Gas prices are soaring, so you might want to take a break from driving this summer and just read a car book instead.

We've got the best titles of the summer all scoped out for you, so take your pick between Zora Arkus-Duntov, Virgil Exner, Henry Ford, Rollie Free and even Steve McQueen. Choose a marque, a history book, a hot rod, a biography or even a motorcycle.

Chrysler Concept Cars by David Fetherston and Tony Thacker
To overcome the stigma of the ill-fated Airflow (insiders called it the "Airflop"), crack stylists Alex Tremulis and Ralph Roberts penned the flamboyant Chrysler Newport and Thunderbolt concept cars in 1941, proving they possessed the design expertise to challenge Harley Earl and his Art & Colour team at GM. As soon as ultra-conservative Chrysler CEO K.T. Keller ("We build cars to sit in, not to piss over") moved up to the boardroom in 1950, Chrysler consulted Pinifarina (briefly), then retained Ghia to help build a series of showstoppers. Virgil Exner designed the smashing K310 series, followed by one great concept after another, including the D'Elegance, Adventurer, Firearrow and Falcon. Fetherston and Thacker have unearthed wonderful archival material to show how Chrysler developed design leadership.

Classic Motorsport Routes by Richard Meaden
What better holiday for a car enthusiast than to visit 30 of the world's greatest racing venues? Richard Meaden tours Le Mans, revisits the historic Mille Miglia and La Carrera Panamericana routes, escorts you on an informative lap around the tortuously twisty Isle of Man, rediscovers lost circuits like Reims, Mont Ventoux and Pescara, and tells you what to see at Bonneville and El Mirage. Road maps, haunting period photos and provocative text provide all you need to know to find these famous places. "From sublimely contorted lanes rising into the Abruzzi foothills to the ridiculously headlong descent back toward the sea, Pescara was a circuit for the purist," Meaden writes. An exhausted Tazio Nuvolari is shown at Pescara, wiping his brow, after his Auto-Union retired with a lack of fuel pressure. You can virtually step back in time with all these photographs. Better yet, you can plan a visit.

Delage: France's Finest Car by Daniel Cabart and Claude Rouxel, translated by David Burgess-Wise
Noted French automaker Louis Delage once quipped, "One drives an Alfa Romeo, one is driven in a Rolls-Royce, but one gives a Delage to one's mistress." With elegant custom bodies by Figoni and Falaschi, Letourneur and Marchand, De Villars and Henri Chapron, Delage motorcars were the crème de la crème of concours d'elegance from Paris to the Riviera. While Delage had an enviable racing record, including a victory at Indianapolis, the marque is best known for its impossibly elegant confections on the D8-120 chassis in the late 1930s. And they're all in this lavish two-volume set, presented with period photography, a selection of art deco vintage advertisements, intriguing old sketches and carrossier drawings. This is a book to savor.

Flat Out! The Rollie Free Story by Jerry Hatfield
In 1948, Rollie Free, wearing only a bathing suit and sneakers, raced across the Bonneville Salt Flats on a stripped-down Vincent Black Lightning, catapulting a small British motorcycle manufacturer — and himself — into lasting fame. A talented man with a wrench and a gutsy racer (on two or four wheels) who had a distinct flair for creative self-promotion, Rollie Free could squeeze more power and speed out of stock Indians and Vincents than the factories ever imagined. "I didn't do anything but ride the damn thing," he said modestly, after topping 150 mph while half-naked on the highly tuned Lightning prototype of his patron John Edgar, who also supported Carroll Shelby's early adventures.

Ford Model T by Lindsay Brooke
Ford's plucky Tin Lizzie, the car that popularized automotive mass-production techniques and put the world on wheels, celebrates its centennial this year. Lindsay Brooke, former editor of Automotive Industries, insightfully tells the T's tale, from its veritable alphabet soup of ancestors, through key model changes, and its huge influence on racers and hot rods. Along with meaty sidebars on personalities, you'll learn every Model T variant — the Couplelets, Fordors, Tudors, Torpedo Runabouts and Coupelets, plus the Mak-a-Tractors and Sno-Mobiles. Ford cranked out 15 million flivvers from 1908 until production ground to a halt in mid-1927. And they weren't all painted black.

Fuelies: Fuel-Injected Corvettes 1957-1965 by Robert Genat
Mercedes-Benz introduced mechanical fuel injection on its 300SL Gullwing coupe in 1955. Just two years later, you could get a fuel-injected Corvette, a few select Chevrolet models or a Pontiac Bonneville, all with this exotic intake setup. You wouldn't think the simple matter of an induction system would inspire legend, love songs and loyalty, but Rochester fuel injection, developed by the incomparable Zora Arkus-Duntov, and "a beautiful piece of industrial design," accomplished that and more. If you're even remotely interested in fuelies, Genat's highly detailed text, with more than 300 pictures, covers those nine monumental years that transformed America's iconic sports car from a mushy boulevard cruiser into a hard-edged, world-class sports car. From the distinctive hiss of a Rochester-injected motor at idle, to the rough-edged bark of its exhaust (thanks to a higher-than-normal compression ratio and long-duration camshaft profiles), the fuelie was unique, and today it's a collector's item.

Grand Prix Racers, Portraits of Speed by Bernard and Paul-Henri Cahier with text by Xavier Chimits
All the greatest postwar Formula 1 drivers are here, from Alberto Ascari to Gilles Villeneuve, chosen from more than 600 drivers who have taken part in the sport during that time. They're deftly separated into a half-dozen categories. "Stylists, tenacious ones, romantics, scientists, acrobats and the tough ones." Bernard Cahier explains, "Our aim was to paint the big picture, not just to select the most famous." He and his talented son present soulful portraits of 72 racers, accompanied by sensitive, haunting text from F1 observer Xavier Chimits. Alongside an almost ghostlike close-up of Gilles Villeneuve, Chimits notes: "In the end, the high wire broke and the tightrope walker fell off. Villeneuve (an acrobat) was never World Champion. Never mind. Those in Formula 1 remember him for much more than that." About Ayrton Senna (a romantic), Chimits notes, "On May 1, 1994, people all over the world broke down and wept as if they had lost a loved one, someone who'd formed part of their lives."

The Legendary Custom Cars and Hot Rods of Gene Winfield by David Grant
One of Gene Winfield's cars starred on the cover of Rod & Custom in June 1953, and he's still chopping and channeling some 55 years later. Between speed runs at California's dry lakes, the Metal Magician from Modesto rivaled George Barris as a creator of memorable custom and movie cars. Back when talented customizers knew they could build more exciting and flamboyant designs than domestic automakers, Winfield's signature paint-blending techniques brought him nationwide acclaim. Author David Grant, who cut his teeth working at Winfield's shop, brings the master's greatest works to life, like the iridescent green '56 Mercury hardtop, forever known as the "Jade Idol."

Race to Win — How to Become a Complete Champion Driver by Derek Daly
Before Derek Daly's career as a TV broadcast announcer, he was a Formula 1 driver, an IndyCar driver and a sports car racer. For many years, his name was on a driving school at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His insights into fundamental driver strengths and weaknesses have helped him develop his six key components of becoming a more complete racing driver. Daly helps you identify driving talent, develop the requisite mental toughness and technical skills for success, and (most important) communicate effectively. He stresses physical fitness and the right diet, and emphasizes that attitude, desire and commitment, and the ability to change bad behavior patterns can make and sustain a champion.

Steve McQueen: The Last Mile by Barbara McQueen
"Another McQueen book?" you ask. Yes, but this one's worth a long look. Barbara Minty McQueen, Steve McQueen's third wife, was a sensational-looking model and a decent photographer. When McQueen dropped out of sight at the peak of his career in the late 1970s, grew a shaggy beard and just hung out with his motorcycles and cars, Barbara McQueen was quietly there with her camera to catch it all. If you want to see the real Steve McQueen — the car guy, biker, pilot of vintage aircraft and collector of antique autos/toys/signs/clocks/guns — these rough and honest photographic portraits will reveal him to you. The end, as he battled cancer, was a bear, and through a progression of photos, you can witness it all too clearly.

Source: Edmunds.com