Illustrator and automotive enthusiast Jarek Zichek has gone digging deeply into the history of automobiles. Instead of ones that actually were built, he focused on concept streamlined automobiles. While not a complete survey of every car made, Mr. Zichek narrowed his focus to pre-WWII and to cars which had at least a fragmentary plan view. The majority of the 3D models generated are based on patent drawings and there are inconsistencies throughout some of the drawings so research and interpretation had to fill in some of the missing gaps.

The main body of the book consists of eight cars with reviews of the drawings that were used to generate the 3D models. Each car has multiple views as well as dimensions of the cars. Different color schemes are included especially if the car was designed for racing. The cars investigated and rendered are the following:

• Clarke Racing Vehicle, 1916
• Henninger Power Driven Vehicle, 1924
• Rystedt Motor Car, 1925
• Valier-Lippisch Winged Vehicles, 1928
• Miller-Oldfield Land Speed Record Car, 1932
• Gee-Bee Atlanta Racing Car, 1933
• Mickl Record Car with Wing, 1937
• Sawatzki Record Car with Air Brakes, 1939

The last drawing compares the sizes of all the cars included, some of which are enormous. Lastly, there are end notes and a bibliography for those wishing to dig even further into the vehicles shown.

It would do a disservice to the book not to mention the illustrations that Mr. Zichek generated for this book. They are perfectly rendered, well researched and wonderfully detailed. A true artistic effort. After looking through the book, my first thought was how these would make excellent models or great scratchbuilt projects.

This is a wonderful book whether for the artwork or as a book to generate ideas for that next special project. My thanks to Jarek Zichek and Retromechanix for the opportunity to review this great work!