Hi fellow rotor heads-
(I've also posted this over on the RX7Club forum, for those of you that frequent both sites)

As some of you may know, I've been writing a "How To Modify Your Mazda Rotary Engine" book for HPBooks Publishing Co. It has taken the better part of a year, but the book is now finished and is just about ready to be shipped off to the publisher. (It turned about really well, if I do say so myself. 85,000 words, 430+ images, and it's been vetted by a number of rotary experts from these forums, including Fred "Rotary God" Swain, Paul Yaw, Tom Walling, Glen Weaver, Pat Wildfire, et al.)

Anyway, the last little problem the publisher and I now face is sourcing a really powerful and exciting cover image to use. My publisher likes the type of thing we used in my last book ("Street Turbocharging" http://tinyurl.com/yx4kbc). I on the other hand, am thinking along the lines of something that shows the inner workings of a rotary engine, such as Mazda's cutaway of the RX-8 RENESIS, or a top-down view of a really cool single turbo engine bay with the hood removed. In other words, we want something flashy, but we don't know what it is that we're actually looking for.

With that in mind, I'm asking for suggestions of what to use on the cover of the book. Even better would be high-quality photos that one of you already owns and would be willing to let us use.

So, what do you guys and gals think? I'm open to all suggestions, but the time frame is pretty short. I will be watching this thread for input, but you can also contact me off-list via email at markhwarner@gmail.com
Cheers,
Mark
PS. The book goes off to the publisher this week, but due to their glacially slow editing/printing/shipping process, it won't be on the shelves of your local book store until early next year. I'm hoping you guys will like it!

no quotes from Jeff "Mazdamaniac" Abrams?

Let me look around and see what I can find...

Do you need Physical in Hand photos or can they be on the internet?

Yes, Jeff Abrams contributed to the book. No disrespect was/is intended by not singling out any one particular person in my original post. There have been more than 75 individual contributors of information, photos, text, images, etc. from the forums and from well-known speed shops to the book. In addition, a half-dozen engineers at Mazda have helped out, and I recieved a tremendous amount of input from about a dozen other technical/automotive folks. It's a big, complicated book, and there is no way I could have put it all together without the generous help of a lot of very talented and encouraging people.

As far as images go, I'm starting out by just trying to figure out what type of image we want to put on the cover. Ideally, if someone owns a really high-quality, professionally-done photo that strikes my and my publisher's fancy, we will then talk turkey about usage rights and such. I can't just grab a photo off the internet to use, but I would be very interested in talking with the copyright owner of a web-posted image that fits the bill.

-Mark

just a plain old rotor would be perfect. maybe chrome plated.

Hey, Mark.
I didn't hear back from you about those pics I sent over. Everything come through OK?
Good to see you over here. You should hang out a while!

yeah I know how the copyright stuff goes....but I personally would be game for a chrome plated rotor or something like that!!! simple yet still b very interesting but if not the rotor a turbo charged chromed out engine bay would also make a good cover but the hard part is finding one of either of those

A shot of a clean 20B would be great. Something like this but cleaned up:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME%3AL%3ALCA%3AUS%3A31&viewitem=&item=270245994016#ebayphotohosting

http://www.mazdarotary.net/images/tech_pics/20b.jpg

http://www.atkinsrotary.com/images/20B.gif

If you really want to something that grabs the attention of people on Amazon or in Borders then get permission to put a pic of the Furai on it.

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=147091&highlight=Furai

If Mazda's already helping they might be willing to let you use images of the Furai. Free advertising for them.

I, sadly, don't have the picture, but I always enjoyed seeing the one with half the engine solid, while the other half was see through to the rotors and such. I always enjoyed that shot.

The 20B one right above me is KIND OF like that, just less....cluttery. I think it was some Mazda book, actually.

i think a clean cutaway shot of the rotor and housing would be a pretty nice one

Bump.

Just saw this is now availble for preorder on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1557885494/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

Apparantly the publisher won on the cover art. Not exactly shocking. :)

Damn, I would really like that book....just a couple more months....

Yeah, I'm not 100% sold on the front cover, but it's not bad, either. I actually like the rear cover better than the front, especially with the underlay of the RENESIS engine behind the main graphics. Here was one of the early mock-ups of the back cover, below, before it went off for final editing (ignore the missing text, bad grammar, etc...)

I sure hope you guys enjoy reading the book half as much as I did writing it :-)
Mark W.
http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc355/bugeyebug/Miscellaneous%20Stuff/StreetRotaryCover-Idea2.jpg

Nice. I will be pre-ordering today.

Mark; the Street Turbocharging Book was an awesome read and got rotated to all of the Divers in my Unit when were were in Iraq (air pressure calcs and explosives is what we do).... so you are US Army Deep Sea Diver approved... LOLZ

Edit: Money Gone... gotta wait until may now.

i want it