This was a very important period in the Le Mans story. Ferrari and Jaguar raced to stake claims as the foremost manufacturers of high-performance cars. Mercedes-Benz came back from war-ravaged Germany and again set the standards in race-car engineering. Aston Martin finally won at its 20th attempt. Enormous crowds - approaching half a million people - saw the first rear-engined saloons to compete at Le Mans, and the first mid-engined sports-racing cars, and the first diesels. As the victorious manufacturers actively promoted their successes, their commercial rivals also set out to win. As many as 15 brought 'works' teams every June, with purpose-built cars. On-track performance soared. In 1949 the fastest car hit 135mph (217kph) on the unique Mulsanne straight. Before the end of the 1950s, top speeds exceeded 180mph (290kph). This fascinating book tells the stories of these increasingly potent racing cars and conveys the punishing nature of an incomparable event - the ultimate test of the mental and physical abilities of the fragile individuals who make up racing teams, be they drivers, engineers, strategists or mechanics.The thorough statistics in the book result from fresh research, and there are more than 400 evocative photographs, many of them - including very rare colour images - never published before.

Niki Lauda was one of the greatest stars in motor racing – a superb driver on the track and a much-loved personality off it. From his famous rivalry with James Hunt in 1976, as depicted in the film Rush, to working with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, his career helped define modern Formula One.
 
Six weeks after the 1976 crash at the notorious Nürburgring that left him burned and receiving the last rites while obituaries were written, Niki Lauda stepped back into his Ferrari at Monza to defend his first World Champion title. Jackie Stewart called it ‘the most courageous thing I have ever witnessed in sport’. Lauda and Hunt were playing cat-and-mouse for the championship. At the final race of the season in Japan, the weather was appalling and conditions treacherous. Lauda had a narrow lead and an agonising decision to make – high-speed drama at its best.
 
Following his extraordinary recovery from the accident, Lauda won the title in 1977 and again, following a return from retirement, in 1984 with McLaren. When he eventually hung up his helmet for good, he started his own airline and had to deal with the horrendous aftermath when one of his aircraft crashed, killing all 223 on board. He later returned to the sport in various management roles and successfully persuaded Lewis Hamilton to join Mercedes.
 
Maurice Hamilton first came across Lauda in 1971 and in this definitive biography tells his remarkable story. Based on interviews with friends, family, rival drivers and colleagues, it is a superb tribute to a brave, supremely talented and much-missed star of Formula One.

From authors Anne Jones and former NASCAR champion Rex White, here are profiles in their own words of over 50 individuals from stock car racing's not-so-distant past and present. Rich with original interviews and previously unpublished material, the authors cover drivers, including legends like Junior Johnson and Bobby Allison; mechanics and builders; track crew; sportswriters; owners, including Joe and J.D. Gibbs; and Atlanta Motor Speedway President Ed Clark. A valuable text for researchers and fans, the book includes numerous photographs.

As soon as there were automobiles, there was racing. The first recorded race, an over road event from Paris to Rouen, France, was organized by the French newspaper Le Petit Journal in 1894. Seeing an opportunity for a similar event, Hermann H. Kohlsaat?publisher of the Chicago Times-Herald?sponsored what was hailed as the ?Race of the Century, ? a 54-mile race from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois, and back. Frank Duryea won in a time of 10 hours and 23 minutes, of which 7 hours and 53 minutes were actually spent on the road. Race cars and competition have progressed continuously since that time, and today's 200 mph races bear little resemblance to the event Duryea won. This work traces American auto racing through the 20th century, covering its significant milestones, developments and personalities. Subjects included are: Bill Elliott, dirt track racing, board track racing, Henry Ford, Grand Prix races, Dale Earnhardt, the Vanderbilt Cup, Bill France, Gordon Bennett, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Mercer, the Stutz, Duesenberg, Frank Lockhart, drag racing, the Trans Am, Paul Newman, vintage racing, land speed records, Al Unser, Wilbur Shaw, the Corvette, the Cobra, Richard Petty, NASCAR, Can Am, Mickey Thompson, Roger Penske, Mario Andretti, Jeff Gordon, and Formula One. Through interviews with participants and track records, this text shows where, when and how racing changed. It describes the growth of each different form of auto racing as well as the people and technologies that made it ever faster.

'I'm no angel.' Bernie Ecclestone Born into poverty, Bernie Ecclestone has made himself a billionaire by developing the world's second most popular sport - Formula One racing. Private, mysterious and some say sinister, the eighty-year-old criss-crosses the globe in his private jet, mixing with celebrities, statesmen and sporting heroes. His success is not just in creating a multibillion-pound global business but in resisting repeated attempts to snatch the glittering prize from his control. Ecclestone has never before revealed how he graduated from selling second-hand cars in London's notorious Warren Street to become the major player he is today. He has finally decided to reveal his secrets: the deals, the marriages, the disasters and the successes in Formula One racing, in Downing Street, in casinos, on yachts and in the air. Surprisingly, he has granted access to his inner circle to Tom Bower, described by Ecclestone as 'The Undertaker' - the man who buries reputations - and has given him access to all his friends and enemies. All have been told by Ecclestone, 'Tell him the truth, good or bad.' No Angel is a classic rags-to-riches story, the unique portrayal of a unique man and an intriguing insight into Formula One racing, business and the human spirit. Tom Bower is the author of nineteen books, including biographies of Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Fayed, Gordon Brown, Richard Branson, Conrad Black and more recently, Simon Cowell.

'A tragic age and a tragic character, both seemingly compelled to destroy themselves...a chilling reminder of how little control we have over our fates' Damon Hill 'One of the greatest motor racing stories' Nick Mason 'Timely, vivid and enthralling ... it's unputdownable' Miranda Seymour, author of The Bugatti Queen Dick Seaman was the archetypal dashing motorsport hero of the 1930s, the first Englishman to win a race for Mercedes-Benz and the last Grand Prix driver to die at the wheel before the outbreak of the Second World War. Award-winning author Richard Williams reveals the remarkable but now forgotten story of a driver whose battles against the leading figures of motor racing's golden age inspired the post-war generation of British champions. The son of wealthy parents, educated at Rugby and Cambridge, Seaman grew up in a privileged world of house parties, jazz and fast cars. But motor racing was no mere hobby: it became such an obsession that he dropped out of university to pursue his ambitions, squeezing money out of his parents to buy better cars. When he was offered a contract with the world-beating, state-sponsored Mercedes team in 1937, he signed up despite the growing political tensions between Britain and Germany. A year later, he celebrated victory in the German Grand Prix with the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of the founder of BMW. Their wedding that summer would force a split with his family, a costly rift that had not been closed six months later when he crashed in the rain while leading at Spa, dying with his divided loyalties seemingly unresolved. He was just 26 years old. A Race with Love and Death is a gripping tale of speed, romance and tragedy. Set in an era of rising tensions, where the urge to live each moment to the full never seemed more important, it is a richly evocative story that grips from first to last.

Laurel and Hardy, Ant and Dec, Morecambe and Wise, Herbert and Hill. The history of entertainment is studded with brilliant comic duos.

Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill between them competed in 261 Grands Prix, amassing twenty-five wins, forty-nine podium finishes, one World Championship, 458 championship points, a Le Mans win, two smashed ankles, a broken arm, wrist and leg, sixty broken ribs, and two bruised egos.

Having retired from racing, Johnny and Damon have become the one constant for passionate English F1 fans in a rapidly changing landscape. They have earned cult status as commentators and pundits, with viewers loving their unerring dedication to the sport’s greatness. Drawing on a lifetime of sniffing petrol fumes, Lights Out, Full Throttle stands large over the landscape of Formula One and takes the temperature of the good, the bad and the ugly of the petrolhead’s paradise.

It offers F1 fans a tour of the sport – from Monaco to Silverstone; Johnny’s crowd-surfing and Bernie’s burger bar; the genius of Adrian Newey and Colin Chapman; why Lewis Hamilton will never, ever move to Ferrari (probably); getting the yips; money; safety; what it’s like to have an out-of-body experience while driving a car in the pouring rain at 200mph; and the future of the sport in the wake of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter.

Whether you’re a fan of Nigel, Niki, Kimi or Britney, pine for the glory days of Brabham, Williams, Jim Clark and Fangio, or believe that Lewis is one year away from retiring as the GOAT, Lights Out, Full Throttle is the oily rag for the petrolhead fan to inhale while waiting for the racers to line up on the grid.

'Captures the bold, engaging spirit of one of Britain's best-loved sporting heroes' Sunday Times 'A fascinating read and sure to be the definitive account of his life' Mark Knopfler SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS WRITING BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the death of Stirling Moss on 12 April 2020 at the age of 90 made headlines, almost 60 years after he retired from Formula One. In The Boy, Richard Williams assesses what made him such an iconic figure. Told in 60 brief chapters, Williams builds a fascinating and revealing portrait of a driver who was a hero to millions. As the long years of war began to recede, sport in Britain was getting moving again and there was a need for heroes. Denis Compton and Stanley Matthews were in their pomp, playing to packed houses. But Stirling Moss was a fresh face, just 17 years old when he first emerged in 1947. Too young to have served and been scarred by the war, he was soon revealed to possess not only an unearthly degree of skill but the qualities of courage and resolution noted in the generation that fought in the air and on land and sea. Their youth had been stolen; his was new and unspoiled. The Boy explains how and why he came to occupy such a unique place in the esteem and the affections of the nation. Why him, rather than some of his contemporaries, such as Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, who shared a role in the rise of Britain as a power in international motor racing? Moss may never have been world champion, but he created a remarkable and enduring legacy, and Williams brilliantly shows just how he did it.

For more than 50 years the Formula Ford Festival has been the proving ground for ambitious racing drivers looking to make their mark. The Brands Hatch meeting was where the likes of Johnny Herbert, Damon Hill and Jenson Button first made their names, while both Michael Schumacher and Nigel Mansell never made it out of their heats. Now a club meeting, in its heyday the Festival was one of the UK's biggest motor sport events, drawing tens of thousands of spectators, and enjoying more than a decade of prime coverage on the BBC's Grandstand. From humble beginnings at a cold Snetterton, the move to Brands Hatch, the peak of the 1980s followed by a gentle decline, this book tells the story of the Festival. Drawing on exclusive contributions from some of the event's legends and prestigious alumni, it covers all the on-track action together with off-track intrigue and controversies.

Meet Marc 'Elvis' Priestley: the former number-one McLaren mechanic, and the brains behind some of Formula One's greatest ever drivers. Revealing the most outrageous secrets and fiercest rivalries, The Mechanic follows Priestley as he travels the world working in the high-octane atmosphere of the F1 pit lane. While the spotlight is most often on the superstar drivers, the mechanics are the guys who make every World Champion, and any mistakes can have critical consequences. However, these highly skilled engineers don't just fine-tune machinery and crunch data through high-spec computers. These boys can seriously let their hair down. Whether it's partying on luxury yachts or photo opportunites aboard gravity-defying aeroplanes, this is a world which thrills on and off the track. This is Formula One, but not like you've seen it before.

This instalment in Evro’s decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and teams is devoted to a period when some normality seemed to return after the ground-effect and turbo excesses of the 1980s, except for one terrible weekend in the spring of 1994. The tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna led to immense change with new emphasis on safety, including measures to slow down the cars and improve their structural strength, and numerous changes to circuits. In many ways Formula 1 became more as we recognise it today, especially as the decade’s dominant teams, McLaren and Williams, remain familiar. Besides the winning cars, there is always much fascination for fans in unsuccessful and obscure efforts, such as Andrea Moda and Venturi, and this authoritative and comprehensively illustrated book covers them all.

The field of aerodynamics has had an increasingly significant effect on performance enhancement over the past 50 years. Competition Car Aerodynamics 3rd Edition continues the practical, hands-on approach of its popular predecessors to cover all aspects of motorsport aerodynamics and features yet more CFD and wind tunnel project material and case studies. Aerodynamic theory is tackled in a comprehensive yet comprehensible way by author Simon McBeath, who has been granted unprecedented access to state of the art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, as well as regular access to the MIRA full-scale wind tunnel in the UK. Photographs, graphs, CFD-generated images and wind tunnel data - much of which has appeared in the successful Aerobytes series in Racecar Engineering - are used to explain with unrivalled clarity how aerodynamic performance benefits are obtained in practice. With case studies from Formula 1, sports prototypes, Formula 3, GT and saloon cars, club single seaters and karts, this book will appeal to anyone, whether a designer, competitor, student or armchair enthusiast, wishing to gain an understanding of aerodynamics and how it can benefit the performance of all types of competition cars.

AUTHOR OF SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, LIFE TO THE LIMIT In his 17 years as a Formula 1 driver, Jenson Button has picked up a thing or two about how to do the job properly. Sure, you need to be able to drive a car fast, but you also need to know the real rules for making it to the top. Like, how to tell a multiple F1 champion they need to check their blind-spot. What the difference is between a helmet and a hat, and indeed a 'helmet-hat'. And how to face down your team when you've just stacked their multi-million-pound car into a wall during practice. How To Be An F1 Driver lifts the lid on the people, the places, the weird rituals, the media, the cars, the perks and the disasters. Join Jenson as he reveals how not to race a stupid big truck, why driving Le Mans is like having five shots of tequila before lunch, and what to do when you finally hang up your helmet-hat.

Celebrating 100 years of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, motorsport’s iconic endurance race, technical illustrator Mick Hill takes us on a potted history of this world-famous event. The follow-on book to his successful Grand Prix’s Winning Colours, Mick once again allows his signature artwork to take centre stage, presenting a complete visual record of every winning car since the championship began back in 1923. Including details of the cars’ drivers, as well as interesting facts about each race, such as weather conditions, distance covered and average speeds, Le Mans Winning Colours is a book to treasure for all racing-car enthusiasts.

The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2014 catalogues all the twists and turns of the most exciting Grand Prix season for years and gives fans a unique, access-all-areas pass behind the scenes of the 2014 F1 season. Throwing new light on the headlines and key incidents, this official Formula One Management (FOM) review features full race reports from all 19 races and the crowning of Lewis Hamilton as world champion. Illustrated with amazing photography from LAT and exclusive insight from the drivers, this book also contains all the official statistics from an action-packed year of F1 racing. Officially licensed by FOM, including a foreword by Bernie Ecclestone, The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2014 is the most authoritative and fascinating record of the F1 season you can buy.

"Ultimate Speed Secrets" is the drivers' guide to going faster! Professional race instructor Ross Bentley has raced everything from Indy cars to world sports cars and has the experience to make any racer a more complete driver. With detailed drills and comprehensive instructions, Bentley covers everything you need to know: choosing lines; adapting to different cars, tracks, and racing conditions; setting up controls; and understanding car adjustments and mental preparation. Whether you are racing an Indy car or simply interested in becoming a more complete driver on the street, "Ultimate Speed Secrets" will give you the information you need to succeed!

Prior to 1999 Audi did not have a sportscar in its range, let alone having ever raced one. But between 2000 and 2006 the Audi R8 won 63 of the 80 races in which it competed - including five out of six Le Mans 24-hours - making it the most successful long-distance racing car of all time. The latest in Veloce's WSC Giants series, this book charts those races and describes the development of the R8, as well as profiling the 35 drivers who raced it between 2000 and 2006. It also includes the story of the Audi R8R and R8C of 1999. Illustrated in colour throughout with many previously unpublished photos, the book features individual chassis details and results, plus observations from significant individuals - engineers, team managers, drivers etc - concerned with the Audi R8. By the time the R8 was replaced by the diesel R10, it had revolutionised the marque's image, helping to change it from a staid, but worthy, saloon car manufacturer to one of the world's leading premium car producers.

While the demonstrations of Spring 1968 all around the world were not the playing field of DPPI's (Diffusion Presse Photo International) photographers, the latter happily continued to flourish in the extraordinary world of motor racing, the atmosphere of which they captured to perfection. Their purpose was both to translate into images impressions like the frightening average speed per lap of 243 km/hr of the Belgian Grand Prix on the Spa-Francorchamps track or the clearance, complete with major skidding, of a snow-covered pass during the Monte-Carlo Rally, and to serve as complicit witnesses to the mixture of tension and freedom that inhabits these men and women of the racing world who gathered each weekend to share triumph and tragedy. It comes as no surprise that such a concentration of action and emotion made a strong impression on the public and inspired brands and emerging marketing services seeking new channels of communication. Text in English and French.

This acclaimed book tells the story of each of the 529 races in which the great Stirling Moss took part, from the start of his racing life in 1947 to his career-ending crash at Goodwood in 1962. Told in Sir Stirling's own words, the book is packed with detail and anecdote, supported by a wealth of photographs - many previously unpublished - that show all the greatest moments and the extraordinary variety of cars he drove. This is a book to treasure as well as a unique reference source.

From nowhere to the winner's podium: the story of Jenson Button's astonishing domination of the F1 world championship. On 4 December 2008, just a few months before the new season was due to start, the Honda Racing F1 team, which Jenson Button had been driving for since 2006, pulled the plug on their involvement in Formula One. The media at the time reported that it was likely that the factory would be forced to shut, and it was unlikely that Jenson would be able to secure a drive at a top team at this late stage. Yet incredibly, in October 2009, Jenson Button was crowned World Champion, and the new team that had risen from the ashes of the Honda Racing F1 team - Brawn GP - secured the constructors' championship in their first season, a feat never before achieved. If this were a movie script you wouldn't believe it possible, so how did it happen? A CHAMPIONSHIP YEAR tells Jenson's incredible story of the 2009 season, from being written off pre-season to winning six of the first seven races, and finally securing the championship in brilliant style at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Jenson's personal commentary on the races is combined with notes on strategy, on-board radio exchanges, quotes from the team and even text messages to recreate the atmosphere of each race weekend. With a foreword by Ross Brawn, it is a fascinating account of an extraordinary grand prix year, and shows just what it takes to become world champion.

The Sunday Times #1 Bestseller, shortlisted for the Cross Sports Book Award. In 1996, Damon Hill was crowned Formula One World Champion. For the first time ever he tells the story of his journey through the last golden era of the sport when he took on the greats including Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher and emerged victorious as World Champion in 1996, stepping out of the shadow of his legendary father Graham Hill. Away from the grid, Watching the Wheels: The Autobiography is an astonishingly candid account of what it was like to grow up as the son of one of the country's most famous racing drivers. It also tells the unflinching story of dealing with the grief and chaos that followed his father's tragically early death in an aircraft accident in 1975, when Damon was fifteen years old. Formula One drivers have always been aware of their mortality, and the rush that comes with the danger of racing was as intoxicating for Hill as it had been for his father's generation, until he came face-to-face with catastrophe when his team-mate, Ayrton Senna, was killed in 1994. The swirling emotions that Hill was faced with in light of the death of Senna was a defining moment for his generation of drivers and for the first time ever Hill talks candidly about the impact that Senna had on his life, even as he watched his own son step into motor racing. Courageously honest, and hugely rewarding, Watching the Wheels is a return to the last golden era of F1 racing, whose image still burns ferociously for those who love the sport for what it reveals about human skill in the face of near certain death.

What happened when America's richest car company, producing many thousands of cars per year, went head to head with Ferrari of Italy in the mid `60s? This is the story of an immovable force coming up against the stubbornness of an unmovable object - that is, Ford against Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari, whose company produced less than four hundred cars per year in 1963, wasn't going to bow to Ford after he had turned down its offer to buy his company. The only place left to duke it out was on the racetracks of the world ... and one in particular: Le Mans.

• Formula 1 of the 1950s and '60s: images from a legendary era of motorsport
• Driver portraits, racing action and historic Formula 1 cars from Ferrari, Porsche, Alfa Romeo and Jaguar
• Over 270 photographs from Edward Quinn's archive, some of which have never been published before
• Insights into post-war Monaco: lifestyle, glamour and celebrities
• Text in English and German