Technically detailed historical accounts: Engines

By PJGD

Here is a recommended list of books about historical engine design efforts. These are on my bookshelf. It is not an exhaustive list - just those I own and have read. If you have others, reply to this FAQ and I’ll update the list:

  • Some Unusual Engines; Setright, LJK; MEP; 1975

  • Valve Mechanism’s for High Speed Engines; Smith, Philip H; GT Foulis; 1967.

  • The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine; Ricardo, HR; Blackie; 1968.

  • The Classic Twin-cam Engine; Borgesson,G; Dalton Watson Ltd; 1981.

  • The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practise; Taylor,CF; MIT Press; 1985.

  • Climax in Coventry; Hassan, Walter; Motor Racing Publications; 1975 (Essentially this is a biography of Walter Hassan, but tells the story of how Coventry Climax got into building racing engines, and also the genesis of the Jaguar V12 engine).

  • Cosworth: The search for Power; Robson, G.; Patrick Stephens; 1990 (An in-depth story of Cosworth)

  • The Designers; Great Automobiles and the Men who Made Them; Setright, LJK; Follett Publishing; 1975 (As it happens, I like Setright’s style!).

  • The Development of Piston Aero Engines; Gunston, W.; Patrick Stephens; 1993.

  • Kerr Wilson, “Practical Solutions to Torsional Vibration”, Chapman & Hall, 3rd Edition. 1963

  • “Georges Roesch and the Invincible Talbot” by Blight, Anthony; Grenville Publishing Co Ltd.; 1970.