Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Book review

Started by uwe_sautter , Jun 07 2004 12:45

Please log in to reply

15 replies to this topic

#1 uwe_sautter

Member

107 posts
Joined: March 03

Posted 07 June 2004 - 12:45

Hi guys,
can anybody give me a short review about the following book:
Motor Racing: The Golden Age by John Tennant
Is it recommend to buy it, pics in colour or only in b&w?

Back to top

#2 Vitesse2

Administrator

41,865 posts
Joined: April 01

Posted 07 June 2004 - 14:31

Haven't seen it yet, but the review in Classic & Sports Car is mainly positive, calling it "simply beathtaking" and "beautifully reproduced". Pictures mainly from the Hulton Getty archive, so probably almost all B&W, although apparently "some" are unfamiliar images. There's also a caveat that the captions are "sparing" (short) and in some cases inaccurate. "Essential" and "absorbing", according to the reviewer.

Back to top

#3 KJJ

Member

702 posts
Joined: February 02

Posted 07 June 2004 - 16:31

I've had a quick browse in the bookshops and I would say that the photographs are outstanding as photographs. Any one who was interested in photography would want this book just for the quality of the images. Whether motor sports fans would praise it to the same extent, I don't know, I'm not qualified to comment on the accuracy of the captions or the relevance of the image selection. I am certainly going to buy this book even though I could find nothing about Innes Ireland which is my usual reason for making a purchase.

Back to top

#4 petefenelon

Member

4,815 posts
Joined: August 02

Posted 07 June 2004 - 16:58

The cricket and football volumes in the same series are excellent, if you happen to like that sort of thing (I like cricket. Can't abide football.....) - a good mix of epoch-making scenes and quirky pictures that illustrate the nature of the sport.

Back to top

#5 ensign14

Member

61,995 posts
Joined: December 01

Posted 07 June 2004 - 17:08

If you're in Britain, it was dirt cheap on bol (60% off).

It's a big glossy book, all in black & white, no photos after about 1967. You can have some fun correcting the captions which are in many respects off - not necessarily inaccurate, but miss out the whole story or something of note related to the pic.

However, the photo selection is wonderfully obscure. There are the usual suspects of action shots of the well known, but also some fairly random shots backstage at Brooklands or at one of the ice GPs or a number of others of some forgotten drivers. This adds to the charm; I'd rather read F1 Rejects than yet another hagiography of Senna. They were a part of motorsport as well.

And one shot from Monaco in the 40s in particular - it looks as if someone (think it's Giraud-Cabantous) is yelling at Count Troubetskoy to get out of the way...

For £12 you can't really go wrong. Even if you're fed up it makes an expensive looking prezzie for someone just getting into racing.

Back to top

#6 Vitesse2

Administrator

41,865 posts
Joined: April 01

Posted 07 June 2004 - 20:57

Well, you've sold it to me ... :lol:

Back to top

#7 uwe_sautter

Member

107 posts
Joined: March 03

Posted 08 June 2004 - 06:58

Thanks guys for your help.

Back to top

#8 karlcars

Member

660 posts
Joined: February 00

Posted 13 June 2004 - 20:33

It's quite an outstanding book for anyone interested in racing. John did a super job.

Although Hulton Getty get the headlines, you'll see that a lot of the photos came from the Ludvigsen Library. :blush:

John was very pleased with what he found on his visit here.

The back cover is our photo, and the last photo in the book, of Jackie Stewart, was taken by :blush:

yours truly.

Back to top

#9 Vitesse2

Administrator

41,865 posts
Joined: April 01

Posted 15 June 2004 - 11:13

I can only endorse what Karl has said. It is an excellent selection of pictures, beautifully reproduced, with a pleasant surprise every time you turn the page! I'm about half way through it at the moment - where could you go from a wonderfully detailed action shot from the top of the banking at AVUS in 1959? Turn over and you're taken back 52 years to Prince Borghese's Itala being horse-hauled in China! Then two rocket cars .... Clark and Chapman .... Fangio telling Gonzalez to slow down ..... headlight trails on the 1966 Monte .... Napier-Railton .... Indy 1964 .... Monza 1953 .... Saltburn Sands 1922 .... Farina .... Gill Scott in her Leyland-Thomas.....

As ensign14 pointed out, the captions are - at times - too sparse, but OTOH almost every picture screams: "Look at me! Find out what's happening!" I know I shall .... :up:

Back to top

#10 stylus

Member

504 posts
Joined: March 04

Posted 21 July 2004 - 15:42

The Times (of London) Magazine* had an article on it with several stunning photos, amongst which was a small shot of the racetrack on top of Fiat's Turin factory... :eek:

I've not seen anything so crazy! Was it really used? Does it still exist? And just how much of a drop was it? :drunk:

*(Sat 12 June 2004)

Back to top

#11 petefenelon

Member

4,815 posts
Joined: August 02

Posted 21 July 2004 - 16:55

Originally posted by stylus
The Times (of London) Magazine* had an article on it with several stunning photos, amongst which was a small shot of the racetrack on top of Fiat's Turin factory...

I've not seen anything so crazy! Was it really used? Does it still exist? And just how much of a drop was it?

*(Sat 12 June 2004)

There's footage of the test track in use in the old BBC series "The Power and The Glory" (not to be mistaken for the William Court book). In fact I really must exhume my tape of it and watch again... haven't seen it for years!

Back to top

#12 mat1

Member

351 posts
Joined: April 00

Posted 21 July 2004 - 17:12

Originally posted by stylus
The Times (of London) Magazine* had an article on it with several stunning photos, amongst which was a small shot of the racetrack on top of Fiat's Turin factory...

I've not seen anything so crazy! Was it really used? Does it still exist? And just how much of a drop was it?

*(Sat 12 June 2004)

it was really used, yes. I believe the design of the factory was such that the cars were assembled on a assembly line which led to the track on the roof. And there they were tested.

I am not sure how long this really worked.

BTW, this building seems to be a museum nowadays. Never been there though.

mat1

Back to top

#13 dretceterini

Member

2,991 posts
Joined: May 02

Posted 21 July 2004 - 17:39

The track on top of FIAT was a testing facility, and no a racetrack

Back to top

#14 dolomite

Member

1,184 posts
Joined: March 01

Posted 21 July 2004 - 17:42

Try watching the Italian Job (the original version)!

Back to top

#15 stylus

Member

504 posts
Joined: March 04

Posted 21 July 2004 - 21:35

Thanks! A little more research :blush:

would have led me to something like
http://www.racingcir...otto/track.html

Quoted from racingcircuits.net
(info by Eelco Wind & Arbam de Boer)
Type: Test Track
Length: 0.621 Miles // 1.000 km

The FIAT factory in Turin was designed in 1917 by the architect Giacomo Mattè Trucco. The Lingotto building was opened on the 22nd of May 1923, featuring five floors of workshops covering a width of 80 meters. A 1 kilometer test track with a width of 15 meters was built on the roof of the building. The factory was closed on the 21st of February 1982, with the building later been redeveloped as the Le Meridien Lingotto hotel and conference centre.

It seems it's now a jogging track

I'd still love to know how high it was or if there are any accounts of what it was like to drive around it. The photo from the book made it look more dramatic than these http://www.racingcir.../Lingotto14.JPG and http://www2.polito.i...to/i3111-03.jpg

and then i'll watch the italian job...i've heard it's got this car chase with mini coopers in it :love:

;)

Back to top

#16 Allan Lupton

Member

4,052 posts
Joined: March 06

Posted 05 November 2006 - 12:24

Originally posted by karlcars
It's quite an outstanding book for anyone interested in racing. John did a super job.

Although Hulton Getty get the headlines, you'll see that a lot of the photos came from the Ludvigsen Library. John was very pleased with what he found on his visit here.

The back cover is our photo, and the last photo in the book, of Jackie Stewart, was taken by yours truly.

Just found this thread as I have found the book. Before I allowed it to be put away for Christmas :mad:

I have the impression that a list of corrections/amendments/additions to the captions is called for. Has anyone done that yet?
e.g. there are a lot of "photographer unknown" pictures correctly identified as being of Kitty Brunell, which were taken by Bill Brunell, her father.
It puts me in mind of "the Golden Age of British Motoring" of 1995 which had Brunell's photos and captions by Roy Bacon. A group of four VSCC members compiled two pages of corrections (50+ items) for that book.