11 replies to this topic

[Don Capps]

The title says it all....

Please feel free to post your reviews of books & videos on this thread. Also, please discuss the books and videos reviewed here as well.

[Paul Hartshorne]

Review: FASTER! A Racer's Diary
by Jackie Stewart and Peter Manso
pub. by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1972

Firstly, I'm not reviewing this book because it's my favourite motorsports book (it's not!), but simply because it's the most recent that I have read, having picked up an excellent first edition via eBay for the bargain price of $6.05 plus shipping.

The text consists of a diary kept by Jackie Stewart during the 1970 season, and is a fascinating insight into Stewart's thoughts on promoting himself to potential sponsors as "a brand", his thoughts on Formula 1, particularly safety, and his opinion of other drivers. There's a lot of pseud's corner style bullshit about how he controls his anxiety before a race, such as imagining it as a balloon that he can slowly deflate until he achieves a serenity within himself. Well, it obviously worked for him, so I can't criticise him too much!

Stewart's opinion of his F1 contemporaries was generally poor, and Jacky Ickx and Chris Amon come in for special criticism from JYS. He does give a very good description of Amon's infamous wobblies, all three hues!

The one driver that Stewart had a good word for was his friend Jochen Rindt, and it is the section dealing with Rindt's death at Monza that is the heart of this book. Stewart's account of the aftermath of the accident, and his own personal grief at the loss of his friend, is very moving indeed, and Jackie makes it plain that he believes that Rindt would have survived if he had received better medical attention immediately after the accident.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone looking for an insight into the psychology of triple-World Champion Jackie Stewart, and anyone who wants to see just how far Formula 1 has come in terms of safety since 1970.

One final word; Stewart claims at one point in the book to have led during the first lap of 18 consecutive Grands Prix until Zandvoort 1970. Is this true, and is it a record?

[Dennis David]

Here is a short review of MY TWO LIVES by René Dreyfus with Beverly Rae Kimes. I tend to keep my reviews short and actually include parts from the book to allow a person to judge for themselves whether the book is for them.


The average modern driver, who must keep his nose to the grindstone from an early age, has no time to learn about life so that he tends to be something less than a brilliant intellect.

Denis Jenkinson


As an anecdote to the cookie cutter books that seem to come out the day after a driver turns his first wheel in a Grand Prix car. I purchased "My Two Lives" by René Dreyfus. During the 20's and 30's he drove Maseratis, Ferraris and especially Bugattis on the Grand Prix circuits of the world. In 1938 he won his greatest victory in a Delahaye at Pau where he beat the best that Mercedes had to offer. When World War II started he joined the French Army but while on leave to compete in the Indianapolis 500 he found himself stranded when Paris was overrun. Without visible means of support he opened a French restaurant and began his second career. Upon the United States entering the war, Dreyfus joined the American Army. In 1980 he returned to Europe to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his victory in the Grand Prix of Monaco. This journey back through his own past was a particular favorite of mine.

The story begins in 1914 when René was nine years old. The middle of three children he speaks of his early life with fondness, growing up in Nice. He later joined the Moto Club de Nice, which was sort of a junior league Automobile Club de Nice. Forging his mother's signature René entered his first race and won, due to him being the only car in his class. During this time he and his brother Maurice owned a paper company with René the salesman. He somehow convinced his mother that if he had a Bugatti he would be able to get around faster and see more customers. His mother was duped and soon the boys had their first race car. In the coming years René finds himself at the center of the greatest period in the history of Grand Prix racing. His contemporaries included Chiron, Caracciola, Varzi and Nuvolari. It his observations of this period that makes this book special. As a French patriot driving against the German cars we learn how it felt for himself and his friend Louis Chiron.

His second life as a restaurateur is also covered in detail both during and after the war. While this might not be of direct interest to my motorsport readers it actually covers a longer period of his life. We learn of the reunion with his brother and sister and of course his famous restaurant - Le Chanteclair which over its 25-year history was the gathering place for motosport iluminaries from around the world. In closing there is a touching chapter of René and Maurice returning to Europe and the celebration of René's victory at Manaco 50 years previous.

The following are some quotes from his book.

... Meantime, there was a new presence on the Grand Prix scene. At the Swiss GP at Bern on August 26th, I took a good long look at the Auto Union and Mercedes for the first time. There were swastikas all around, but all of us were looking at the cars. They were most unusual and enormously powerful. Four hundred fifty horsepower already, with the promise for much more. There were as many engineers in the pits as drivers. It was a gargantuan operation.

The political significance of all this eluded us. All we realized was that Germany's new chancellor was an automobile enthusiast and wanted the country's cars to be supreme, the most powerful, the fastest, the most everything.

René Dreyfus - 1934

The "racing enthusiast" was of course Adolf Hitler.

...Stuck's Auto Union was leading, but Tazio was giving him fits, until suddenly Nuvolari lost a piston just past the grandstand. He got out of his car and started walking slowly back to the pits. I was now in second place. My car was performing beautifully. Stuck's brakes, I could sense were fading.

This was Italy, and this was Tazio - and the crowd, seeing him walking, started a vigorous chant: "Nuvolari in macchina, Nuvolari in macchina!" When I pulled into the pits to refuel, Enzo and Gobbato asked me if I'd mind giving my car to Nuvolari. Of course, I wouldn't; Tazio was the team captain. Tazio beamed, and said grazie, and I shouted a few things about how the car was behaving and he took off. He drove like only Nuvolari could, and was challenging Stuck fantastically, but he was also wearing down the Alfa's brakes, had to pit to have them adjusted, and finished second.

To show you the man Tazio was, I was entitled to my percentage of the prize money only on the laps I had run, Tazio was to get his percentage on the laps he had accomplished with my car - but he refused any money at all. He told the Scuderia people that I should receive the entire prize because had I remained in the car I might have won the race. He recognized, he told me afterwards, that instead of trying frantically to catch up, he might better have played it cooler and waited to see if the other man would falter.

René Dreyfus at Monza - 1935

For Nuvolari to play it cool and wait for something to happen to the car of Hans Stuck would be like a cat barking! It would not have been Nuvolari who only knows how to drive - flat out.

While in the American Army Dreyfus had many humorous encounters especially when it related to the English language. While attending an interrogation class he was called upon to name the various battalions in a regiment. ...I stood up, and rattled off the list in my best English - and when I finished, the teaching lieutenant said, fine, you missed just one. I remembered it immediately, and remembered how my English teacher in Spartenburg had told me to always aspirate an "h" sound, difficult for a Frenchman, and so I aspirated with a vengeance and :assault" came out "asshole" battalion. The room fell apart in laughter."

The lieutenant was very kind, and when everyone had quieted down, told me that I was right but my pronunciation was wrong. He wrote the word "assault" on the blackboard, and I pronounced it once more, exactly the same way I had the first time. The room broke up again. Finally, the lieutenant said that actually, on reflection, I was probably right. And we got on to other things."



Dreyfus, René and Beverly Rae Kimes. "My Two Lives". Aztex Corporation, 1995, 1983 pp., ISBN 0-89404-080-4.

[Ray Bell]

Fabulous... now who was it used to talk to him at his restaurant? ...posted in the 'Growing Old Gracefully' thread, I think.
As mentioned, he was ideally placed to look at the scene when the 'Titans' arrived - what a place to be! And Louis Chiron's nephew, who lives near me here and knows very little about his uncle, would be pleased to see it too.
Poor Louis was the centre of a major family upheaval in those pre-war days for going off to drive for those nasty Germans. I get the impression that at least some of them never forgave him.

[Dennis David]

THE CHEQUERED FLAG
by Douglas Rutherford

"The next instant was curiously drawn out, like a film suddenly in slow motion. I could see the under part of the Mercedes as it passed over my head, still in one piece and identifiable as a car with driver aboard. It seemed to fly on as leisurely as the horses going over Becher’s Brook in the newsreel.

Though I did not realise it at the time it snapped a wire at a point eighteen inches above my head and sprinkled the hair of the lady on my right with tiny morsels of silver coachwork.

Even while the silver car was still hurtling to earth again there was time to feel emotion. First came anguish for the driver, imprisoned in that airborne car, utterly committed to the crash. Then came the sensation of violation, of tremendous forces out of control. Last and most terrible was the realisation that the machine was falling amongst a mass of humans and must surely crush them."

Douglas Rutherford attended most of the major races of 1955, and this is his story of these races, which made 1955 one of the most momentous, memorable and tragic years in the history of motor racing.

This is probably the book, which did it for me. This is the book which, as an eleven year old, I got out of the local library time and again to read of the exploits of drivers and cars of a previous decade. This is the book, which stimulated me to read, and buy, more books about motor racing and its history until I accumulated what is now a collection of over 150 tomes. I did not manage to purchase my own copy of this book until much later. In the early sixties though, I didn’t really need to own it – I knew it virtually of by heart, knew the names (but not all the pronunciations), had devoured the sharp black and white photographs for every detail, and had been stimulated to widen my knowledge of the people, marques and races mentioned in the enthralling, wonderful text.

Chapter 1 is entitled " The First Fifty Years", where Rutherford initially philosophises on the qualities required to make a racing driver.

"…the first is a sense of vocation – that inexplicable compulsion to race which draws a man day after day to the brink of doom. We all have our different ways of breaking the chains that bind our mortal feet to the earth, some petty and some noble. The real racing driver has the spirit that takes mountaineers to the summit of Everest and matadors to the bullring……..Next come the inborn physical qualities; an especial sense of line and balance and a lightning quickness of reflex. He needs an instinctive ability to assess and adjust the forces under his control, engine power and braking power, against the forces which seek to destroy him, impetus and centrifugal force……A man may be born with these qualities but to possess them is not enough. Experience must be added……..Over and above all this he must have courage, for without courage who can face the unremitting danger, the frights, the disappointments and even the tragedies that racing inevitably brings? That is why the great drivers in any decade can be numbered on your fingers, and that is why the death of such a man as Alberto Ascari means a serious loss to us all."

He then embarks on a whistle stop tour of Grand Prix racing history, concentrating on later years as a build up to 1955, and indeed finishes the chapter with a short report on the first round of the World Championship, the Argentine Grand Prix of 16th January.

"The Drive of the Century" is about Moss and Jenkinson’s epic victory in the Mille Miglia. Rutherford’s skill is in setting the scene and communicating the atmosphere of the races he describes.

"Long before the Mille Miglia, in cafes and on street corners, you could hear the famous names being bandied to and fro with a wealth of gesture and expression which re-created the event before your very eyes. The Bresciani call the week before the Mille Miglia their settimana di passione. Up and down the length of Italy, appetites had been whetted by the spectacle of fast cars passing as drivers attempted to familiarise themselves with the thousand-mile circuit. But Brescia, the very cradle of the race as well as the start and finish, was subjected to an intensified form of preparation. In the city and surrounding villages, garages had been turned into racing stables…..Any moment as you rounded a corner in your car you might be confronted with the spectacle of a race car coming towards you at over a hundred miles an hour."

"Ascari’s Last Race" describes the almost overpowering excitement of the Monaco Grand Prix, as well as Ascari’s life – and death.

"The Way of the Expert" is a report on the relatively uneventful Belgian GP, enlivened by a biography of Fangio.

"If you met Fangio by chance you would never guess that he was the world’s fastest driver. He is small, heavily built and walks with a rolling gait. His movements are slow and controlled. His eyes are remarkably calm and express a deep understanding of human nature. He talks quietly, without many gestures, and speaks Italian as well as Spanish. In repose his features have a sad though tranquil cast. Even when he is at the racetrack he gives above all an impression of relaxation. Until he gets into the car he seems almost sleepy………"

"The End of an Epoch" is about the disastrous Le Mans 24-hour race. The excitement of the duel between Jaguar and Mercedes Benz in the first part of the race is almost breathtaking when described by the author. As can be seen from the initial extract, he was a close observer of the tragedy, standing only eighteen feet from the point of disaster.

The next chapter is called "The Continent Comes to Britain" and describes the Mercedes Benz 1-2-3-4 at Aintree. Again Rutherford’s eye for detail and descriptive powers are amazing.

"By now the official Maserati and Ferrari teams had each only one car left. Every British made car except one was out of the race. But what was this? In front of the grandstands Harry Schell had sailed past Sparken’s Gordini and given the driver a happy smile. In a less public place certain rude signals might have been made, for Schell was out to enjoy himself. Each time he passed the pits he gave the mechanics a cheery thumbs-up signal, which clearly meant: "Thanks for getting me going again. The engine’s fine." The Vanwall mechanics sat in a row on the pit-counter and swung their legs happily every time their car went by…….When Moss and Fangio caught him up Schell gave way politely and then proceeded to demonstrate that the Vanwall was almost as fast as the German cars. He sailed round behind them for several laps and gave the crowd to wonder what might have happened if his throttle linkage had not broken in the early stages. The Vanwall was very fast"

Because of the Le Mans disaster, four Grands Prix were cancelled, and only six races counted towards the World Championship. The final chapter, entitled "Faster Faster" tells the story of the Italian GP, which in 1955 used the full Monza circuit, banking included.

At the end of the book, Douglas Rutherford states that he covered over 10 000 miles of continental roads between the races in a 1932 Alvis!

The only disappointing thing about this book is that it appears to be the only non-fiction book about motor racing written by the author. He wrote mainly fiction, notably "Grand Prix Murder" (Collins 1955). It is hard to imagine any fiction more dramatic than the actual events of the 1955 motor racing season…….

If you love motor racing, especially that of an age when drivers could be seen and driving personalities easily spotted, then you cannot afford not to read this book. This book is Fifties Motor Racing.

Rutherford, Douglas. Collins, 1956, 224 pp.,

Book review provided by Douglas S Brown (June 1998)

[Ray Bell]

Well, I guess I'll have to either get a budget big enough to buy that one, or plan a trip to Barry's to read it... but ponder this: Had he been placed a little differently during that crucial moment on his visit to the Sarthe, none of this would be here...
Sounds like it's a good thing he wasn't. That is fantastic... it makes me wonder what it's like to cross-reference his work on the Mille Miglia with Jenks' story.

[Keir]

I know I'll come under some fire for this but........

"The Checkered Year", or "Grand Prix Year"
(the book was published with both titles, one for USA, the other for Great Britain)
as written by Td Simon, is simply the best motor racing book ever written.
If it isn't part of your motor racing library, GET IT!!!!

[Dennis David]

Convince me with a review!

[Keir]

We have all heard the one, "I'd like to be a fly on the wall and see what really goes on in Formula One."
Well, starting in 1969 through the end of the 1970, author Ted Simon got to be that "fly" and a lot more. There has never been a story told that got this deep into the personalities of the F1 circus. Ted tells the only accurate version of the birth of the March F1 team, as he goes through all the machinations of the various conspirators.
To this day, some of the people directly involved with the project didn't always know what was going on, but Simon, carefully untangles the web and presents the "warts and all"
version. The conversations with Chris Amon, Max Mosely, Jackie Stewart and others are "eye opening" to say the least. The whole of the book is the "untold story" being told.
I would really like to go into detail, but if you think that you know what happened during the 1970 GP season, then read this book and get a real education. Just the sections that deal with the birth of the March will set your head spinning.
I have read countless motor racing books and so far, nothing has ever come close to this one. I think that's one heck of an endorsement!!!

[Ray Bell]

I have mentioned it before, but there's no need to leave it out on that account. Evan Green turned to writing fiction, penning 'Dust and Glory' about his favourite subject, Round Australia Trials. It was okay, but paled alongside his real-life story of the London to Munich Rally of 1974.
With John Bryson, he decided to run a Leyland P76, a big car which featured the 4.4 litre version of the Rover V8... it had a taller block and things like that, but it was basically the Rover engine. The story goes into every aspect of their battle to make it to the event, chasing sponsors, getting equipment, the planning and strategies they adopted, shipping to England for the start, everything. Even the dispute with Zasada about swapping numbers that would have given them extra sponsorship.. they had cracked it for Brut, got 34 in the draw and Zasada had 33.
It becomes more entrancing after the petty beginnings of England, France and Spain. When they hit the Sahara, and are striking out into it in the dark... they hit the front in the event, after being dead last after a carby blockage on the initial 'sorting out' stage near London.
But the main part of this story is how difficult the desert is. There are roads and maps of the roads, but hitting it for the first time (no recce for this crew) in the dark was another experience, and they admitted they didn't want to be in the lead at this stage. It degenerates into a story of a mass of cars looking for the way, the road, the 'piste,' in the dark, and not finding it. Morning comes to light the way for many crews hopelessly lost, gathering with a few others for company in the loneliness.
Their target was the control at Temanrasset, but only about eight cars made that in time. The organisers took the radical step of agreeing that anyone who could be in Temanrasset and ready to go for the return leg across the Sahara after the eight had returned from the loop to Kano could rejoin and be counted as finishers in Munich, but none could beat any of those that went to Kano that made the finish.
Bryson shows up as the intrepid optimist who will help anyone. He helps many find ways to patch their cars into driveable condition again. All the while the author waits for the twice a week Caravelle to come in with the struts they need to get mobile again. They arrive, late and damaged. Nevertheless, they get mobile and are ready to go with the rest.
They do, however, make a big impression with the organisers, who finally agree to set a Land Rover up to follow up those who continue across the desert, ensuring that any who get stuck won't become victims of the place.
Green well describes the foreboding atmosphere of it all, and looks at the people who live there and travel about in it. He muses at their lives and what they are worth, commenting with a very descriptive pen about many aspects of what he has seen and endured.
The climax for me was when he describes the end of the Stirling Moss Mercedes effort, when they sit down to die, having gone out without the minimum quantity of water to save weight in a car that is battering its suspension to death. Then there is the humour when they are rescued by the Land Rover, as Moss and Taylor dispute ownership of the car, its worth and the deals they have done between themselves transferring ownership.
There are stories about heroic efforts to make it ... broken axle housings, reassembling engines, a car that has a holed fuel tank finding a tanker in the desert and being able to carry on!
And there is some consolation for our heroes as they make fastest time on the Targa Florio stage of the event, a time trial on part of the Madonie circuit, beating all comers in this huge sedan... about Chevy II size. Later Leyland released a very tasteful dress-up model called the Targa Florio.
Just before they went out of production altogether.
It goes on through Turkey and the run up to Austria, where the whole field is caught on an icy hill. It goes into the suspicion the French teams have of everyone else, the distaste many feel for Andre Welinski, the publicist who put together the Jim Reddiex/Ken Tubman entry of a Citroen, the huge crash of Brian Chuchua in the Jeep.
It's a gripping book about an event that was won by a day or more. I picked it up one night and read 9 pages. The next night I picked it up and finished it by breakfast time. I couldn't put it down.
Later I talked to Reddiex about it all, and he told me a story of what happened south of Temanrasset in their earlier survey (which, by the way, was the reason they found their way that night in the desert... you've got to read the thing to follow it all)... a story that was just as gripping. Maybe I'll record it somewhere on the board one day.

[green-blood]

Jim Clark
Tribute to a Champion

Eric Dymock
ISBN:- 0 85429 9823 approx: Stg£25

Written by a man who knew him personally, this is more than just a biography. It is a homage and a deep journey into the the mind of the racing driver. How could calm, shy Jimmy Clark from the relatively isolated highlands have been such a talented driver of all types of machine, seemingly at ease. Well some of the answers are right here for you perusal. Whether its his father-son type relationship with Chapman, or his ladish exploits(yes he let his hair down occsionally) around town with other famous helmsman or the tales of his other motoring adventures, Le Mans, the RAC rally etc. It is all told here in fantastic pose, with extracts from thos ewho knew him best and were still in awe.

Dymock style is easy to read and flowing, the text does not weigh heavily on Clarks achievements but rather who he was and what his motivation was at each stage in his glittering career. We also relive the awfulness of the new of his death thru' Dymock and others and the reality that it can happen to anyone even the immortally brilliant such as Clark.

Green-blood

[green-blood]

Jenks
A Passion for Motorsport

Denis Jenkinson
ISBN:- 1 8998 70 229 approx: Stg£20

Simply if you haven't got these memoirs you do not understand the meaning of the word enthusiasm. For 50 years plus the late great Denis Jenkinson travelled Europe following the Grand Prix circuit, relaying tales of the great drivers, the great teams, the great cars and his great breakdowns in his trusted 356 Porsche or E-type. The individual pieces are lifted from a 40 year spell of "Motorsport" contributions but become much more as a whole.

The famous and fantastic epic article of Jenks 1955 Mille Miglia win as co-driver to Stirling Moss is there of course but so are many other gems. We are treated to the comedy that was often the bar after(and before)a great race, and the pain at the death of a kindred spirit. The bonus for us is that this collection released in the year of his death brings together DSJs very own favourite articles.

The inspiration of many a young boy lives. If there is a heaven I am sure Senna is cutting up Clark and Fangio is dicing for pole with Rosemeyer at the Nurburgring - in the wet, but I am absolutley certain that Jenks is right there scribbling it all down for the folks back home.