Books. COLLECTION OF PASSIONS ON WHEELS

Adelino Dinis has almost unique works on classic cars. With natural pride, it preserves the history and culture of other times through a huge estate, composed of wide hundreds of national and foreign books and magazines and over 60,000 photographs. A true classic!

From a very young age that Adelino Dinis has a passion for cars. At the age of nine, he began reading specialized magazines. « My father bought me L'automobile to be interested in the French and worked, » he acknowledged. A few years later, he himself began acquiring car books. «He spent hours at the carving of all that he had to do with the car. I started buying reference books, such as Nick Georgano's encyclopedias about the history of the car and motorized sport. These two encyclopedias are the foundations for a good library, ”explained the collector, who made a point of saying that he » liked to learn what he didn't know.  » At 52, he works in sustainability projects, but keeps fascination with classics, because « cars are less interesting now ». « They are designed by computer and more perfect, but they are also less human, » he said. As an author, he wrote the biography of Mario Araújo Cabral, the first Portuguese pilot in Formula 1, the history of Mercedes-Benz in Portugal and another excellent book about races in Cascais.
Our conversation started on the first page of a newspaper over 130 years old! «In a carbistant I bought a significant package of books and magazines, and in the middle was the first page of Le Petit Journal of 6 August 1894, which I kept religiously. This first page represents the spirit of progress and innovation of the press of the time. The Le Petit Journal was the organizer of the first car events and the first races between cities. This is even more relevant if we be aware that the first gasoline -powered car was invented by Karl Benz six years earlier. In 1890, there was no car builder, there were people who built the first motor mills, ”explained Adelino Dinis. Deep knowledge of the world of old cars, he said: “These events were important because at the time it was not sure what the technology of the future would be, whether they were combustion, steam or electric vehicles. Due to technological limitations, combustion engines became dominant technology.

Valuable collection
Another equally important work is named The World on Wheels, from Ho Duncan, a 1,200 pages book that is almost 100 years old. «This gentleman wrote the whole story of human mobility until 1926. It is a very well founded book and with numerous illustrations from horse transportation to the first cars. I bought it on eBay for half the price it had been announced. I think there is just one more copy in Portugal, which is in the ACP file, ”he said.
In a library of enormous historical value, we also find Gaston Sencier's Les Automobiles Électrique book released in 1901. «It is the first major book on electric cars. It describes all the technology of electric cars and what, at the time, was a technological impasse due to the storage of energy in lead batteries. At first, the electricity had a 10 km autonomy, which increased until it reached 30 km, but then stagnated and ceased to be an option. At this time, the electric car was preferred by the elites for the travels in the city, ”said Adelino Dinis. « I bought it at a bookstore specializing in first editions and cost me 10,000 shields (50 euros), » he recalled.
In a completely different record, Adelino Dinis gave us to know the sketches/draft books of the German artist Hans Liska. «He was an official illustrator of Mercedes-Benz and many of his creations appeared in the cars posters and catalogs after World War II. Illustrations books from the early 50s are true collection pieces that surpass the car. It portrays the atmosphere of the time, with the people who went to the Limusine Opera, but also war scenarios and football games. The combination of art with the car is a fascinating thing in these books, ”he said.

In his library there is also a place for the book Unsafe at Any Speed, by Ralph Nader, an American politician, who has a curious story. «The 1966 book is a critique of the American automotive industry regarding the lack of safety of its cars. It's another example of how a book had a huge impact on the automotive industry, ”he says.
The Portuguese books also deserve a prominent place in the collection of Adelino Dinis, whose oldest book is the 1908 Automobilist Manual, which has the particularity of being well illustrated.
You can't choose the best book, but you have a favorite title: The Man with Two Shadows. « It is an excellent biography of Alberto Ascari, who also speaks of father Antonio, » he says.