Automobile Engineering Texts

[JV Puleo]

Are there any good text books that deal with the engineering side of automobile design from, say the mid teens? I have most of the JE Homans books from the brass era and the 5 volume 1917 "Automobile Engineering" but these are mainly aimed at repairing cars that were in use at the time or explaining how things worked...not at how the various designs were arrived at. What I'm looking for is something that would give me some background in things like how did they calculate what the optimum carburetor for a particular size engine was? I'm guessing not much was published before 1915 ... but by then the industry was big enough so that engineering schools must have been exploring the subject.

[Rusty_OToole]

I think I know what you are driving at. Years ago I saw a set of books in 7 volumes all about the design and construction of automobiles. It was from the early twenties and very complete and exhaustive of the various features of all cars on the market, and why they were designed the way they were.

Don't remember the title or author. You might contact a rare book dealer. Or browse some online book dealers.

I know Dykes Encyclopedias have the kind of info you want. Also, Victor W Page wrote several books on cars and motorcycles in the teens and twenties.

[NTX5467]

Rather than the size of the carburetor, I'd be more interested in how they determined the specs for the camshaft. Valve "open" and "close" events, duration, specific timing of when things should happen, etc. Plus how they later "improved" these things for more power. As you might recall, many of those earlier engines had humongous displacements, but only about 100 or so horsepower.

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467

[JV Puleo]

I agree... that is precisely the sort of information I'm looking for...a sort of forensic engineering.

[Bleach]

I have a 3 books of a 4 book set of the 1912 edition of the Cyclopedia of Automobile Engineering. The books are in a very delicate state and casual browsing seems to loosen the bindings every time. I also have a '49 edition of Automobile Engineering consisting of the 4 book set. The '49 is in excellent shape and lends well to casual and in-depth reading. Both sets are very interesting to read and are full of excellent illustrations but of course the 1912 set is truly fascinating.