|
|
Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Motor sports > Car racing
"Tales from the Toolbox" is a unique collection of
behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes as told, in their own
words, by former Grand Prix mechanics who have worked at the top
level of the sport during the past 50 years. On the front line of
the sport, mixing with drivers and team bosses, they saw a side of
it that nobody else got to see and rarely gets to hear about - and
this book tells their story. Chapters are themed around a
particular aspect of a mechanic's life, ranging from what they
consider the highs and lows of their career, to their opinions of
drivers and team bosses, the all-nighters, letting off steam, the
'Mechanic's Gallon', nightmare journeys and customs capers. It also
reveals a tale of camaraderie between teams and individual
mechanics which is hard to imagine in today's highly competitive
Formula One environment. The stories are supplemented by
photographs from the archives and photo albums of the mechanics
themselves, many of which are previously unseen.
The stories of Monza and Formula 1 are inseparable, two examples of
motor sport par excellence that come together once a year, cross
each other's paths and bring to life pages of history rich in
fascination. In this book, enthusiasts will find accounts, but
above all the pictures covering the most significant moments in a
long journey that began way back in 1949 to reach the present day,
with the exploits of the stars of the wheel and the best single
seaters ever. To cover once again this exciting partnership is to
immerse oneself in drivers, technicians, cars and the spectators -
those of Monza are unique and incomparable - triumphs and
tragedies. Hundreds of mostly previously unpublished pictures in
colour and black and white comprise the structure of this volume,
which just has to be in the libraries of all Formula 1 enthusiasts.
Jacky Ickx is one of the true greats of motor racing. In a career
spanning nearly 40 years, he was both highly successful and hugely
versatile, racing at the highest level in a wide variety of
categories - including Formula 1, sports cars, touring cars and
rally raids - and winning throughout. Among many accolades, he won
the Le Mans 24 Hours an unprecedented six times and twice finished
runner-up in the Formula 1 World Championship. This exhaustively
researched book has been written with his full co-operation and
outlines every one of the 565 races that he contested in cars and
on motorcycles, forming a detailed and insightful record of his
racing life supported by over 850 photographs, many of which have
never been published before. This is a racing driver's biography of
exceptional depth that all motorsport enthusiasts will treasure.
Key content * Starting in motorcycle trials, Ickx was twice crowned
Belgian champion before switching to four wheels; he immediately
proved himself a winner in touring cars and single-seaters,
becoming European Formula 2 Champion in 1967. * From 1967, he
established himself as a star in sports cars, driving
blue-and-orange Gulf Mirages and Ford GT40s to numerous successes,
culminating in his first Le Mans victory in 1969 with its famously
close finish. * Snapped up by Ferrari for 1968, he achieved a
heroic first Formula 1 victory in that year's rain-soaked French
Grand Prix, confirming his career-long reputation for peerless
driving in wet weather. * Other than one season with Brabham, Ickx
spent his best Formula 1 years with Ferrari, achieving eight wins
in the period 1968-72, and twice finishing second in the World
Championship standings, with Brabham (1969) and Ferrari (1970). *
Post-Ferrari, his Formula 1 fortunes waned but he thrived in sports
cars, claiming three successive Le Mans victories, with Mirage in
1975, then with Porsche. * After his fifth Le Mans win in 1981, the
rebirth of sports car racing in the Group C era from 1982 saw Ickx
as anchorman in the all-conquering works Porsche team, a four-year
period that brought his record sixth Le Mans victory, 12 wins in
total, and two World Champion titles. * After retirement from
circuit racing, his later career took him into entirely different
motorsport adventures in rally raids, where his Paris-Dakar record
includes victory in 1983 (driving a Mercedes-Benz) and second
places in 1986 (Porsche) and 1989 (Peugeot).
Raoul 'Sonny' Balcaen grew up in Los Angeles at a time when it
became the epicentre of American motor racing, nurturing a vast
talent pool of people whose influence has echoed through to today.
As a teenager, he successfully competed with his home-built Top
Fuel dragster during the formative years of the sport. With Lance
Reventlow, he worked on the famous Scarab sports cars and was
standing in the dyno room when the team's all-American Formula 1
engine was fired up for the first time. A period as Jim Hall's crew
chief and a close association with Carroll Shelby added to the
know-how that guided him towards becoming a successful entrepreneur
and led to all that followed. This engaging memoir is the very
personal history of a momentous time and place in which we meet a
who's who of West Coast road-racing heroes. * Aged 17, Balcaen
built his own Top Fuel drag racer, the 'Bantamweight Bomb', which
he developed relentlessly and drove to many successes. * His role
in the fabulous Scarab sports cars - the landmark all-American
racers - and insights into life with their creator, the
incomparable Lance Reventlow. * Working as crew chief to the
brilliant Jim Hall, preparing and running his Lotus Eleven and
Lister-Chevrolet long before the famous Chaparrals emerged. * A
second spell with Scarab, this time with the Formula 1 project -
the first American Grand Prix car - plus a special job for
Reventlow converting a Scarab sports racer into a street car. *
Onwards into setting up his own successful business, IECO
(Induction Engineering Co), to create and sell high-grade
performance and appearance accessories, with Chevrolets -
especially Corvair and Vega - featuring strongly. * His
many-faceted dealings with Carroll Shelby, leading to consultancy
and even assignments as occasional Shelby American company pilot. *
Along the way we meet many other big names of the era, including
Chuck Daigh, Bruce Kessler, Warren Olson, Dick Troutman, Tom
Barnes, Phil Remington, Ken Miles, Leo Goossen, Jim Travers, Frank
Coon and Pete Brock.
Lap of Honour offers a journey back to the golden age of motor
racing, through the lens of a revived 60s schoolboy photographer.
Tim Hain revisits his favourite haunts and heroes, and hitches a
ride with Sir Stirling Moss, whose colourful foreword kick-starts
the journey. 'I can't believe Tim has never held a press pass,'
Stirling writes. 'His pictures are really great.' Here is a true
'fan's eye view' with evocative pictures and stories spanning 56
years, from 1962 to 2018. At the first Goodwood Revival in 1998,
Hain's interest was reawakened after 35 years. All he wanted was a
picture of his first hero; but he went on to photograph Moss in 33
cars, with his input on each, creating a unique portrait of 'The
Maestro'. Tim encounters and interviews other 60s legends, candidly
snaps a host of stars on and off the track, and gathers
contributions from the likes of Murray Walker and musician Mark
Knopfler. Lap of Honour has an intimacy, a sense of humour and a
story behind every picture that makes it unlike any other book on
motor racing.
For fans all over the world the thrilling partnership of
Silverstone and Formula 1 has long represented one of the pinnacles
of motor sport. Here the broad sweep of Silverstone's Formula 1
history, a kaleidoscopic pageant of great cars and drivers, is
explored in a new and highly accessible way through nine specific
eras, each one delightfully and freshly illustrated: * The First
Grand Prix and International Trophy (1948-49) * Forza, Alfa! Forza,
Ferrari! (1950-51) * The Front-Engined Finale (1952-59) * Clark's
Dark Golden Age (1960-68) * The Stewart Dominance (1969-73) * The
Hunt-Lauda Epoch (1973-79) * Three Titans: Prost, Mansell and Senna
(1981-93) * The Schumacher Era (1994-2006) * New Heights: Hamilton
and The Wing (2007 onwards) This photographic history of
Silverstone and Formula 1 should appeal to motor racing fans
everywhere, as it neatly captures the essence of what the highest
level of a most demanding sport has meant to this very special
venue.
Max Verstappen is Formula 1's sensational new superstar. Born into
motorsport, Max started karting aged four and in 2015 became the
youngest driver ever to race in F1, less than six months after his
17th birthday. Following his first Grand Prix victory in 2016, he
quickly established himself as a future World Champion and by 2021
his goal was in sight. Like a true Dutch Master, he has brought
fresh artistry into F1 and made this most glamorous of sports even
more exciting. This unauthorised biography, written by a leading
Dutch F1 journalist, examines Max's remarkable rise to worldwide
fame, covering every step of his career in detail as well providing
insights into his spirited character and supreme talent.
The first edition of this book was groundbreaking: an entire book
dedicated to F1 records and trivia, which proved hugely popular
with F1 enthusiasts and fans of racing statistics. This new second
edition is fully updated, with up-to-date stats, and an extended
narrative including many amusing, and some serious, stories from
the history of F1. There are performance records of every driver,
every car constructor, and every engine make to have taken part, a
detailed insight into the variety of qualifying procedures
throughout the years, a summary of regulation changes since 1950
and a quick reference guide to every grand prix result.
Performances are analysed by nationality, youngest/oldest,
fastest/slowest, consecutive wins, poles, most wins at different
circuits, and lots more. It's not just focused on drivers and cars,
but circuits, engines and tyres too. A comprehensive photographic
section depicts the changing scene of Formula 1 since its inception
in 1950. This book will be an invaluable reference book, that will
both entertain and provide definitive data at your fingertips.
Officially licensed with the ACO, the organisers of the annual Le
Mans 24 Hours race, this sumptuous book is the sixth title in a
decade-by-decade series that is building up into a multi-volume set
covering every race. This title covers the seven 24 Hours races of
the 1920s, plus, as a prologue, all the events held at the Le Mans
circuit during the period 1906-23. Each running of the 24 Hours is
exhaustively covered in vivid photographs, an insightful commentary
providing more detailed information than has ever been published
about the period, and full statistics. Compiled by an acknowledged
authority of this legendary race, this series of books is treasured
by all enthusiasts of sports car racing.
The word 'Quattro', chosen by Audi for its pioneering
high-performance four-wheel-drive cars, immediately captures
glamour and excitement in the minds of all motorsport enthusiasts.
This book, written by a leading journalist and Quattro devotee,
explores 24 years of factory-prepared and factory-supported
Quattros in motorsport, from 1980 to 2004. It is a tale that
extends from rough rally stages to race tracks, from pine-fringed
ice trails in the depths of European winters to the shimmering heat
haze and melting asphalt of Texas street racing. Along the way, it
explains how Quattros collected four world rally championships,
five American driver/manufacturer crowns and a single-year haul of
seven international touring car titles, plus numerous other
honours. With the five-cylinder turbocharged Quattro in its
original form, rallying in the early years yielded numerous wins,
most of all in 1982, when seven victories in 11 world championship
rallies brought the first title. With the short-wheelbase Sport
added to Audi's armoury, 1984 became an all-action, all-conquering
rallying season with two more world titles won, for drivers (Stig
Blomqvist) and manufacturers. Three stunning Pike's Peak wins were
achieved in America in successive years, for Michele Mouton (1985),
Bobby Unser (1986) and Walter Roehrl (1987). Starting with double
championships for the 200 quattro in TransAm (1988) and the 90
Quattro in IMSA (1989), racing success unfolded in America.
Exuberant Hans Stuck was the star driver, but consistent team-mate
Hurley Haywood captured that 1988 title. Touring car campaigns
during the 1990s brought huge success, starting with fearsome V8
Quattro 'racing limos' in Germany. Global achievements followed
with A4 Quattros in many national Super Touring series throughout
Europe and in Australia, including Frank Biela's 1996 title-winning
campaign in Britain. Audi continued to win on track in the new
millennium as race versions of the S4 and RS6 captured five SCCA GT
Championship titles in America.
Formula One is speed, glamour, danger - and eye-watering wealth.
Driven: The Men Who Made Formula One tells how a small group of
extraordinary men transformed Formula One from a niche sport played
out on primitive tracks surrounded by hay bales and grass verges
into a GBP1 billion circus performing in vast theatres of
entertainment all over the world. Led by Bernie Ecclestone, the
billionaire ringmaster, this clique started by scraping a living to
go racing and ended up creating space-age cars, turning drivers
from amateur gladiators into multimillion-pound superstars, like
Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton, while the names of Ferrari,
McLaren and Williams are now as familiar around the world as
Manchester United or Real Madrid. For 20 years, Kevin Eason watched
how these men operated like a sporting Mafia, protecting each other
while squabbling over the vast wealth pouring into the sport. As
motor racing correspondent for The Times and then with The Sunday
Times, Eason was privileged to have a ringside seat as this cabal
of wealthy characters ruled and then were pushed out of the sport
they created. This colourful and compelling account of the
extraordinary flourishing of Formula One explores the quirks and
extravagances of the men who converged - in one generation - to
shape their sport; disparate characters with a common impulse: they
were racers - and they were driven.
Since 1894, when motor racing's colourful history began with a bang
(and a banger!), drivers, racers and lunatics alike have done many
stupid and bizarre things all in the name of motor sport. Author
Geoff Tibballs has gathered together this absorbing collection of
stories from over a century of motor racing around the world,
including the Frenchman who drove 25 miles in reverse, the Grand
Prix in which the leading drivers were so far ahead that they
stopped for a meal in the pits, the Le Mans 24-hour race won by a
car patched up with chewing gum, and the driver who drank six
bottles of champagne - virtually one per pit-stop - on the way to
winning the Indianapolis 500. The stories in this book are bizarre,
fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised,
redesigned and updated for a new generation of petrolheads, this
book contains enough extraordinary-but-true tales to drive anyone
around the bend. Word count: 45,000
LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 This
is my life, not the stuff you've seen, but the things you haven't.
This is my childhood growing up in the West Country, my struggles,
my doubts and my hopes. It's the people I've met in my seventeen
years in Formula One, many of whom I've loved, some of whom I
definitely haven't. It's the laughs I've shared, the battles I've
fought, some on the track with rivals and friends like Fernando
Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. It's the pressure I
struggled with as I closed in on my World Championship in 2009,
it's the calm I felt every time I settled into the cockpit. It's my
dad - the many times he saved me, the one moment he doubted me, the
hole in my life he left me. It's everything in one go, the good
days as well as the bad. A life lived not just as a racing driver
but, ultimately, as a human being.
Englishman David Hobbs - `Hobbo' to his friends and fans - is one
of motor racing's most remarkable all-rounders. In a 41-year
driving career he raced in almost every imaginable category:
endurance sports racers, touring cars, Formula 1, Formula 5000,
Indycars, IMSA, Trans-Am, Can-Am and even NASCAR - he has done the
lot. And on top of that he has been a television commentator in
America for nearly 40 years, bringing wit and wisdom to the screen,
presently as part of NBC's Formula 1 team. Now, at last, he has put
down all his experiences in this highly readable memoir that will
be welcomed by racing enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Early racing years: from his mum's Morris Oxford in 1959 to Jaguars
and a Lotus Elite - and coming to the notice of the racing world.
Sports car speciality: Le Mans in 1963 with the Lola Mk6 GT
followed by Lola T70 drives and finally the big break; two Ford
GT40 seasons with John Wyer's mighty Gulf-sponsored team bring a
win at Monza in 1968 and third place at Le Mans in 1969 - and then
a Porsche 917 Le Mans drive in 1970. Single-seaters: coming close
to a Formula 1 breakthrough with Honda in 1968, but Formula 5000 in
America is where success comes, as 1971 champion. Westward bound:
the USA becomes his focus, with early highlights including fifth
place in the 1974 Indianapolis 500 with a McLaren and leading the
Daytona 500 NASCAR classic in 1976. Criss-crossing the Atlantic:
returning to old haunts to take up opportunities, including racing
Jaguar's famously fragile XJ coupe in 1976 and many more Le Mans
outings, topped with another third place in 1984 driving a Porsche
956. Another championship title: ever versatile, he becomes
Trans-Am Champion in 1983 driving a Chevrolet Camaro and winning
four races. Sports cars galore: racing all the way to 1990, in all
sorts of machinery but majoring on those all-conquering Porsches of
the period - 935s, 956s and 962s.
The DPPI (Diffusion Presse Photo International) agency is the
brainchild of a handful of men who shared a passion for both
photography and automobiles - especially sports cars. DPPI
immediately set about sharing as widely as possible the day-to-day
experiences of drivers and racing teams on road and track. The
first volume of this collection - the first of its kind - takes us
to the heart of a golden age in motorsport history. Be it at Le
Mans, during hillclimbing races, or on the first tracks devoted to
what would later become the main attraction, Formula 1, both cars
and drivers are accessible, welcoming. Everyone smiles at fans, who
are not yet crowded against the rails of the route or circuit. The
curated selection comprising hundreds of photographs from DDPI’s
vault, with commentary by the photographers and people involved at
the time, draw the reader into a universe full of adventure,
stories brimming with humanity that centre on exceptional machines.
Text in English and French.
Six victories, two pole positions, eight fastest laps and 13 podium
places - statistics that are anything but striking. In Formula 1
today, there are drivers who have won a great deal more, but Gilles
Villeneuve cannot be evaluated by numbers alone - simply because
there is no way of measuring the level of excitement that he
brought to racing. Even though he has been dead for over 30 years,
the legend of the Canadian, who was killed on 8 May 1982, is still
imbued with strong emotion - Gilles the "Aviator" as Enzo Ferrari
nick-named him, the driver for whom the expression "Villeneuve
Fever" was coined. From his "crazy flight" at Fuji in 1977, his
first GP win at home in Canada in 1978, the unforgettable 1979
season followed by a year of purgatory, his epic success at Monaco
in 1981 and the in-house duel with Didier Pironi at Imola in 1982,
to that last "crazy flight" at Zolder. "Gilles Villeneuve: Immagini
di una vita/A life in pictures" relives the legend, with previously
unpublished pictures and authoritative text by Mario Donnini.
Year-by-year treatment covers each season in fascinating depth,
running through the teams - and their various cars - in order of
importance. Over 600 photos from the superb archives of Motorsport
Images show every type of car raced by every team and driver,
presenting a comprehensive survey of all participants. The
formative years of the 1950s are explored in this next instalment
of Evro's decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and
teams. When the World Championship was first held in 1950, red
Italian cars predominated, from Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati,
and continued to do so for much of the period. But by the time the
decade closed, green British cars were in their ascendancy, first
Vanwall and then rear-engined Cooper playing the starring roles,
and BRM and Lotus having walk-on parts. As for drivers, one stood
out above the others, Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio becoming World
Champion five times. Much of the fascination of this era also lies
in its numerous privateers and also-rans, all of which receive
their due coverage in this completist work.
|
|