The Driving Machine: A Design History of the Car

Is a great writer "slumming" more likely to produce good work than a hack making his best effort? This book says yes. Witold Rybczynski is a retired architect who has written about 20 books on design topics, including The Story of Architecture, Home, A Clearing in the Distance and The Most Beautiful House in the World. In this book he approaches a subject that is not his vocation, but his avocation - driving. And as a result he has produced a short, effective book, without the biased devotion that a professional "car-guy" might have. In a way, it reminds me of David Halberstam's practice of alternating between "serious" topics, like the Vietnam War, and sports topics. Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game still seems to me to the best book ever written about the NBA. In The Driving Machine, Rybczynski, I suppose in an effort to personalize the book, takes us through each car he has owned in his adult life. The book even features a "car diary" listing them all. This might have led to the book being too idiosyncratic, but the author uses his individual car purchases as a jumping off point to discuss different classes of cars. For example, his purchase of a station wagon leads off the chapter on the development of SUVs. Another chapter deals with the "also rans" or failures, like the Edsel. Yet another discusses "fun cars" like the Corvette and the Mustang. Generally, I liked the somewhat irreverent quality of the book. At one point a car is described as "resembling a Cadillac that started smoking too young." The Driving Machine has a light touch and is not a deep dive on the topic, although the author is thoroughly professional. Highly recommended.

Great easy informative read.

Written for people that know nothing about automobiles. Not anything new here and a rather uninspired spin on the old material.

There is some good historical information in the book.The author is not a car buff. So this makes for a very different kind of book. It was not for me, but others may find it useful.I was surprised to learn that the author does not own a car. The cars that he has owned are uninspiring.If you buy the book, understand that it is a very different kind of book. You can learn some things about early attempts to design and build the machines that allow us to drive.