If there's anything better than a book about cars, it's a coffee table book about cars. Here are a few new ones:

GIVE A COPY OF Greatest American Cars (Krause Publications, $29.99) to an auto enthusiast and it might be the last you see of each other for some time.

Mike Mueller presents 346 "milestone" cars from the past century in a 752-page paperback that rivals the Manhattan telephone directory in size and heft.

Each car gets a descriptive essay, color photo and technical specifications including horsepower, wheelbase, original price and production run. Nearly 40 nameplates are represented - not only Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler, but also Hupmobile, Hudson and Henry J.

Each of the book's 11 sections covers a decade from the 1900s to the 2000s and includes a dateline of auto history. An index lists automakers alphabetically.

Among the vehicles on display is the 1941 Packard Clipper touring sedan, with long, sleek lines and a huge black sun visor above its two-piece windshield.

A rarity is the 1953 Muntz Jet, whose cherry red four-passenger body glistens in the sunlight on a day that appears perfect for tooling about without its bright white removable hardtop.

The unconventionally sporty styling of a light-blue 1955 Chevrolet Nomad two-door station wagon makes it look more suitable for hauling surfboards to the beach than wallboard from the lumber yard.

And even when the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner 426 Hemi is standing still, its bright red paint, chrome wheels, hood scoop and rear spoiler leave no doubt that this car can fly - thanks to its 375-horsepower V-8 engine.

THE STORY OF AN ICON of American pop culture is told in The All-American Hot Rod: The Cars, the Legends, the Passion (Voyageur Press, $29.99).

Editor Michael Dregni has collected essays by auto enthusiasts who share their hot rod memories and has illustrated them with more than 360 images, including photos, artwork and artifacts.

The hot rod has become the stuff of legend and literature, movies and music. It developed when backyard mechanics salvaged a Model T or similar car, streamlined the body, dressed it up and souped up its engine and running gear to create a one-of-a-kind vehicle.

Illustrations include period artwork and contemporary photos - ads for equipment, hot rod club plaques, magazine and book covers, movie posters, album covers (Jan and Dean, the Surfaris, the Beach Boys) and the hot rods themselves.

CUBANS LOVE OLD American cars - maybe more than we do.

Chariots of Chrome: Classic American Cars of Cuba (The Boston Mills Press, $29.95) by Simon Bell and George Fischer, says Cuba was the leading importer of U.S. cars until the early 1960s, when Castro's rise to power shut off the flow of cars and parts and supplies.

Forty years later, there are still about 10,000 midcentury U.S. cars on Cuban roads - some restored to like-new condition, others kept alive and running in creative ways, often with improvised parts. Some of those cars, and those who drive them, are featured in the 220 color photos.

The owner of a 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood, "one of the most prized of all classic cars," leans - very carefully - against the sharklike tail fins of his blue four-door sedan.

A farmer "just happens to have in his barn" a 1958 Edsel, which he has brought out into the field for the benefit of the photographer. An early-1950s Plymouth shows signs of wear but still weathers the storm as waves pound the seawall alongside the road it's taking.

Through images of the cars, on rural roads and city streets, readers also are treated to a tour of Cuba.

PETER HENSHAW'S BOOK Muscle Cars (Thunder Bay Press, $24.98) features 1,000 color photos of the mean and mighty road machines that became popular about 40 years ago and remained so until the gas crisis of the mid-1970s.

A muscle car is a street car, often based on the body of an ordinary sedan or coupe, equipped with high-performance engine, transmission and other features that give it the performance ability of a racing car.

Some muscle cars came from the factory painted bright red, orange or yellow, and with racing stripes and chrome wheels. Others were anonymous-looking, with dull colors and sparse trim that belied the power that lurked under their hoods. Their names - Cyclone, Charger, Rogue, Fury, Demon, Viper, Tempest, Barracuda - told you they meant business.

Mr. Henshaw traces the evolution of the muscle car through its major manufacturers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, and the less-prominent AMC and Studebaker, which contributed the Javelin and Hawk, respectively.

The book offers facts and figures about performance options, production numbers, decorative and comfort options, and styling changes.

Among the featured cars is the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette. Although not really a muscle car, with a straight six-cylinder engine used in conventional Chevrolets, the rakish little two-seater was America's first true sports car and led the way for the bulked-up Corvettes of later years.

What's an "econobox" 1960s Ford Falcon doing in this book? The milquetoast of a compact car fills out with the addition of a V-8 engine, chrome wheels and a huge hood bubble, the only factory-installed muscle options available.