Recommended Reading – For the Road series

Back in the early to mid-1980s, Henry Rasmussen’ For the Road series were the most popular car books to ever hit the shelves. They were unlike any books ever published on collector cars before. Their unusual format was horizontal, to better showcase the cars’ full lengths and their unique concept brought a fresh, human-interest perspective to what owning one of these classic beauties was all about. Most importantly, the writing was an entertaining combination of historical and production facts combined with insight on the cars’ unique design qualities and a few minor owner-related viewpoints on driving them.

The average length for each hardcover title runs about 128 pages in an 8-1/2 x 11-inch format. Although just 12 cars of the marque are featured in each book, and with each car getting 12 pages for their profiled chapter, they were the most desirable models produced by that manufacturer. Several black and white historical photographs highlight each car’s background followed by some very creative and interesting color photographs of each. Another chapter compares the details of all the cars selected, such as their emblems, gauges, grilles, bumpers, door handles, and taillamps.

Besides the above titles shown also included in this series were four more books: Jaguars For The Road, American Classic Cars, European Classic Cars and Postwar MG & Morgan. Keep in mind that these are no way to be considered in-depth books on their marques, instead they are just the opposite: a nice, easy and quick read that entertains and inspires the reader to want to own one.

No longer available new, used copies can be bought for as little as $10 – depending on title – to as much as $40, and are readily seen on the tables at the Hershey swap meet.