Original price was: 1 200,00 Kč.1 200,00 CZKCurrent price is: 1 200,00 Kč.
author: Jan Králík and Petr Kožíšek
The best book about L&K and Škoda cars (ENGLISH)
In stock
The history of the Laurin & Klement and Škoda car manufacturers, supplemented with clear tables and technical parameters of all the cars produced. Few car manufacturers in the world can present themselves with such a detailed history.
Year of release: 2004
Publisher: Moto Public
Binding: hardcover with dust jacket
Format: 215 x 305 mm
Number of pages: 423
| Weight | 2,215 kg |
|---|
A lifelong passion for motorcycle racing, careful study of archives, collection of memories of eyewitnesses and period photographs, programs of long-forgotten races and newspaper clippings, translated into clearly arranged 270 large-format pages in hardcover. This is what Jan Lahner's magnum opus, Czechoslovak Roads 1945-1955, looks like. Renowned motoring historian Jan Lahner has compiled a unique work documenting motorcycle racing on our roads in the first post-war decade. Each year of this period is dedicated to one chapter, describing in detail individual motorcycle races. Each chapter is supplemented by biographies of the racers who met in those years on road races and formed the top of the time. The lives of racers such as Kostlivec, Bubeníček, Lucák, Dusil, Kněz, Jiří and Jaroslav Simandl, or Jiří Koštíř and many others have not yet been published anywhere. Similarly, many of the more than 600 black and white photographs contained in the book have not yet been known to the public. The last chapters contain technical descriptions of interesting racing motorcycles and a clearly arranged table of all recorded race results.
Maestro Zapadlík has finally been persuaded and, with the help of friends, has created a review of his own works. In the first lines he defends the motivation for creating another pleasing work, which is still not a comprehensive review of his entire work. The Maestro stated literally: "„The publication was inspired by the response of those readers who appreciate the drawing in its often simple line. Therefore, the decision to publish the drawings that were created for a number of magazines more than twenty years ago is a kind of retrospective. In times when the reproduction of an image was difficult and often on very poor quality paper, black and white drawing was probably a good solution for illustrating sometimes even the technical details of cars and their parts.“Views of the delicate shapes of Zapadlík's car bodies can transport the reader to another world and influence aesthetic perception.
The publication captures almost unknown manufacturers and brands of motorcycles that were produced in the territory of the then Austria-Hungary. The reader will discover an incredible number of motorcycle manufacturers built in the vast majority of only one or a few pieces. Rapid changes in the development of motorcycle design are evident when compared with today's two-wheeled vehicles produced in large series. The publication is important in content for all friends of motorcycle history and the present.
The automobile has always belonged on the road. From the very beginning, when it came into practical use, there were also daredevils who, after modifications, tried to conquer water on their own. The publication is a guide with illustrations, but also an encyclopedia of amphibious vehicles. It maps the area of military, off-road and passenger vehicles capable of overcoming watercourses under their own power. This part of automotive history and the present has not yet been processed on the domestic book market. The content explains the theoretical foundations of vehicle movement in water, through the history of the emergence of amphibians to the technical parameters of military, off-road and passenger amphibious vehicles from the pre-war period to the present. The authors also recall remarkable amateur creations and expeditions. Recommended reading for adventurous natures, but perhaps also a non-standard topic for planning a vacation for next year.
The author has compiled the history of the development and production of four-cylinder engines for motorcycles from the first preserved types. After a three-page introduction to the subject, there is the first of the structurally interesting motorcycles with a four-cylinder engine, where we also have a proud world first: the Laurin & Klement with an in-line four-cylinder engine made in Austria-Hungary. From a chronological perspective, various design directions are interesting, often avant-garde, but also some less fortunate ones, which were often limited by the possibilities of workshop processing. The theoretical idea of the designer was timeless, but the appropriate technology had not yet been produced. Detailed technical descriptions of another twenty-five structurally interesting motorcycles of often no longer existing production brands will certainly interest readers of all age groups.
„"Kývačky" were in production since 1954. In the beginning it was a motorcycle of modern design and due to the limited range of offer it became the most widespread type on domestic roads. The chassis was universal, suitable for mounting two-stroke air-cooled engines of five displacement classes.
The first pages of the book contain a brief introduction with a quick overview of pre-war production. The rest of the content will enlighten the reader about the extensive history with period photographs of prototypes, dimensional sketches, photographs of sports and civilian versions from period newspapers, and detailed descriptions of the differences between the individual types. The chapters also focus on important figures involved in development and production, motorcycle racers of all categories, sales abroad, and the book also contains a reprint of part of the manual, copies of period brochures, and extensive technical tables.
A wide period from the establishment of an independent republic through the years of economic crisis, the protectorate and up to 1953, when a classless society was fully built with the help of obligations - these are the years that the author chose for the next presentation of some motorcycle manufacturers. The author filled the clearly arranged pages of the next part of his extensive publication with the production marks or surnames of workshop owners that begin with one of the three letters M, N, O. Period print, brochures, drawings, dimensional sketches, photographs, official documents replacing technical certificates and other archive materials were suitably used to bring the history of motorcycle production in Czechoslovakia closer. The author has been a guarantee of extremely interesting discoveries with a specialization in two-wheeled vehicles for many years.
Libor Marčík has already proven his authorial qualities in two previous works on motorcycle history and, in addition to his two recent publications, is now publishing, again at his own expense, another descriptive continuation of Czechoslovak motorcycle history. Years of painstaking work searching in the period press, in state and private archives, as well as examining entries in Latin, German or even in Hungarian-written books written in many registries are rewarded on graphically well-crafted pages. Long-forgotten manufacturers who sought ways of technical development through piece production are listed alphabetically. The carefully crafted text, supplemented by many original photographs, will delight historians and laymen alike, and in the company of the previous two works, a hint of a future complete history of motorcycle production from the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Czech Republic will begin to emerge in many libraries.
