Best Auto Books of All Time: Corvette Bible Is a Godsend
Spring is here, time to dust off one of our favorite reading materials.
Lifelong Corvette enthusiast Mike Yager offers the definitive Corvette buyer’s guide with his aptly-titled book Mike Yager’s Corvette Bible. If Yager’s name sounds familiar, it should. He has had an illustrious career in the world of Corvette, as both a rare-model reseller and founder of Mid-America Motorworks, a prominent Corvette parts retailer.
Yager’s book has the year-by-year breakdown, from 1953-onwards, on everything you need about know about Corvette. Written for everyone from new Corvette buyers to advanced ‘Vette aficionados, Corvette Bible has something for everyone.
The format is easy to follow, with each small chapter focusing on a particular model year of Corvette. Yager blends in a wealth of knowledge on engine choices, colors and options with interjections from his “Cheers and Jeers” commentary, to “‘Vette facts” which lays down how to decode VINs and details the key identifiers of each model. From there, Yager wraps each model year up with a reference chart showing the collectibility status.
That last bit is very useful for buyers looking to purchase a particularly rare model. With Corvette Bible, Yager lays down what the exact car you could be buying would be best suited for. Should you collect it, drive and enjoy it, race it, store it as an investment or resto-mod it? Check the chart.
Punctuation matters
As much as we love the buyer’s guide aspect of Corvette Bible, our favorite pieces in the book are the anecdotes laced in-between the facts and figures. For example, in our second-edition book, Yager synopsizes Road & Track and Motor Trend‘s coverage of the 1959 Corvette and its ability to outmaneuver contemporary European sports cars. These anecdotes punctuate the story of Corvette, and others also help shed more light on who Yager is as an enthusiast.
“My Garage” panels are another such punctuation in the story. These showcase highlights in Yager’s Corvette collection, whether it’s a rarely-optioned, all-original C1 to a C4 race car, it shows the flexibility of the Corvette brand. Those race cars, in particular, stand out to us the most, as perfectly preserved time capsules of Corvette’s heritage. Check out the last image up close of the red L88-powered C3 race car, it really pops off the page, doesn’t it?
Additionally, things like the full-page spreads add such an air of quality to the book. In this second edition copy, page 89 is a personal favorite of ours, showcasing the badass ’67 427 Corvettes with the exhaust side pipes. That said, the introduction page for the 2011 Corvette features one of the nicest full-page spreads in the book. Even treating Corvette Bible like a coffee table book, the photography here makes this one more than worth the cost of admission.
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