Laugh if you will at the amateurish layout, but the American Car Spotter’s Bible: 1940-1980 is a useful reference. With this book you too can learn to name the make, model and year of every domestic car you see on the road.
The format for this 790-page paperback is simple: Pictures of cars are shown in the alphabetical order of their brand name. The images, which include exteriors as well as interiors, were cut out of brochures and advertisements and presented in a collage format. Captions can include production figures as well as prices and engine choices. The unusual layout — and the sheer amount of content — can make the pages look rather busy.
I only use the Car Spotter’s Bible to identify cars. The Standard catalogs are a more easily searchable source of production data and model specifications.
The author died but the book lives on
Author Tad Burness died after the latest edition of the Car Spotter’s Bible was published (Strohl, 2012). However, an expanded edition has subsequently come out under a new title: My Dad Had That Car (2017).
As discussed further here, I find the Car Spotter’s Bible to be more useful as a quick reference because it is organized in a simple way. In contrast, My Dad Had That Car has a dual structure that can take longer to find what you are looking for. Cars are organized both by brand and by era (e.g., 1920-39, 1940-65, etc.). The main advantage of the new book is that its coverage has been expanded to include cars from 1920-39 and 1981-90.
American Car Spotter’s Bible: 1940-1980
- Tad Burness, 2005
- KP Books, Iola, WI
“. . . I’m convinced that God definitely had a hand in helping me complete this large project, as so many pieces fit together perfectly, like parts of a pre-planned picture puzzle! This was no coincidence, as it happened over and over as I was assembling the pages. You’ll find much new material here that never appeared in any other book!” (p. 7)
“One might call the work of Tad Burness the window on history, especially regarding his prolific work with automobiles and trucks in his syndicated newspaper series the Auto Album. . . . American Car Spotter’s Guide will be his 28th book and his first all-color guide.” (p. 790)
OTHER REVIEWS:
RE:SOURCES
- Burness, Tad; 2017. My Dad Had That Car: A Nostalgic Look at the American Automobile, 1920-1990. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY.
- Strohl, Daniel; 2012. “Spotter’s guides author Tad Burness Dies.” Hemmings Daily. Posted Dec. 11; accessed Sept. 27, 2014.
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