Gurney's Eagles: The Fascinating Story of the AAR Racing Cars [Hardcover]

Karl Ludvigsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2001

Taking the racing world by storm, Dan Gurney and his All-American Racers combined innovation and engineering excellence to produce the bold Eagle cars. This illustrated history-a reprint of the original-follows Gurney, the team and their cars through several seasons of Formula 1, Can-Am and IndyCar competition.'

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks (November 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760312192
• ISBN-13: 978-0760312193
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,639,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biographical Background
Karl Ludvigsen

In addition to his motor industry activities as an executive (with GM, Fiat and Ford) and head of a consulting company, Karl Ludvigsen has been active for over 50 years as an author and historian. As an author, co-author or editor he has some four dozen books to his credit. Needless to say, they are all about cars and the motor industry, Karl's life-long passion.
Since 1997 Ludvigsen has been drawing on the photographic resources of the Ludvigsen Library to write and illustrate books on the great racing drivers. His first title in this series was Stirling Moss ' Racing with the Maestro. He followed this with Jackie Stewart ' Triple-Crowned King of Speed and Juan Manuel Fangio ' Motor Racing's Grand Master. Fourth in this series for Haynes Publishing was Dan Gurney ' The Ultimate Racer and fifth was Alberto Ascari ' Ferrari's First Double Champion. Next came Bruce McLaren ' Life and Legend of Excellence and Emerson Fittipaldi ' Heart of a Racer.
Also in the field of motor sports Karl Ludvigsen has written about road racing in America, the cars of the Can-Am series, the AAR Eagle racing cars, the GT40 Fords and Prime Movers, the story of Britain's Ilmor Engineering. His introduction to At Speed, a book of Jesse Alexander's racing photography, won the Ken W. Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism. Other motors-sports titles include Classic Grand Prix Cars, a history of the front-engined G.P. racer, and Classic Racing Engines, Karl's personal selection of 50 notable power units.
Four of Karl Ludvigsen's books concern the Chevrolet Corvette, one of them an industry best-seller. He has written three times about Mercedes-Benz, twice about its racing cars. His books on the latter subject have won the Montagu Trophy (once) and the Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot Award (twice), both recognising outstanding automotive historical writing. In 2001 he again received the Cugnot award from the Society of Automotive Historians for his book about the early years of the Volkswagen, Battle for the Beetle, a Robert Bentley publication.
Karl Ludvigsen's Porsche history, Excellence was Expected, is considered by many to be a model of the researching and writing of the history of an auto company. He has updated it twice in a three-volume format for Bentley Publishers for the new Millennium. He is the author of a series of monographs on great Maserati cars. His book BRM V16 for Veloce Publishing tells the story of one of the most controversial racing cars of all time. In The V12 Engine for Haynes he describes the creation and consequences of all the cars ever powered by the iconic vee-twelves.
In 1997 Ludvigsen researched and wrote the catalogue for a special exhibition of Ferrari technological innovations on the occasion of the company's 50th anniversary and contributed a major section to the company's official 50-year history. He has updated this for the company's 60th anniversary. Karl's understanding of the Ferrari world combined with his Library's holding of the Rodolfo Mailander photo archive to produce Ferrari by Mailander in 2005, a Dalton Watson publication. In 2006 with Dalton Watson Karl has published The Incredible Blitzen Benz, the story of six great record-breaking cars.
In co-operation with publisher Iconografix, Ludvigsen has established the Ludvigsen Library Series of 128-page books drawing on the holdings of the Ludvigsen Library. The series now numbers 19 titles, including books on Indy racing cars of 1911 to 1939, the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Indy Novis, Chevrolet's Corvair and Corvette, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL of 1952 and 1954-1964, the 300SLR of 1955, Porsche Spyders, Porsche 917, Jaguar XK120, XK140 and XK150, Land Rover Defender the Ferrari factory and American sports-racers: the Cunninghams, Chaparrals and Can-Am racing cars. More titles are in preparation.

Status: December 2006

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gurney's Eagles:The Fascinating Story of the AAR Motorbooks,136 pages,2001,small softcover-like hardbound without dustjacket., January 10, 2011

By 

Jose Lopez "Jose Lopez" (Miami,Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gurney's Eagles: The Fascinating Story of the AAR Racing Cars (Hardcover)

Gurney's Eagles:The Fascinating Story of the AAR Racing CARS Motorbooks,136 pages,2001,small softcover-like hardbound without dustjacket.photos all Black and white.

Karl Ludvigsen is known best for his great writing and books one of my favorites and in my collection being "Corvette: America's Star-Spangled Sports Car" 1972,1973,1974,1978, and the Guide TO Corvette Speed(small book,almost booklet),this book I read through my library on a loan and continues what we expect from Ludvigsen Great writing,Yet it is a Revised book(or "Facsimile" Copy of subsequent editions,the original first published in 1976)the introductions by Dan Gurney and Karl are still the same from 1976,the photos are all Black and white,and there could have been Color photos especially cars I am interested in Such as The EAGLE-CHEVY Cars of FORMULA 5000 in America,there was no AAR Plymouth coverage(just a mention) and plenty on The Indy cars with the Ford engine(sadly), not much biographical info On Gurney only a brief History and not as a driver,the Indy Cars with Drake/Offy and the GP Cars W/Coventry Climax engines. never goes into much detail except for the GP and Indy cars,it's a quick read with many b&w photos and spreads but unless your a Gurney or Ford Fan(I am not) It is not a big deal in the sense of the overall picture of AAR AND Anglo American Racers,only Dan Gurney is More important because He was an American At International Grand Prix Racing(wish we had more),sadly,AAR's facilities were at one point in The UK so Much for All American?(These Operations were Called Anglo American Racers.) Interesting Book nonetheless but not one I am adding to my collection any time soon.