Imagine driving 16,000 miles in 25 days over some of the roughest terrain in the world, at altitudes up to 16,000 feet, where engines and lungs gasp for air. Imagine 500-mile speed trials over rocky mountain tracks, racing against the clock and 95 other cars. Imagine attempting this more than 50 years ago, without GPS or cell phones or modern safety equipment. In April 1970, 241 men and women from more than 20 nations did just that, setting out from London in cars ranging from a dune buggy to family sedans to Porsches, Rolls-Royces, camper vans and a Jeep Wagoneer, determined to get to Mexico City. Drawing on personal recollections of competitors, organizers, marshals and mechanics, this book recounts the ecstasies and agonies of perhaps the toughest endurance motorsports event ever--the London to Mexico World Cup Rally.

The North East has been a hotbed of motorsport since the early years of the last century. In this book motorsport broadcaster and journalist Larry Carter presents a selection of memorable motorsport events, competitors, venues and personalities in the region from the 1920s onwards. The circuit at Croft is justly famous, witnessing the early days of stars such as James Hunt, Barry Sheene, Niki Lauda and Wilson Fittipaldi, but the huge variety of motorsports, both cars and bikes, in the region are represented in this book, including circuit racing, rallying, rallycross and trials. The North East has spawned many great racers over the years, both men and women, some of whom died tragically young, such as motorcyclist Ken Redfern and sidecar legend Mac Hobson. Also included are famous clubs such as the Darlington & District Motor Cub and lesser-known venues at Catterick military base and Albemarle Barracks. This book is also a tribute to events that have declined or disappeared - grass track racing, sand racing on the Cleveland beaches, hill-climbs, scrambling, speedway and stock car racing. Delving through archives, Larry Carter has unearthed a fascinating collection of the most memorable motor-sporting events and achievements of the last 100 years in the North East which will appeal to all motorsport enthusiasts in the area.

The star of some of the most beloved films of Hollywood's golden age--including Bullitt, The Great Escape, and The Magnificent Seven--Steve McQueen's unflappably roguish persona earned him the nickname "The King of Cool" and the highest salary of any movie star of his time. Marshall Terrill's new book draws on more than five decades of media coverage, memorabilia, and research to serve up a slew of quotations straight from the mouth of the man himself. Steve McQueen in His Own Words lets us hear directly from this iconoclastic actor through a wide array of sources: interviews, published articles, personal letters and audiotapes, providing an intimate view of McQueen as an actor, filmmaker, racer, pilot, husband, and family man. Accompanying the hundreds of quotes are an equally impressive number of photos, illustrations, personal documents, and memorabilia, many of which are published here for the first time. Steve McQueen in His Own Words paints a portrait of a complex, contradictory man who managed to become one of the greatest icons in cinema history while never sacrificing the passions and beliefs that drove him.

During his time as speedway reporter for MCN, Andrew Edwards travelled extensively witnessing first-hand the thrills and spills of world class speedway, meeting the top riders and hearing and reporting on stories of epic euphoric success and sometimes tragedy. Here Andrew recounts his own story from humble beginnings in provincial journalism in the West Midlands to national newspaper reporting of Grand Prix world meetings with anecdotes and characters described in his own style with a fair bit of humour along the way. How he met with some of the greatest headline makers over decades of speedway reporting becoming great friends of many along the way including legendary names like Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs, Bruce Penhall, Peter Collins, Simon Wigg, Jason Crump and Kenny Carter. There is also the story of how Andrew experienced major changes in the publishing industry, from hot metal presses, the days when clanky ink ribbon typewriters were the latest technology and even before mobile phones were invented, right through to a new dawn of the new digital printing revolution.