Motoring Hard Back Books

[Muzzman]

I'm having a lot of work done on the house and part of the work gives me a decent size study/ guest room.

This might be a bit of a naff idea but I've always fancied a study with lots of motor racing hard back books.

I've started building up a collection and to be honest really enjoying reading them.

Examples being:

1st Edition Mike Hawthorn, Challenge me the race.
1st Edition Jackie Stewart: Faster
Sam Posey: Where the writer meets the road.
Nigel Roebuck: Chasing the Title
Phil Hill: Driving Life
Christopher Hilton: Ayrton Senna
Mark Donohue: Unfair Advantage

Has anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks

Edited by Muzzman on Saturday 24th April 19:26

[samoht]

The title says 'motoring' but the post says 'motor racing', and are you looking for 'coffee table' books (large format, big glossy photos) or more historical ones?

On the motoring side, Driving Ambition, the McLaren F1 story is a great detail look inside the making of a very special car

On the racing side, I like Never Stop Challenging, basically the complete story of Mazda's rotary racing programme, right from the beginning in the 60s with the Cosmo Sport, up to the 1991 Le Mans victory with the 787B - lots of fantastic original photos.

On the historic side, I like having Jim Clark At The Wheel, because it's from the horse's mouth and is a time-capsule of how he saw things at the time, undistorted by subsequent hagiography.

[Muzzman]

samoht said:

The title says 'motoring' but the post says 'motor racing', and are you looking for 'coffee table' books (large format, big glossy photos) or more historical ones?

On the motoring side, Driving Ambition, the McLaren F1 story is a great detail look inside the making of a very special car

On the racing side, I like Never Stop Challenging, basically the complete story of Mazda's rotary racing programme, right from the beginning in the 60s with the Cosmo Sport, up to the 1991 Le Mans victory with the 787B - lots of fantastic original photos.

On the historic side, I like having Jim Clark At The Wheel, because it's from the horse's mouth and is a time-capsule of how he saw things at the time, undistorted by subsequent hagiography.

Thanks for your reply, I'm definitely not looking for the massive coffee table books, more historical ones about people, teams, cars etc I would say.

All three that you mention fit the bill nicely, I'll take a look, all sound really interesting. I actually started trying to pick up good value second hand books for a couple of quid but I seem to have blown that with the Hawthorn book.

I'm currently looking at a first edition The Enzo Ferrari Memoirs "My Terrible Joys" 1963 but at £150 I'm going against the original idea of a few quid.

[williamp]

Hawthorn's book "my championship year" is good, and finished days ebfore he died, so published after his death
There are some interesting book about ore war racing- a few on B Bira written by his cousin

Racing with david brown aston martins vol 1 and 2 are the definitive volumes for 50s aston racing
PORSCHE: excelence was expected is probably the definitive book for porsche
Ferrari by hans tanner the same for ferrari
That certain sound by john wyer covers 50s aston racing and 60s/early 70s racing with Gulf Gt40/ porsche 917

[peterg1955]

Not sure if you want more about the cars or the drivers/designers but, amongst many others, I have hardback copies of :

Reid Railton / Man of Speed by Karl Ludvigsen - though this will hurt your budget
The Perfect Car (biography of John Barnard)
How to build a car - Adrian Newey
Racing in the Rain - John Horsman
Touch Wood - Duncan Hamilton
Mon Ami Mate - Chris Nixon
My Racing Life - Derek Bell
McLaren Memories - Eoin Young
Hobbo / Motor Racer, motor mouth - Autobiography of David Hobbs
Vic Elford - Reflections on a golden era of motorsports
Brian Redman / Daring Drivers, deadly tracks
All Arms and Elbows - Innes Ireland
Jenks / A passion for motorsport

I blame my parents, when I was 8 they bought me 'The racing car explained' by Laurence Pomeroy (12s/6d in 1963)
and ever since then I have been adding to the bookshelves whenever I see something about racing cars or their drivers...

[Riley Blue]

A few for consideration:

The History of Brooklands Motor Course - William Boddy
The BMW Story, a company in its Time - Horst Monnich
Rallying to Monte Carlo - Mike Couper
Motor Racing and Record Breaking - G.E.T. Eyson & Barrie Lyndon
Atalanta, women as racing drivers - S.C.H. Davis
Motor Racing - S.C.H. Davis
Split Seconds - Raymond Mays
The Le Mans Story - Georges Fraichard
Seven Year Twitch - Marcus Chambers
British Sports Cars - Gregor Grant

[Langweilig]

Muzzman said:

I'm having a lot of work done on the house and part of the work gives me a decent size study/ guest room.

This might be a bit of a naff idea but I've always fancied a study with lots of motor racing hard back books.

I've started building up a collection and to be honest really enjoying reading them.

Examples being:

1st Edition Mike Hawthorn, Challenge me the race.
1st Edition Jackie Stewart: Faster
Sam Posey: Where the writer meets the road.
Nigel Roebuck: Chasing the Title
Phil Hill: Driving Life
Christopher Hilton: Ayrton Senna
Mark Donohue: Unfair Advantage

Has anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks

Edited by Muzzman on Saturday 24th April 19:26

Richard Burns - Rallying's Would-Be King by David Williams - Haynes Publishing.

or Richard Burns' autobiography - A Driving Ambition.

[NuvolAscaRina]

You mentioned a rather pricey book on Enzo , I have read a biography on the great man called Enzo Ferrari by Richard Williams ,

hardback book , an excellent read , a piece on all of his works drivers , Ascari , Tazio , etc and their unfortunate demises .

Available for £5 on Music Magpie .

[coppice]

Some good choices - I'd add -

Speed with Style _Peter Revson
Piers Courage - Adam Cooper
Richard Williams ' books on Moss and Seaman
Damon Hill's autobiography
Not racing , but the anthology of David E Davis's articles is wonderful (Thus Spake David E)

(If you go on speedreaders.info you can see my detailed reviews of the last 4 titles, and many others I've done for them )

[DeejRC]

Has to be Mon Ami Mate as the no 1 addition.
Innes Ireland is another to get hold of.
Duncan Hamilton, the same. Those two have more high jinks stories than most of the rest put together!

When I’m back up north, I’ll see what’s fully in the family library, it’s yrs since I’ve reviewed it.

[GliderRider]

'On the Starting Grid' by Paul Frère. I read it in the school library over 40 years ago, but it stuck in my memory as a great read. Frère raced and won the Le Mans 24 Hours on 1960.