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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Motor sports > General
One of the greatest drivers of his generation, Jim Hall is even
better known as an innovator. From his tiny shop in Midland, Texas
emerged a series of Chaparrals that changed the face of racing. His
high-winged Chaparral 2E Can-Am car and 2F World Sportscar
Championship contender may be the most influential race vehicles of
the 20th century. Today, every Formula 1 car uses net downforce,
driver-adjustable wings, composite chassis, side-mounted radiators,
semi-automatic gearboxes and advanced telemetry to optimize vehicle
performance - all things Hall pioneered in the mid-1960s. Here he
tells his story - his life, his cars, his relationship with
Chevrolet, his battles with sanctioning body bureaucracies - for
the first time to award-winning author George Levy in this
authorized biography.
Don't Just Be Good You Can Be Great!Optimum Drive is the complete
step-by-step guide to maximizing human performance in any endeavor
you choose to conquer Attaining peak performance. Optimum Drive is
a motivational book that uses top level race car driving as a
metaphor for peak performance. As a professional racing driver and
a driving coach for over 20 years, author Paul F. Gerrard gives you
his unique perspective on what causes people to stagnate with the
idea of being merely good, when each of us has the potential to be
great. Gerrard believes that peak performance is within our grasp.
He lays out his step-by-step process for attaining peak performance
with detailed nuance threaded throughout. If you have ever been
curious about maximizing your own ultimate potential, Optimum Drive
is for you! Mental toughness. Greatness is as hard to quantify as
it is to achieve...probably not a coincidence. In this book,
Optimum Drive, professional driver Gerrard helps you understand the
mental toughness that it takes to reach that greatness. He starts
off by taking you onto the track as he explores what driving at 200
mph can teach us about who we are. Using his experiences from
behind the wheel at death-defying speeds, Gerrard breaks down the
psychology of driving, what it takes, and how we can use it to
achieve greatness in life. Flow psychology and staying in the zone.
The key to the mental toughness that Gerrard believes it takes to
achieve peak performance is the nirvana-like sensation of flow
psychology or being in the zone. Flow psychology, or being in the
zone, is a mental state in which one who is performing an activity
is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full
involvement, and joy. It is through flow psychology that Gerrard
introduces a blend of holistic mindset combined with a competitive
edge, which is essential to successful professional driving. This
mix of guts, tenacity and endurance is the foundation of Gerrard's
philosophy for attaining greatness. Why you should read Optimum
Drive This book is not just about learning how to drive race cars.
Use it for anything. Auto Racing (by far the richest sport in the
world) has invested more money evaluating human performance than
any other sport. Optimum Drive is a step-by-step guide to unlock
your hidden potential. Former Top Gear US Stig, Paul F. Gerrard has
taught and refined his principles for over 20 years with thousands
of successful students.
An L.A. hot-rodder with a high school education, a family to
support, and almost no money, Craig Breedlove set out in the
late 1950s to do something big: harness the thrust of a jet in a
car. With a growing obsession that would cost him his marriage, he
started building in his dad’s garage. The car's name
was Spirit of America. Through perseverance and endless hard
work, Craig completed Spirit and broke the land speed record on the
Bonneville Salt Flats, setting a new mark of 407 mph in 1963. He
went on to be the first person to drive 500 and 600 mph, breaking
the land speed record five times. In the early 1970s he
turned to rockets and set an acceleration record at Bonneville that
stands to this day. He built a jet car in the 1990s, Spirit of
America–Sonic Arrow, to go head to head against Britain’s
ThrustSSC to be the first to Mach 1. Craig’s subsequent crash at
675 mph remains the fastest in history. Even today, at the age of
eighty, he is going strong with plans for yet another Spirit
of America racer. The ultimate goal: 1,000 mph. Ultimate
Speed is the authorized biography of Craig Breedlove, with a
foreword by Craig himself. A candid revelation of one of
motorsports' most interesting figures, the book is based primarily
on countless hours of interviews with Craig and dozens of people
connected to his life.
This book is the first independent exploration of the Federation
Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA) institutional history.
Virtually unexamined compared with similar institutions like the
FIFA and the IOC, the FIA has nevertheless changed from being a
small association in 1904 to becoming one of the world's most
influential sport governing bodies. Through chronologically
organised chapters, this book explains how the FIA manages to link
together motorsport circuses like Formula 1 with the automotive
industry and societal issues like road safety and environmental
sustainability. In an exciting narrative spanning seven decades, it
reviews the FIA's organisational turning points, governing
controversies, political dramas and sporting tragedies. Considering
the FIA to be a unique type of hybrid organisation characterised by
what the author calls 'organisational emulsion', this case study
contains theoretical innovations relevant to other studies of sport
governing bodies. It makes an empirically grounded contribution to
the research fields of institutional logics, historical sociology
and sport governance.
Ayrton Senna is still the best loved of Formula 1 champions. Now
that 20 years have passed since his tragic fatal accident at Imola
on 1 May 1994, it is time to rediscover who and what Ayrton really
was. An emotional yet rigorous journey that takes place along the
two lines of visual testimony and in-depth intimacy. The stars of
this book are the photographs: hundreds of shots and all of them in
colour, which will ensure the reader relives the unrepeatable
career of this great champion, from his humble beginnings in karts
to his lightening experiences in lesser formulae in Britain,
through to his rapid move to Formula 1. First with Toleman, then
Lotus, with whom he won his first Grand Prix. But the definitive
consecration of Ayrton took place at McLaren, where he won three F1
World Championships between 1988 and 1993 but, more than anything
else, pulled off a series of ventures that are the stuff of
legends. All bound together with new revelations, anecdotes,
confidences and stories of a life that was lived, the gift of those
who knew him well. To make the heart beat a little faster within
those who have not forgotten and to have a vibrant and different
account of the man, a new view to bring back the brilliance of an
old sentiment, able to chrystallise itself in the pictures and
between the lines of this book.
This long-awaited book is a photographic memoir by the only man to
have won World Championships on motorcycles and in cars. Containing
nearly 300 photographs from Surtees' own collection as well as from
the world's finest motorsport picture libraries, this major book
presents a complete visual record of Surtees' life accompanied by
fascinating commentary written in collaboration with co-author Mike
Nicks. Chapters of particular interest are those covering Surtees's
formative years and the extraordinary 1960 season in which he raced
both motorcycles and cars, winning two World Championships on MV
Agusta bikes as well as taking second place for Lotus in the
British GP, which was only his second Formula 1 race. Royalties
from sales of the book will go to the Henry Surtees Foundation,
which was set up to honour the memory of John's son Henry, who was
killed in a freak accident at Brands Hatch in 2009. - The early
years (up to 1952): a childhood around motorcycle racing,
apprenticeship with Vincent, then racing a Vincent Grey Flash. -
Getting established (1953-55): Moving on to ride mainly Manx
Nortons, he did 86 races in one year, and in 1955 achieved his
first grand prix win, in the 250cc Ulster GP on an NSU. - The glory
years (1956-60): dominating top-level motorcycle racing for five
years with Italian team MV Agusta, taking seven World Championship
titles on 500cc and 350cc bikes. - The remarkable year of bikes and
cars (1960): overlapping his last year of motorcycle racing with 17
car races, including four F1 World Championship events. - Ferrari
driver (1963-66): established in cars, he joined Ferrari, winning
his first race - the Sebring 12 Hours for sports cars - and the
following year becoming F1 World Champion. - Can-Am champion
(1966): after recovery from a huge crash in a Lola T70 sports car
and acrimonious departure from Ferrari, he bounced back in North
America to win the spectacular Can-Am series. - Turning Japanese
(1967-68): Honda invited Surtees to develop and drive its F1 cars
for two years, with victory in the Italian GP at Monza the
highlight. - Becoming a constructor (1969-78): going into
single-seater racing, including F1, with Team Surtees and cars of
his own manufacture; Mike Hailwood won the European F2 Championship
in 1972. - The latter years (1978 onwards): fully active on the
historic scene as a restorer and driver of motorcycles and cars,
then nurturing son Henry's career until the tragic accident. Royal
Automobile Club shortlist of contenders for Motoring Book of the
Year!
Gran Turismo races have played a key role in the history of the
Monza Autodrome. In the 1970s, the Coppa Intereuropa was one of the
most popular events at the circuit. Interest in GT racing then
waned over the years and it was only in 1992 that an Italian GT
Championship was created, marking the rebirth of the category. From
that moment growth has been exponential, with a series of
international championships being introduced, featuring cars and
drivers of the highest order. This book traces, year by year, the
complex story of these championships from 1970 through to the
present day, explaining the evolution of the regulations and the
cars, but also recording the results of the most important races.
Space is also devoted to the single-marque series - Porsche,
Ferrari, Lamborghini - with the story being told through a vast
array of photographs, in the main previously unpublished, and
painstakingly researched historical texts.
When Don Devendorf and John Knepp got together to form
Electramotive Engineering of El Segundo, California, little did
they realise that they were setting in motion a train of events
which would sooner, rather than later, bring to them and the mighty
Nissan GTP cars that they promoted, developed and raced, no less
than four IMSA Camel GT Championships. Here, for the first time, is
the story of Nissan in racing from 1984 to 1993, the GTP era. The
full story of Electramotive and NPTI is told, with interviews with
Don Devendorf, John Knepp, Geoff Brabham, Trevor Harris, Kas
Kastner, Ashley Page, and many other members of the crew that won
the IMSA Camel GT Championship from 1988 to 1991. The story of the
European Group C Nissans, using chassis from March and Lola, from
1985 to 1992 is also told, along with interviews from many of the
drivers and technicians involved, such as Mark Blundell, Julian
Bailey, Dave Price and Bob Bell.
In this richly illustrated book, Terry O'Neil details the origins
of a remarkable racecar, the Ferrari 333 SP. This vehicle heralded
the famed automaker's return to professional sports car
competitions after an absence of more than twenty years. Introduced
on the American racing circuit in 1994, it found instant success
and continued to be a major player in numerous races in the US and
Europe. Of the 126 races the 333 SP entered, it emerged victorious
in nearly fifty, making it one of the most successful sport
prototype cars in Ferrari's history. Containing over eight hundred
images--many of them never published before--O'Neil's book is a
vivid look at this inimitable automobile.
"We have to recreate the enthusiasm that surrounded the SPORT
models, ever a synonym for the Lancia Zagatos": in 1991 this was
the brief the recent graduate Andrea Zagato gave to Marco
Pedracini, a young designer who had not long been hired by
prestigious coachbuilder. It was out of this fortuitous and
fortunate coming together of this far-sighted idea and the
enthusiasm of Paul Koot, a Dutch fan and a businessman in the
automotive sector, that an icon was born, the HYENA. A beautiful
car, but one practically unknown to the general public. A car that
could have repeated and even surpassed the commercial and sporting
success of the Lancia Delta Integrale from which it was derived.
Unfortunatley just 24 examples were produced due to the debateable
decision taken by the Fiat/Lancia directors of the time. Following
a rapid review of the evolution of the Lancia Delta over the year,
this book, written by an enthusiastic collector, examines the
difficult genesis of the Hyena, from the first steps with the
publication of the very first (previously unpublished) sketches and
numerous photos and then follows its development, engineering and
production through to its presentation at the car shows and in
brochures. The book is completed by a comprehensive technical
section, with the project list and the spare parts catalogue as
well as an extensive photographic portrait of one particular
example, N. 20. Lastly, all 24 Lancia Hyenas are examined, with the
intention of reconstructing their specifications, their destination
and the country in which they are jealously conserved by the
enthusiast and collectors who possess a precious example.
'Every time I have ridden 66, within 10 miles of setting off, I
never want that ride to end. I think it's because Route 66
encapsulates struggle, and, ultimately, triumphing over
unimaginably difficult conditions. I think everyone can connect
with that.' RIDING ROUTE 66 follows Henry Cole as he travels along
Route 66, on a journey of self-discovery. Route 66, or the 'Mother
Road', is one of the most famous roads in the USA. Crossing the
width of the country, it is an immensely challenging road to
travel. Henry has ridden it four times. This book is about the
freedom that only the road and a motorcycle can give you, and the
importance of embracing the highs and lows of life equally. Henry
is one of the most well-known figures in motorcycling, having
presented over twenty series of many TV shows as well as being the
founder of bespoke motorcycle manufacturer Gladstone Motorcyles.
Selwyn Francis Edge, invariably known simply as 'SF', was a highly
significant pioneer of motoring in Britain. When, in 1902, he drove
a Napier to victory in the Gordon Bennett Cup, a mighty event on
public roads between Paris in France and Innsbruck in Austria, he
initiated serious British endeavour in motor racing. He was deeply
involved in the birth of Brooklands, setting a 24-hour solo driving
record there when the circuit opened in 1907. As a towering
industry figure most closely associated with Napier and AC Cars, he
played an important role in the growth of car manufacture in
Britain. In the words of 'Bentley Boy' S.C.H. 'Sammy' Davis, 'His
keen grey eyes, the bushy eyebrows and the hawk-like face... made
him a notable figure in any assembly.' This biography uncovers the
life of an extraordinary man whose achievements deserve to be far
more widely recognised.
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