Here is my own personal back-story to these wonderful AMERICAN CAR SPOTTER GUIDE'S by Tad Burness.
From the mid-Fifties through the Sixties, I collected car dealership brochures for every American car. By 1971 I literally had thousands of them. The key word in that previous sentence is "had", as I lost all of them in a house fire in February 1971. The reason I bring this up though is that, when I first saw AMERICAN CAR SPOTTER GUIDE by Tad Burness at a B. Dalton Booksellers in the late 1970's, I remember immediately thinking, "He stole my idea". I say "my idea" because back before I lost all the brochures I had thought many times, it would be great if all of the car photos could be printed in a nice "Car Identification Guide", which was the name I thought of calling it.
Before the fire, the Cottage Grove, Minnesota (where I grew up) Police Department had actually encouraged me to try and publish just such a book. They felt it would be of great benefit to them in identifying the multitude of cars on the road, and they knew that I knew every make and every model at the time. But the dream was gone when the fire took the brochures.
I bought Tad Burness's book that day at B. Dalton and I later bought others. THEY ARE GREAT! Though they are not exactly as I had envisioned my real car photos from the brochures, his books are certainly a way for anyone to become an expert on identifying any American car. These books are the ultimate resource.
That's the most recent version of Tad's "American Car Spotter Guide". I like to take it out on the deck on a summer evening while listening to a ballgame on the radio and just browse through it.
I have a few car encyclopedias that I have been saving for my grand kids after years of use but still in great shape. The past few years when I want to search a particular car, I use the internet instead of the books, made me realize that none of the grandkids [12 of them] would use the books, they are not interested in cars to look anything up or would go on line and look them up. So I will leave the books to a couple of them knowing they will not really use them. Like the encyclopedia Americana [36books] I had, I threw it away, out dated info and Google/Wikipedia are easier with newer info and take up less space. Nobody wanted it being 50 years old so, to the recycling station they went, seems such a shame, but time marches on.
