Our favorite racing books/biographies

This thread is for racing books that we have read and recommend to our fellow simracers.

Last year I read the much touted biography of James Hunt, simply titled "Shunt"



700 pages of dense reading, but it was well worth it. Learned a lot about the man, his madness and his methods.
Quite a lot about his personal life and his upbringing, and a lot of great anecdotes from the circuit -- In particular about the 1976 season and all the behind-the-scenes trickery that went on in the last weeks of the championship...

Anyone else read this? If so, what did you think?

Good topic Jason
700 pages about James Hunt, that must be interesting. Reading english doesn't scare me, maybe i'll give it a shot one day, thanks

I have recently finished this one :



Amazing photos, interviews, stories and technical stuff from this series.

And I also love my small collection of CART/Indycar Autocourse yearbooks (got all books from 1988 to 2001).

And now I have to finish reading this one :

I've read this one and it was very good



This one basically gave me my love for motorsports, if you notice my birthdate you'll find out that I wasn't very old when I first read it Provided as well the inspiration for the WSC 89 that I organised here back in 2009, and which was a great success http://historicsimracing.123.st/f14-1989-wsc

Yes great topic

I am a much faster reader than racer, in english, german or even french so I consume books at an awesome rate, much faster than gas on a Hemi 448

I recently readed Donohue's "The unfair advantage", and just finished this one, which was a great read with lots of interesting stuff:http://www.amazon.com/Supercars-Charger-Daytona-Plymouth-SuperBird/dp/1574271067

Next up is the recently released: "M1: The Story", but I will sure get the ones here, nice recommendations The 700 page Shunt book should be good for two weeks me thinks

Quote :

This one basically gave me my love for motorsports, if you notice my birthdate you'll find out that I wasn't very old when I first read it Provided as well the inspiration for the WSC 89 that I organised here back in 2009, and which was a great success

It is weird that after such a great and succesful series, the IMSA one had to be cancelled due to not enough drivers Sad, as nowadays I would have joined it gladly ...

book very complete on F1 technics : Formula One technonlogy by peter wright (ex lotus designer)

because our country has that history behind iron courtain and it is a small market, there never was enought motorsport books...but we have one man, which is always great topic - František Šťastný, he raced on Jawa in motorcycle WC and of course on IOM TT where he ebcame a living legend for his great memory - he was able to learn the whole track after few laps and if for comes down he was one of the fastes no matter his bike simply because he can drive it "blind"...he was not only great driver but also great storyteller so all books and articles about him are full of humor and very readable. I can remeber exact name of the books but I read it in a few evenings and have lot of fun...



EDIT: I wasn´t right...in fog he won TT practise..so he was not one of the fastest...he was fastest

I had a friend at the school who had a motorcycle 50cm3 Jawa. It's been 20 years since I had not seen that name.

Considering the beautiful women you can see in the Chez republic, they could have chosen a prettier one for the add

Nice topic Especially now that I'm without internet at home, gives me the opportunity to catch up on my reading ! Like these two I had bought last year but had yet to read :





Nice reads, nice pics, the FIAT one especially is more detailed as it covers a smaller time period for the same number of pages.

Antoine de Mautor wrote:

Provided as well the inspiration for the WSC 89 that I organised here back in 2009, and which was a great success http://historicsimracing.123.st/f14-1989-wsc

Any chance for a Group C championship for rFactor this year at HSO? i think i asked this to someone here months ago,but i don't remember the answer.

The admins have defined the Championships for this year already, so unless they change their mind I think you shouldn't expect one. However, they continuously surprise us with great Opens, so let's keep the hopes up

I plan to start reading this book by Innes Ireland:

\

Originally published in 1970, this book is about an 11,000 mile race from London to Sydney. Having read accounts of of Ireland's tendency to get into trouble, I'm hoping this will be an entertaining read. Has anyone in the HSO community read this?

Talking about Innes Ireland, I read this one last year :



A great read and an interesting point of view on the wealthy aristocracy revolving around the world of motorsports in the late 50's early 60's.

I would've liked it to be a bit longer and more thorough in places but I really can't say anything BAD about the book. Great read and a great driver

Antoine de Mautor wrote:

A great read and an interesting point of view on the wealthy aristocracy revolving around the world of motorsports in the late 50's early 60's.

Knowing the way Innes Ireland was unceremoniously chucked aside by Lotus, I'm sure he had plenty of sharp things to say about the auto racing aristocracy of his day.

Last year, I read this account of the 1971 racing season:



Lots of statistics throughout; almost pedantic in its detail (okay, completely pedantic) but interestingly, not dry...
You felt like you were actually at each event, immersed in the minutiae of the sport.

Jason White wrote:

Knowing the way Innes Ireland was unceremoniously chucked aside by Lotus, I'm sure he had plenty of sharp things to say about the auto racing aristocracy of his day.

Last year, I read this account of the 1971 racing season:



Lots of statistics throughout; almost pedantic in its detail (okay, completely pedantic) but interestingly, not dry...
You felt like you were actually at each event, immersed in the minutiae of the sport.

I love the Pritchards, among the best annuals of their days ! And Nigel Snowdown pics <3

Ater reading this one I couldn't help thinking it was a surprise they actually managed to make the film

I read this book, perhaps the only one about the races, i have a little book about Ferrari Enzo and his drivers but not finish to read.

I remember saving up weeks of allowance money just to buy this book. Still one of my favorites. Amazing photos throughout.

Jason White wrote:

I plan to start reading this book by Innes Ireland:

\

Originally published in 1970, this book is about an 11,000 mile race from London to Sydney. Having read accounts of of Ireland's tendency to get into trouble, I'm hoping this will be an entertaining read. Has anyone in the HSO community read this?

So far, so good

This arrived today, along with three books (probably not racing-related) by Julian Clary.

I just put down an excellent book about NASCAR, covering its starts to the mid 70s. Magnific read, well documented, and most important UNOFFICIAL so it tells you what Big Bill France never would have

http://www.amazon.com/Real-NASCAR-White-Lightning-France/dp/0807833843

Next up is Guillaume's recommendation about GTPs, which arrived here last week

tres bien fait , grosse partie sur les techniques de pilotage , talon pointe , appel contre appel , les points de corde , les freinages etc etc ( reste plus qu a les mettres en pratique ) , ca parle aussi de sponsoring les budgets , les reglements etc etc . en gros tout ce qui tourne autour du pilotage en rallye .

I just bought the IMSA GTP yearbooks from 1988 to 1993 here (5$ per book, which are around 190-200 pages ) : http://store.alms.com/home.php?cat=73

Whaoo! I bought 1971, 88, 89, 90 and 91