto Review American Classic Album
Product code: AR181£6.45As the Auto Review series works it way through the many American car brands produced by the various groups, some important makes are left as ‘orphans’. The main US car-making groups were General Motors, Ford, Chrysler a...£6.45
Auto Review 180 Subaru Album Including Nakajima and Fuji
Product code: AR180£6.45Chikuhei Nakajima was an engineer officer with the Japanese Navy who became interested in aviation and set up as an aircraft manufacturer in the 1920s. His company became the second biggest supplier of warplanes in Japa...£6.45
Auto Review 179 British racing cars 1945-1969
Product code: AR179£6.45In this publication we look at British-built racing cars from 1945 to 1969. By ‘racing cars’ we mean single-seat open-wheel racers mainly designed to compete in Formula 1 or F2, F3, Formula Junior etc. There are a few e...£6.45
Made In Belgium
Product code: AR176£6.45Many fine cars have been made in Belgium. Abundant raw materials, technical expertise and capital supplied a car industry which It is easily forgotten in the 21st century that Belgium was ‘noted for finely-engineered mo...£6.45
Corvette Album
Product code: AR175£6.45One and three-quarter million Chevrolet Corvettes have been produced over eight decades, all two-door, two-seat sports cars, and in eight distinct generations. The generations are usually abbreviated to the concise C1 t...£6.45
French cars of the post war era Album
Product code: AR174£6.45AR174 French cars of the postwar era Before the Second World War France had a very wide selection of home-grown marques from which a buyer could choose a new car. The large companies returned to car production postwar; ...£6.45
Bus & Coach Album : 2
Product code: AR173£6.45AR173 Bus & Coach Album: 2 A bus or coach is usually referred to as a Bedford, a Dennis, an AEC or whatever, but in most cases only a badge, or perhaps a radiator grille, identifies it externally in that way; that is th...£6.45
Mitsubishi Album
Product code: AR172£6.45Mitsubishi is an important name in heavy engineering, its heritage of shipbuilding, railways and aviation encompassing products from the battleship Yamato to the iconic Zero-Sen fighter aircraft of the Second World War ...£6.45
Thunderbird Album
Product code: AR171£6.45The Ford Thunderbird was originally conceived as a two-seater sports car, launched in 1955 to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette, but the Ford hierarchy was not thrilled by the limited sales they could get from sports ...£6.45
Italian Specialists Album
Product code: AR170£6.45AR170 Italian Specialists Our title of Italian Specialists was suggested by a group of small car manufacturers called Gruppo Costruttori Vetture Speciali in the 1950s, which had among its membership Cistalia, Giannini, ...£6.45
Bristol Album - buses, coaches and lorries
Product code: AR169£6.45Bristol buses were sturdy, dependable, workmanlike pieces of engineering. Similarly, the bodywork by Eastern Coach Works (ECW), seen on so many Bristol chassis, was well-proportioned and well-constructed, without any fr...£6.45
Voisin Album ( including other cars made by aviators)
Product code: AR168£6.45Auto Review 168 Voisin Album (and other cars by aviators) For some years we wanted to tell the story of Gabriel Voisin in Auto Review . A famous pioneer aviator (along with his brother Charles, who died young), Gabriel ...£6.45
Cadillac and LaSalle Album
Product code: AR167£6.45Auto Review 167 Cadillac Album and the story of LaSalle Cadillac division of General Motors was the biggest producer of luxury cars in the USA, and held that position for a century. It was also one of the earliest US ca...£6.45
Made in Switzerland Album
Product code: AR166£6.45Few Swiss-made vehicles are known to enthusiasts in other countries, perhaps with the exception of the Swiss PTT post buses. Switzerland was fiercely independent, however, and often cut off from international markets du...£6.45
Bus & Coach Album 1(coachbuilders in England)
Product code: AR165£6.45Auto Review 165 Bus & Coach Album: 1 The Auto Review series includes many titles relating to builders of buses; AEC, Bedford, Leyland and more. In this publication we look at firms whose principal work was to fit bus or...£6.45
Land Rover Album 2nd Edition
Product code: AR37A£6.45Auto Review 037a Land Rover Album The Land Rover celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2008, the year in which the first edition of this Auto Review book was published. In the same year the marque found a new owner in Tata...£6.45
Morris Commercial Austin/BMC/Leyland Album
Product code: AR163£6.45Here we have the stories of two British firms, Austin (from 1908 onwards) and the Nuffield organisation (as Morris-Commercial from 1924) who often competed against each other producing commercial vehicles, before combin...£6.45
De Dion and others - Darracq/Delaunay-Belleville/De Dietrich Album
Product code: AR164£6.45While we were developing the Auto Review books on Delage and Delahaye, it became obvious just how many other important and interesting French vehicle marques began with the letter 'D'. It was apparent that French 'D' ma...£6.45
Auto Review Volvo Album By Rod Ward
Product code: AR124£6.45Volvo was set up in 1915, a subsidiary of the SKF ball bearing firm. In 1927 the first car was built in Gothenburg, the ŌV4 Jakob, the first lorry in 1928. In 1935 AB Volvo became an independent company with its own eng...£6.45
Auto Review Tiny Wheels: Micro cars and City cars By Rod Ward
Product code: AR123£6.45Here we describe and picture all kinds of tiny cars. The 'microcar' description has been applied to all kinds of vehicles, often defined by an arbitrary engine size cut-off, perhaps 500cc. But this allows inclusion of m...£6.45
Auto Review The Optare Story By Tony Greaves
Product code: AR126£6.45In 1984 Leyland Group decided to close down their long-established Leeds-based bus-building company, Charles H Roe. In 1985 a management buyout led by plant director Russell Richardson, and supported by the West Yorkshi...£6.45
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