Books about Motorsports

[Kakumaki]

I'm interested to read some good Motorsports books, but actually I don't know where to begin, any suggestion?

 

[Ardius]

My faves:
Flat Out, Flat Broke by Perry McCarthy
Williams by Maurice Hamilton

Others that I've read that I don't necessarily recommend:
A Championship Year by Jenson Button - basically just a race by race account of the 2009 season from Jenson's perspective. If you watched every race that year, then you will know most of it already, but it is interesting to read Jenson's thoughts. Not really worth it unless you didn't know this season or are a big Jenson fan.

Working the Wheel by Martin Brundle - essentially just a track guide of Martin's favourite circuits with quite technical and detailed descriptions of what each track is like to drive and the atmosphere. He adds a few bits of history here and there but its not really a typical biography, and for most people its probably a fairly dull read.

The Mechanic's Tale by Steve Matchett - very disappointing, at first glance this looks like a great biography of F1 from the eye of a mechanic in a top team. But in the end Steve manages to completely miss why people would want to read his book and he glosses over the interesting bits. Most of the time it details his holidays when he was off work. The beginning of the book is a good read as its about how he started and how he got into F1...but Perry McCarthy's book is far more humourous and detailed in this respect.


First buy should be Perry's book. I can't recommend it enough. I could rant for ages about Steve Matchetts book, it actually angers me how bad it is! Sadly, most motorsport books are like Martin's or Steve's where they recount utterly pointless stuff like their favourite holidays at the time or go into detail over things which may have mattered to them, but for everyone else are irrelevant. Or, they are simply biographies written by a journalist who copies and pastes facts from wikipedia to fill up pages. Then again, most sports books and biographies suffer the same issues. Its just there are so few motorsport books that its difficult to find really well written and interesting ones.

 

[Akwaaba]

What did you want to ready about?
One of my favourites is "The Certain Sound - Thirty Years of Motor Racing by John Wyer" he was involved with Aston Martin, Ford and then Porsche during the 50s, 60s and 70s

 

[Pupik]

Depends on your interest, mine's in F1.

Any Autocourse will be a good starting point; there's an immersion of the entire season that is hard to replicate, short of driving these cars. I have every one from 1984 through 2010. Automobile Year was also an interesting read back when I was young; not sure how useful it is now; more emphasis on the industry's new cars and motor racing.

Pick up a driver's biography or two; I've read everything from Steve McQueen, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Niki Lauda, Peter Revson, and a few others. You get into the history and a viewpoint that the media doesn't always have access to.

My Favorite Race was an interesting one; it was a collection of 20-30 drivers' favorite wins from 1900-1973; you get an idea of how it was to drive and race in different eras of motorsport and in different disciplines. (I held onto it for nearly a year in my school library...when I realized I couldn't finish my year-end paper without borrowing more books, I reluctantly gave it back.)

Grand Prix Greats is one I find hard to put down; it's from the 1980s, and gives you some insight into 25 different Grand Prix drivers from 1930-1988 (some world champs, some really good ones that never were).

McLaren: History of Grand Prix, Indy, and Can-Am cars is a goodie; you see behind the scenes, it stops around 1987, but you get a great idea of what made a team spread out and tackle all sorts of racing series.

There's some other arcane books that I also have for reference like Formula One Constructors 1966-1986 and Grand Prix! Volumes 1-4, that are more stat-based but fill in the gaps of the mysteries between and during the races. And probably about 20 or so others that I'd picked up in the library when I was younger; lots of good stuff, but usually a few years old...was just as interesting and it really laid a foundation of the history of motorsports to me. After all, there's lots of stuff on the 'net about the present and recent-past, not so much about the historical aspect of it all.

Finally, I offer this thread from The Nostalgia Forum of the Autosport website. Don't let the start date of 2000 throw you, it's always updated!

 

[RACECAR]

What kind of Motorsport Books are you interested in? Something about the drivers, the cars, the sport itself?

 

[lbsf1]

This one seems recomended lots about around the karting comunity.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...GLCMPa-Qa9_sn-Aw&sa=title&ved=0CAwQ8wIwATgA#p

 

[adam46]

Autodrome By S.S Collins, great read. About the forgotten tracks that have been abandoned. Reims, Brooklands, Linas-Monthlery, Nurburgring Sudschlife, The old Brno, Keimola, Monza's Banking & AVUS. There is another one by him called Speedway which is more focused on ovals. Both worth a read.

 

[Kakumaki]

For now I bought a pair of book on amazon, a biography of the great Nuvolari and a book called "Il numero uno" by Hans Ruesch, it should be called "The racer" in the rest of the world. I'm waiting for the delivery. Thanks everybody for the answers and Pupik for that Autosport thread, very useful!

 

[Mastashake15]

Anything written by Smokey Yunick. One of the greatest engine builders of all time.