Testimonials / Reviews
Amazon.com 2022 Rated Five out of Five Stars
The History of GM’s Ramjet Fuel Injection on the Chevrolet V-8 and it’s Corvette Racing Pedigree, Kenneth W. Kayser © 2007
Helen V. Hutchings 2022 Speedreaders.info
The History of GM’s Ramjet Fuel Injection on the Chevrolet V-8 and it’s [sic] Corvette Racing Pedigree, © Kenneth W. Kayser 2021. Numerous Corvette and Chevrolet histories include mention of the application of GM’s RamJet fuel injection during the 1950s. This book, however, is the first standalone that focuses on its detailed engineering development. Ken Kayser, its author, can easily be described as the ultimate insider for his 40 plus year career was spent as a GM engineer.
Helen V. Hutchings 2021 Speedreaders.info
The importance of establishing a car’s provenance has been frequently acknowledged. While this book easily does that for one specially ordered and built 1966 Buick Gran Sport, it also tells a much bigger story, that of a company and a marque. That said, Buick’s “Flint Flyers” is no rehash of existing Buick histories for its focus is the engineering and technical aspects of the marque over its 100+ years of existence.
The author, Ken Kayser, was educated in engineering at the General Motors Institute of Technology, then attained a master’s in business from State University of New York at Buffalo. He applied those paired skills over a 40-year career at various General Motors engine plants. Those experiences enabled him to write this book from a perspective of the behind-the-scenes inner workings that is not usually found in books. Too it enabled him to source documents and images not usually shared with readers or even available to literature collectors. Over a thousand of those documents and images that include engineering drawings, patents, dealer service information, charts, and more are used throughout the book with each captioned as might be expected of a career engineer - as in very specifically and carefully.
Kevin Kirbitz 3-29-21 GM Heritage Center Manager
Ken, you have some great books! Thank you!
Marty Schorr 3-29-21 Car Guys Chronicles
Your latest massive missive on Buick is like your Corvette “bibles”, truly outstanding.
Bonnie Wolf 9-4-19 Vette Vues Magazine
I don’t believe I have ever read that the Cougar name was to be on the Corvette before. I also enjoyed seeing the typo “Courvette”.
Joel Stiglitz 8-16-19 Corvette Collector
Ken’s books tell the real stories with the internal GM documents to back them up. A detailed read if you want the real stories of how the Corvette came to be as well as evolved. Lots of myths debunked.
Marty Schorr 6-25-19 Car Guys Chronicles
If you consider yourself a Corvette aficionado and/or a student of American automotive history, your bookshelf should have Corvette-centric published works penned by Kenneth W. Kayser. A retired GM engineer, Kayser spent years at the Tonawanda Engine Plant (think big-blocks, L88, ZL1, etc) and later in 2008 working on the “Mid-Ship” Corvette Development Program when the economy went south and the project killed.
While the primary Raison d’être for this almost-five-pound tell-all book about ZORA DUNTOV & MID-ENGINE CORVETTE MYSTIQUE! is the history of the mid-engine or, as Zora preferred to call it, Mid-Ship Corvette, it also covers in detail all the significant factory racecars, iconic Concept cars, racing engines and drivetrains. And, while the photos are not necessarily of coffee-table-book quality, each program is documented with internal memos, letters, invoices and printed materials reaching as high as senior levels of GM corporate management. When it comes to uncovering deeply buried documents and photos that support decades of exotic Corvette programs never made public, Keyser is truly a pit bull!
Marty Schorr 5-24-19 Car Guys Chronicles
You did an absolutely incredible job, a job that could not have been done by anyone other than an “insider” as compared to a non-GM writer/author.
Christo Datini 5-6-19 GM Heritage Center Archivist
Thanks again for your new Zora Volume II book. It will make a nice reference as we navigate the coming years of “midship” Corvettes.
Robert Mochernuk 6-23-19 Everything Chevy Enthusiast
Kenneth’s books are a true masterpiece of historically correct facts and insights to an era and goings on that needed to be properly deciphered, digested and expanded upon. The way Kenneth understands the facts and numbers is nothing short of wonderful. We are much more than flies on the wall here, we are living in a time machine!!!!! Well done!!!
Bernard Santavy 4-30-19 SAE Mid-Michigan Section Chairman
I was really interested in the linkage between GM and the Federal Government in the 30’s.
Billy “C” Clement 3-14-19 Chevy Craft Owner and Radio Personality R.I.P
You have outdone yourself again. I haven’t put it down till right now - even forgetting to breathe in certain areas and re-reading many paragraphs because they were so full of fabulous info. Thanks for the kind words on Zora’s overleaf and Elfi’s photo was superb. She was truly a follies bergère doll and Zora was lucky to have her!
Billy “C” Clement 2-24-19 Chevy Craft Owner and Radio Personality R.I.P
Ken, your new “fuel infection” book really tops off your 2007 original! You know you are a living legend by now? Keep up the good work. I have always enjoyed our visits and look forward to the next. Enclosed is a check for an autographed copy of Zora’s #58053.
Todd Haugen 2-10-19 Everything Chevy Enthusiast
The definitive account of an American automotive innovation. This is my most cherished book. I happen to own a fuel injected 1957 Corvette, but whether you do or not this book will be interesting to anyone who enjoys automotive history. It is the only complete account of this remarkable achievement, and I want to thank Ken Kayser for producing such an enjoyable and informative book.
Jerry Bramlett 6-26-18 Expert Corvette and Chevrolet Fuel Injection Restorer
I'm really enjoying your new book. It's very fascinating reading for me. What I treasure the most is the useful technical information. Your book contains FI design data that's helping me in many areas. Thanks for writing with so much detail.
Marianne Sciabica 5-30-18 Daughter of Frank Sciabica, Rochester Fuel Injection Gutknecht Engineer and longtime GM employee
Ken, I am not sure what I was expecting but you did more than I could ever imagine! It was quite emotional for me, and my Dad was just a small part of the book!
Robert Mochernuk 10-23-17 Everything Chevy Enthusiast
The Zora #58053 hard cover book is a very good read, and the 1953 Corvette book is pretty well completed... just a few more pages!!! Your books are VERY difficult to put down!!! I am reading both books at the same time!!!
I am absorbing the info like a crazy dry sponge that sees water for the first time!!! Wonderful reading and you did such a superb job!!! The research is wonderful!! The time line is so good to finally know what they did and how they did it.
Amazing to see the Ed Cole wanted Zora much earlier than his May 1st, 1953 start!!! He could have been in it many months earlier in 1952!!!
I hope thousands of other Corvette nutty's like me buy your books!!! The books are both exquisite and informative!!! Thank you for writing them!!! Only you could tell the Corvette story this good!!!
Bruce Bursten 3-30-17 Corvette Enthusiast
Ken’s new book Corvette Legend or Myth Vol I 1953 Corvette story is excellent. I am about half way through it and will read it again to try and absorb all the info… Ken thanks for another great book.
Dwayne Bublitz 10-21-15 Everything Chevy Enthusiast
My wife bought me your book “The History of GM’s Fuel Injection” for our wedding anniversary..... I’ve read it cover to cover and really enjoyed it.
Colin 8-19-15 Everything Chevy Enthusiast
Contains valuable information not available elsewhere. This book covers details of GMs Rochester Ramjet system to a depth I never would have thought possible.
There is information on the development and testing of the system, its use on the Corvette as well as other GM products, early/rare prototypes, and their idiosyncrasies, and minor variations, between models.
Although there are some aspects of this book that look a bit amateurishly produced (such as the misplaced apostrophe right in the title), this can certainly be overlooked because of the value of the information. The photographs are black and white and sometimes reproduced with mediocre quality, but it's amazing that many of these photos (and the information to accompany them) still exist at all. Anyone involved with restoring a Fuelie should have a copy of this.
Jim Gessner 11-23-14 Corvette Racing Historian
I have often been called a CORVETTE HISTORIAN, as I have owned over 80 Corvettes and raced a 1964 B/P fuel injection road race car. This book covers a great period in American Racing history and reveals how the American automotive history developed after WW 2. RACE on Sunday..... SELL on Monday became the theme, and tracks like DAYTONA and SEBRING became famous.
Rochester Fuel Injection Systems were built in Rochester, New York and were installed on Chevrolet Corvettes from 1957 thru 1965. A few even made it to Pontiac and Cadillac. Zora Duntov, Corvette Chief Engineer along with John Dolza designed the system.
Zora told me the real reason was to clean up the smog in California, but also the benefit was more horsepower. He predicted ''all cars'' will be fuel injected some day. And today, that prediction is correct. This book is also very technical, and the reader will better understand how automotive fuel injection systems work.
The history portions are so interesting, that I often re-read sections to better understand the time line. Ken has given a great piece of Chevrolet history to the reader so; I highly recommend this book to a ''CAR ENTHUSIAST''
Randy Leffingwell 3-28-14 Corvette Multiple Book Author
Ken Kayser has done an extraordinary job of putting together this history of America's first fuel injected engines. This development turned appealing Chevrolet products into, as he put it, "something exotic". Only the most expensive, most exclusive German cars had this feature, and suddenly Chevrolet offered it to its customers. Kayser makes the point that this innovation was perhaps the key development in saving the Corvette from extinction and his arguments make great sense. This is a very technical work but for the very dedicated enthusiast, it is essential.
Tom Parsons 2009 Corvette & Fuel Injection Collector
"I find it nearly impossible to put your book down. I'm really enjoying it!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Ralph Kramer 2008 From Corvette Enthusiast Magazine (Jan 2008)
"Kayser's opus is a treasure trove of FI History. It's all good stuff. But what Ken might do better than anybody who's tried to describe the fabulous fifties at Chevrolet is to nail the details. More correctly, he hammers them home. He revels in them. He is relentless. Names, dates, numbers -- they're all there. By the thousands. Like the pixels in a digital image, they create a picture of a tumultuous engineering era at GM when everything seemed possible."
David White 2007 Kettering University Scharchburg Archives Curator
"The most complete history of the Fuel Injection system and its relationship to Chevrolet and the Corvette...The book includes over 1000 photos and makes for a great illustrative history. While the 609 pages might seem daunting at first, the photos and illustrations makes the reading interesting to the novice in this area and exciting to the enthusiasts of Corvettes and engines.... Auto enthusiasts will want to get one of the Limited Edition hard bound books that includes color photos."
John DeGregory 2007 Expert Corvette and Chevrolet Fuel Injection Restorer
What a fabulous and long overdue tribute to Zora and everyone at Chevrolet that made it happen!
Gail Parsons 2007 Expert Corvette and Chevrolet Fuel Injection Restorer R.I.P.
You know that I raced T-birds versus the ’57 Fuelie Corvettes. That’s what got me interested in the darned things anyway! Thank you for our friendship and the many interesting fuel injection conversations and debates we have enjoyed.
Bill Connell 2007 Owner ‘57 Corvette RPO-579D “Air Box” 1st Pilot Car
"Exhaustively researched and encyclopedic in content, Kayser's book provides an incredible wealth of insight, data, photographs, and blueprints never before available to the Corvette reader. While the book reads like a novel, it's true value will be found as a wonderfully rich reference source for many years to come."