Archive for Items Categorized 'Racing, Rally', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

James Allison: A Biography of the Engine Manufacturer and Indianapolis 500 Cofounder

by Sigur E Whitaker

You know rearview mirrors, four-wheel brakes, front-wheel drive, and maybe even balloon tires. But do you know that all these things, and many more, can be traced back to one of the businesses that sprang from the fertile mind of James Allison (1872–1928)?

Real Racers – Formula 1 in the 1950s and 1960s

A Driver’s Perspective

by Stuart Codling

The “driver’s perspective” alluded to in the title takes here the form of commentary by drivers who raced during those decades. This is a useful approach, and certainly lively, entertaining and direct—but it does not [want to??] put its finger onto the core of the issue.

O’Keefe Winners Database 1895–2010

A Searchable Comprehensive Digital Database of Motor Racing Events 1895–2010

This CD-ROM is a digital version of O’Keefe’s The Winners Book: A Comprehensive Listing of Motor Racing Events 1895–2009. Unlike a printed book, a digital database can be kept current in perpetuity in the form of periodic updates.

Runways and Racers: Sports Car Races Held on Military Airfields in America 1952–1954

by Terry O’Neil

Published a year after O’Neil’s 2010 opus Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950–1959 this new book on a directly related topic is not a sequel but, chronologically speaking, a prequel.

Brands Hatch: The Definitive History of Britain’s Best-Loved Motor Racing Circuit

by Chas Parker

In declaring to write the “definitive history” Parker set himself an ambitious target. Competition may have been sparse—Brands published several histories decades ago, and Parker himself was between writing a pair of simple guidebooks to racing there.

Tales from the Toolbox: A Collection of Behind-the-Scenes Tales from Grand Prix Mechanics

by Michael Oliver

A professional motorsports writer, Oliver has great affinity for his subject, as befits someone who was only weeks old when he was taken along to F1 races, and he likes to say that he learned his numbers by looking at the roundels on the side of race cars.

Road Racing: Drivers of the 60’s and 70’s

by L Weldon & J Heimann

Once upon a time motor racing was purely a man’s sport. With rare exceptions, women weren’t allowed near the cars during the race. In photos from the ’30s it’s always raining and cold, and the men in the pits, invariably clad in long overcoats and ties, all seem to resemble Humphrey Bogart or Alfred Neubauer.

David Molyneux: The Racer’s Edge, Memories of an Isle of Man TT Legend

by David Molyneux with Mathew Richardson

Who would have thought that when the first race on the Island was held in 1904 (because racing in Britain was forbidden and the 1903 introduction of a 20 mph speed limit) that more than a 100 years later the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy could lay claim to being the oldest circuit in the world still in use?

Sunshine, Speed and a Surprise: The 1959 Grand Prix of The United States

by Joel E. Finn

Expository writing: somewhere here or in the hereafter there is a school teacher who takes pride in their former student, Joel Finn, for his clarity of expression. He marshals data, and interweaves anecdotes and his first-person observations into a compelling narrative of the first US Grand Prix.

The Last Hero: The Gallant Story of Donald Campbell and The Land Speed Record, 1964

by John Pearson

In 1964, Campbell set a record of 403.10 mph for a four-wheeled vehicle. John Pearson spent time with him during the preparations for the assault on the LSR—and through many of the long days and months of frustration, delays, inaction, and impatience waiting for the salt.

Damn Few Died in Bed: Memories of a Life in American Automobile Racing

by Andy Dunlop

Before the days of even rudimentary safety features, brave and talented men raced brutally fast open-wheeled automobiles on the exciting dirt tracks of Middle America. Dunlop gives us a new appreciation of the lives of the people that crisscrossed the heartland on two-lane highways to compete in America’s bull rings on weekends.

Rallying to Monte Carlo

by W M (Mike) Couper

Often humorous and exciting, the anecdotes of rally preparation and racing as an independent in 1939 and as a factory-supported driver in Rolls-Royces and Bentleys 1949–1955 still end up rather monotonous—there are only so many icy S-curves, near misses, mechanical problems, hastily eaten meals and cabin repartee that one can bear patiently.

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