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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Motor sports
'The unmistakable voice of Moto GP' - Valentino Rossi
As 'The Voice' of motorcycle racing for forty years, commentator Nick Harris became the biggest star not on two wheels in the paddock, and this is his mostly eye-witness, white-knuckle account of MotoGP's scorching seventy-year history.
The story starts on the Isle of Man in 1949, when Geoff Duke, with his slicked-back hair and one-piece black leathers, became the nation's hero, defying the odds and winning the most dangerous race in the world on a British-built Norton. Just over a decade later at Mallory Park, another British champion and one of the greatest riders of all time Mike Hailwood screamed past a young Nick Harris on his 250cc Honda, and a life-long passion was born.
Harris has been at the centre of the sport for decades, getting to know the riders as individuals, seeings feuds unfold, champions made, careers and sometimes lives ended. We'll see the biggest podium stars up close, from Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts to Valentino Rossi, and we'll meet the mechanics behind them, the manufacturers who poured millions into the teams, and the organisers who, in the early days, ruthlessly compromised rider safety for profits. The drama has often been as tense off the track as on it.
This is the book the motorcycling world has been waiting for.
The story returns, with new chapters and prospects about to unfold.
The agreement between Sauber and Alfa Romeo brings back to the
World Championship stage a name that for so long was an integral
part of Formula 1 series. Going back to the 1950 and 1951 seasons,
the championship was bathed in the red of the Portello's cars. Then
came the eras of Chiti, Autodelta, the partnership with Brabham and
then the Biscione marque's return to F1 with the Alfa-Alfa. This
book contains all this and much more, including the two seasons in
the early Seventies with McLaren and March, the premature implosion
of the agreement with Ligier, the sporadic appearances, especially
of South African drivers, at the wheel of cars powered by an Alfa
Romeo engine. The story is comprehensively illustrated with
hundreds of colour and black and white images, many previously
unpublished, and a list of all the results obtained by Alfa Romeo
in Formula 1.
Gathered together for the first time, here is a comprehensive
record of the motoring achievements and competition history of
Briggs Swift Cunningham II. He was a competitor, patron and
pioneering champion of road racing in the USA, and in addition to
the cars that bore his name with pride and competed against the
best in the world, the Cunningham team raced many other models in
the late 1950s and early 1960s in both the USA and Europe. Further,
during his long life, Cunningham owned a large variety of vehicles
ranging from the mundane to the spectacular. Richard Harman has
spent the past seven years researching this long overdue and
worthwhile tribute to the accomplishments of the great man. He was
granted unprecedented access to hitherto unpublished archive
material by the Cunningham family and the families of the team
members and has been able to trace the history of most of the
Cunningham-owned cars in great detail. This book has been awarded
the 2014 Cugnot Award by the Society of Motoring Historians and was
shortlisted for the RAC Book of the Year Award 2014. It was also
shortlisted for the 2013 International Historic Motoring Awards
Publication of the Year
DRIVEN is John Aston's hugely entertaining motoring autobiography.
This ambitious and far ranging book begins with his early days as a
teenage car enthusiast and race marshal in the late Sixties before
covering the wide range of subjects close to his heart. These
include the best and worst of Formula One, the icon that is
Ferrari, the writer's NASCAR adventure and the delights of long
road trips in his beloved Caterham Seven. But that's not all, as
you can read about why the NSU Ro80 was a prophet without honour,
as well as what the writer thinks about the changing face of
motoring journalism. Yes, one J Clarkson is mentioned ... And
there's more still, as a major part of the book is a description of
a year in British motorsport. The writer's love of the lesser known
categories of motor sport illuminates the text, as does his insight
into the places, people and machinery making up the sport's
diversity. He describes the mood music of events ranging from a
round of the British Touring Car Championship to historic race
meetings for Cortinas and Minis, before venturing further from the
mainstream with drag racing at Santa Pod, speed hillclimbs,
autograss and rallying. Oh - he also doubled the average age at a
Time Attack meeting. Don't expect objective reporting, as he holds
strong opinions, but they are leavened by a tongue firmly lodged in
his cheek. Any reader, enthusiast or not, is guaranteed to enjoy
reading about these adventures as much as the writer enjoyed having
them.
Computer generated profiles of the most famous and legendary
Formula 1 single-seaters from 1966, the year when a new engine
capacity regulation was approved. This coincided with the most
important features we can still see in the cars of today, including
wings, sponsors, slick tires, and carbon-fiber chassis. All of them
are illustrated in this book, depicting milestones such as the
Lotuses 49, 72, 79, Renault RS01, winners like the Ferraris "T"
series, McLaren MP4 from 1988, Shumacher's Ferrari, original ideas
like the Tyrrell P34 and other curiosities. Despite being focused
on the cars, the book also examines the designers, team-managers
and drivers.
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