Desert Island Books

As an avid collector of motor racing books, I would like to start a new thread - Desert Island Books.
Only recently introduced to Atlas F1, I hope long term TNF'ers will forgive me if this has been done before.
Using BBC Radio 4's format for Desert Island Discs, (but sadly the fragrant Sue Lawley is not present to massage your ego), imagine you're about to be stranded a desert island - which 10 motor sport books would you choose to have with you?
To start the ball rolling, here is my personal choice. Please note books published in more than 1 volume count as 1 choice but runs of Autocourse, Automobile Year etc. do not! My thread - my rules, right?

Grand Prix Car L Pomeroy (2 vols)
Autocourse History of Grand Prix Car D Nye ( 2 vols)
Power & Glory History of GP Racing W Court (2 vols)
BRM "saga" D Nye (2 vols - soon to be 3?)
Racing the Silver Arrows C Nixon
A Passion for Motor Sport D Jenkinson
It Was Fun T Rudd
Autocourse Driver Profile: Jim Clark D Nye
Jack Brabham Story Brabham & Nye
Cooper Cars D Nye

This D Nye chap features well, doesn't he?

Roger Ellis

The older I get the faster I used to be.

Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport - Georgano
Dictionnaire Marabout des Voitures de Sport - Tragatsch
Braunbeck's Sport-Lexikon
Racing the Silver Arrows - Nixon
Shooting Star - Nixon
Auto Union Album - Nixon
Nuvolari - Lurani
Ten Years of Motoring & Motor Racing - Jarrott
Checkered Flag - Helck
Brockbank's Grand Prix

(Ask me tomorrow and it would be different!)

Only 10...

Cooper Cars - Doug Nye
Power & Glory - Wm Court
History of the Indianapolis 500 - Jack C Fox
American Zoom - Peter Golenbock
Georgano
Grand Prix 1906-14 - TASO Mathieson
Fabulous Fifties - Dick Wallen
Time & Two Seats - Wimpffen
Mon Ami Mate - Chris Nixon
History of NASCAR - Greg Fielden

Obviously I'd like all of the Sheldon black books, but if I can only take one, let's make it Volume 2...the Dark Ages.

Originally posted by ensign14
Only 10...

Cooper Cars - Doug Nye
Power & Glory - Wm Court
History of the Indianapolis 500 - Jack C Fox
American Zoom - Peter Golenbock
Georgano
Grand Prix 1906-14 - TASO Mathieson
Fabulous Fifties - Dick Wallen
Time & Two Seats - Wimpffen
Mon Ami Mate - Chris Nixon
History of NASCAR - Greg Fielden

Obviously I'd like all of the Sheldon black books, but if I can only take one, let's make it Volume 2...the Dark Ages.

You're a bit quiet at the moment Ens, anything on your mind ...

All but My Liife - Moss/Purdy

Touch Wood! - Hamilton

Mon Ami Mate- Nixon

Road Star Hat Trick - Chula

All Arms & Elbows - Ireland

The Certain Sound - Wyer

The Racing Driver - Jenkinson

Alf Francis: Racing Mechanic - Francis/Lewis

Jim Clark at the Wheel - Clark/Gauld

Grand Prix greats - Roebuck

I could go on...

I am assuming that instead of the Bible and Shakespeare, we're all allowed Higham's "International Motor Racing Guide" and the Georgano/Bochroch et al "Encyclopedia of Motor Sport". If you think keeping it down to 50 was tough, keeping it down to 10 was near-impossible.;)

So - my ten (today, anyway) would be:

BRM (2+eventually 2 more vols) - DCN
Four Guys and a Telephone - Mike Lawrence
Porsche: Excellence was Expected (3 vols) - Karl Ludvigsen
Time and Two Seats (2 vols) - Janos Wimpffen
Autocourse History of the Grand Prix Car (2 vols) - DCN
Power and Glory (2 vols) - Court
Jenks: A Passion For Motor Sport - DSJ
The Certain Sound - John Wyer
Cooper Cars - DCN
Mon Ami Mate - Chris Nixon

My "luxury" would of course be a complete set of Autocourses.

"Close but no cigar" -- the next 40. I'm afraid some brilliant picture books end up in this side because I want words with me ;)

The Last Open Road series (3+ ongoing) - Burt Levy
A-Z of Formula Racing Cars - Hodges
Portraits of the 60s - Schlegelmilch
Open Roads and Front Engines - Wimpffen
Automobile Year book of sports car racing - DSJ
Motor Racing Mavericks - DCN
Quicksilver Century - Karl Ludvigsen
Can-Am - Pete Lyons
Kings of the Nurburgring - Chris Nixon
Only Here For The Beer - Marshall/Walton
Ferrari - Tanner/DCN
The Racing Driver - DSJ
A Story of Formula One - DSJ
Team Lotus - The Indianapolis Years - Ferguson
Chevron: The Derek Bennett Story - David Gordon
Pace Motor Racing Directory - Kettlewell
The Best Damn Garage In Town (3 vols) - Smokey Yunick
Sports Car Heaven - Chris Nixon
Land Speed Record - Brooklands books compilation
Le Mans - Brooklands books compilation
The Grand Prix Car - Pomeroy/Setright
Brooklands - The Complete Motor Racing History - WB.
All Arms And Elbows - Ireland
Life at the Limit - Hill
The Speed Merchants - Keyser
The Golden Age of the American Racing Car - Borgeson
My Cars, My Career - Moss/DCN
Archie and the Listers - Edwards
Villeneuve - Donaldson
James Hunt - Donaldson
Racing the Silver Arrows - Nixon
Mario Andretti: A Driving Passion - Kirby
Colin Chapman: The Man and his Cars - Crombac
Jaguar: Sports Racing and Works Competition Cars (2 vols) - Whyte
Motor Racing Mavericks - DCN
The Legends Of Motor Sport - Friedman
Grand Prix! (4 vols) - Lang
Offenhauser - White
Uphill Racers - Mason
How To Go Saloon Car Racing - Brittan

I would need a house just to hold some of the books I would like with me !! Never mind the DVD's and VHS tapes !!

..... but here are some you may have forgotten.

Grand Prix Year and Jupiter's Travels both by Ted Simon

Forza Amon by Eoin Young

The Cruel Sport by Daley

Sideways to Sydney by Innes Ireland

..... and remember those DVD's .....

Grand Prix, Le Mans, Faster !!!

Originally posted by petefenelon
I am assuming that instead of the Bible and Shakespeare, we're all allowed Higham's "International Motor Racing Guide" and the Georgano/Bochroch et al "Encyclopedia of Motor Sport".

If that's the case add the 2 volume Le Mans history whose name keeps escaping me, the one with pix of all the cars. Something to look at. Or the first Jordan book by Maurice Hamilton which is a great read.

The problem with the original premise is that if I were on a desert island I should be going for the text-heavy books, generally, to keep occupied, or the stat-heavy ones (with the exception of Mathieson which is just pornography to the historically minded, gorgeous glass plates of Nagants and Calthorpes and all the other forgotten guys).

So no "Death of Ayrton Senna" by Richard Williams or "Four Guys And A Telephone" by Dr Mike Lawrence or "All Arms And Elbows" by Innes Ireland or "Touch Wood" or either of the Mike Hawthorn biogs cos having read them a few times they're all fairly familiar. If I were on a desert island memorizing every Indy 500 field or NASCAR competitors should be a temporally expensive pastimee.

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
You're a bit quiet at the moment Ens, anything on your mind ...

Chronically busy...I had to move heaven & earth to get to a cup tie this week...

Originally posted by ensign14
I had to move heaven & earth to get to a cup tie this week...

Well, that was a waste ....

But OTOH when did a City game last produce seven goals?

Originally posted by Vitesse2
But OTOH when did a City game last produce seven goals?

Allegedly when Newcastle once lost 6-1 the local pink had a headline "TOON IN SEVEN GOAL THRILLER"...

We lost 5-3 at Boro 2 years ago. That was the last one.

I'd recommend all except Mon Ami Mate to compulsive copy-correctors; if you start with that one, you'll never get to the others...

Think most of mine have been mentioned already! Donaldson's books on Villeneuve and Hunt in particular.

I'd add George Monkhouse's 'Motor Racing with Mercedes-Benz' and Adam Cooper's 'Piers Courage: Last of the Gentleman Racers.'

I'm afraid I wouldn't include 'Four Guys and a Telephone' - I know Mr Lawrence resides around these parts, but I found that his James Joyce attitude to grammar made it almost unreadable. I gave up about two-thirds of the way through, but I'm clearly in the minority with that one!

Still making up my mind

Originally posted by James Page
I'm afraid I wouldn't include 'Four Guys and a Telephone' - I know Mr Lawrence resides around these parts, but I found that his James Joyce attitude to grammar made it almost unreadable. I gave up about two-thirds of the way through, but I'm clearly in the minority with that one!

Really

Ever read any J P Donleavy, James?

Originally posted by James Page
Think most of mine have been mentioned already! Donaldson's books on Villeneuve and Hunt in particular.

I'd add George Monkhouse's 'Motor Racing with Mercedes-Benz' and Adam Cooper's 'Piers Courage: Last of the Gentleman Racers.'

I'm afraid I wouldn't include 'Four Guys and a Telephone' - I know Mr Lawrence resides around these parts, but I found that his James Joyce attitude to grammar made it almost unreadable. I gave up about two-thirds of the way through, but I'm clearly in the minority with that one!

Mike's punctuation is certainly distinctive; he scatters commas around rather more liberally than most, but he's the one with the PhD in English Literature so I suppose we "mere mortals" should cut him some slack on that front.

Along with Chris Nixon's 'Racing the Silver Arrows', what about 'Rosemeyer' by Chris Nixon/Elli Beinhorn? One of the best biogs I've ever read, really captures the spirit of the age, and so non-technical that even my wife enjoyed it. I'd also list 'Ferrari' by Richard Williams, 'Nuvolari' by Christopher Hilton. Pete Lyons' 'Can Am' and DSJ's 'Passion for Motorsport' have already been mentioned, but I'd also take 'Fighter Boys' by Patrick Bishop. That one is about the Battle of Britain, but I'm listing it because it's a great book with a lot of the 'Bentley Boys' spirit about it, mustn't be too narrow-minded must we? And I've still got three left. Maybe 'The Schlumpf Obsession' by Dennis Jenkinson & Peter Verstappen for one of those.

My ten would look like this-

A Record of Motor Racing - 1893-1904; Gerald Rose
Power and Glory; William Court
The Grand Prix Car; Pomeroy(as much for the drawings as anything else)
The Miller Dynasty; Mark L. Dees
BRM; Rudd & Nye
Time and Two Seats; Wimpffen
Front Engines and Open Roads; Wimpffen
The Cobra-Ferrari Wars; Schoen
Fiat Otto Vu; Adriaensens
Ferrari 250GTO; Bluemel & Pourret

Geez- I didn't even get any Bugatti books in there. Oh, well, you said only ten.
Anton

d'ya mind if I smash the rules a bit, I'd just like a nice internet connection to the TNF forum, I'd never get bored...ever....ever....ever...ever....ever.....

see!!!

Last question I was asked at a job interview about three years ago was 'which 3 books would I take to my desert island?'. Answer I gave was Time and Two Seats, The Certain Sound and Cobra Ferrari Wars. Poor chap who asked the question hadn't got a clue what I was talking about so I had to explain. I didn't get the job. Probably thought I wasn't well-rounded enough (too much on sports cars, not enough single seaters).

First choice has to be The Official 50-race History of the Australian Grand Prix... I can read and re-read that for ages, it covers so many different eras, there's always something new.

Then I'd have to say that John Medley's Bathurst - Cradle of Australian Motor Racing would give me near equal pleasure. Again, covering such a long period, so many people, so many cars. Both of these books have a bundle of reading in them to pass the time.

On the island nobody would see me, so I'd probably include one of the Tuckey/Floyd/Bergie Armstrong 500/Hardie Ferodo 1000 things. The forty years of the 1960 to 1999 one has enough writing in it to keep one involved.

And then there's the Chevron (minor) companion to the AGP book, the Australian Touring Car Championship book. That should give some good reading time too.

But in between I'd undoubtedly read and re-read The Design and Behaviour of the Racing Car (Moss/Pomeroy) and the Peter Helck book covering the early US scene (can't think of its name), so that's five.

Grand Prix Racing Facts and Figures has a lot in it to absorb, even if we're told it's out of date, so I'd have that too. And I recall that the Jack Brabham book that was released in the seventies wasn't too bad.

But a must for any desert island would have to be A Boot Full of Right Arms! Evan Green's finest hour, surely?

Add to that some new blood... Mike Argetsinger's new book on Walt Hansgen and the US road racing growth period from the forties to the sixties.

Something about the thirties would complete my list...

Mine (Several have already been mentioned) in no particular order...

The Story so Far - Pat Moss

Mon Ami Mate - Nixon

Alf Francis - Peter Lewis

Champion Year - M Hawthorn

The Vanishing Litres - Rex Hays

Omnibus of Speed - Beaumont/Nolan

Climax in Coventry - W Hassan

The Rise and Decline of the British Motor Industry - Roy Church

It Was Fun - Rudd

Best Damn Garage in Town - Smokey Yunick

Most are pretty well known, I think. Yunick's book suffers from horrific (or no) editing and lots of repetition but I liked it.

Good topic - I saw several books I didn't know existed that are now critical requirements.

They would have to include A Boot Full of Right Arms... I can't speak highly enough about this record of the 1974 London to Munich event. Fantastic book, insights you would never expect.

By the same token, I'm sure I should have included the Alf Francis book in my list...

A Racing Motorist (Davis, S.C.H) – bedtime reading

Complete History of Grand Prix Racing (Cimarosti, A) – for the rainy days

Cooper Cars (Nye, D) - have been threatening to read this book from beginning to end, but still have not find to time…

Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport (Georgano, G) – for more rainy days!

Gilles Villeneuve (Donaldson, G) – one of the best racing driver biographies

Power and the Glory (Court, W) – when I need a scholastic lesson in motorsport. heavy reading…

Racing with the David Brown Aston Martins (Wyer, J / Nixon, C)

…and the following three to remind me of home.

Springbok Grand Prix (Young, R)
Springbok Series (Mills, G)
Sun on the Grid (Stewart/Reich)

Ironically, here I am sitting in the desert (not on an island, however) having faced this problem.....

No doubt you'll have Mike's new book pretty soon?

That should take away some of the pain...

This is an impossible task. I can just imagine myself saying "oh, I wish I'd brought that one too" at fairly frequent intervals. There are a few that would be essential whatever happened:

Georgano

Donaldson's James Hunt biography

Chevron: The Derek Bennett Story

My Cars, My Career

The copy of Motoring News that reported David Morgan's F2 win at Mallory

I would, of course, be equipped with a mobile phone with never ending credit and a presumably solar-powered charger so that I could arrange helicopter drops of other books when I fancied a change.

Perhaps there's an alternative way of looking at this kind of thing and listing the books you would hate to be stuffed up with if stranded on a desert island. No 1 - "Grand Prix Carpetbagger" by John Bentley.

Originally posted by ian senior

Perhaps there's an alternative way of looking at this kind of thing and listing the books you would hate to be stuffed up with if stranded on a desert island. No 1 - "Grand Prix Carpetbagger" by John Bentley.

Ronnie Mutch is a leader in this category...Alan Henry's book on the GP drivers looks as if it had been knocked off in a spare hour...no insight or new knowledge...Steve Small showed how it should have been done.

If I limit myself to just the books I own, rather than a free choice of any and all, then in no particular order:

1) Tipo 33; Ed McDonough, Peter Collins

2) Piers Courage; Adam Cooper

3) Scarlet Passion; Anthony Pritchard

4) Sportscar Heaven; Chris Nixon

5) McLaren Memories; Eoin Young

6) A Passion for Porsches; DSJ

7) Lotus 72; Michael Oliver (assuming it arrives before I get banished to the island...)

8) Porsche 917; Peter Morgan

9) Kings of the Nurburgring; Chris Nixon

10) Ayrton Senna: The Hard Edge of Genuis (1st edition, not the expanded reprint); Chris Hilton


That lot would keep me happy for a while. Tipo 33 and Kings of the Nurburgring are waiting to be read, Lotus 72 is on it's way to me, and I'm currently halfway through Piers Courage. The rest are all ones I've read at least once and love. Even the Hilton book


Now a top ten of *any* books might look slightly different.

If the Murray Walker autobiography arrived on the island, I'd be going for a swim.

Originally posted by ian senior

Perhaps there's an alternative way of looking at this kind of thing and listing the books you would hate to be stuffed up with if stranded on a desert island. No 1 - "Grand Prix Carpetbagger" by John Bentley.

I don't actually own the legendary Ronnie Mutch book so I'll confine it to things I've read.

"Michael Schumacher: The Quest For Redemption" - James Allen (as sniffpetrol say - stop the cock - a hagiographic piece of crap!)
"Nigel Mansell: My Autobiography" - Nigel Mansell and James Allen (the arch-whinger and the arch-hyperbolist create a work of tedious fiction).
"The Life of Senna" - Tom Rubython (need I say more).
"The Formula One Young Guns" - Nick Garton (an attempt to make a bunch of Formula Pushy Dad no-marks look "interesting")
"The Power Brokers" - Alan Henry (a book that covers the same ground as The Pirhana Club but manages to be worse)
"Jenson Button: The Unauthorised Biography" - Alan Henry (a writer who seems to have totally "lost it" in the last decade or so)
"Eddie Jordan: The Biography" - Tim Collings (zero insight, zero interest)
"Strictly Off The Record" - Louis Stanley (mawkish, grotesque, florid...)
"Beyond the Limit" - Sid Watkins (a real disappointment after Sid's first book - felt like someone had pasted together whatever files the Prof had left lying round)

But in no. 1 is - Anything on contemporary F1 by Christopher Hilton, with possible the exception of "The Hard Edge of Genius". I'll single out his zero-involvement biographies and paste-up jobs like "Inside the Mind of the Grand Prix Driver" for particular opprobrium. The galling thing is that Hilton can write, when he chooses to - some of his historic books are rather good.


Fortunately I own none of these.

Originally posted by kayemod
[B but I'd also take 'Fighter Boys' by Patrick Bishop. That one is about the Battle of Britain, but I'm listing it because it's a great book with a lot of the 'Bentley Boys' spirit about it, mustn't be too narrow-minded must we? [/B]

I know aviation and especially WW2 military aviation is a popular topic here so I'll put in a word for the "uncensored" edition of Guy Gibson's Enemy Coast Ahead - it's a fantastic read, covering Gibson's war from 1939 to the return from the Dams raid in blunt, unvarnished terms and pointing out some of the horrific shortcomings of early British bombing.

http://www.amazon.co...ASIN/0859791181

The galling thing is that Hilton can write, when he chooses to - some of his historic books are rather good.

I've read one or two crap Christopher Hilton books, but I thought his Nuvolari was good, probably just about the best thing he's done, and more insightful in some ways than Lurani's book on The Man. I put Hilton's Nuvolari on my list.

Fighter pilot autobiographies have a relatively new book at the peak of the pyramid so far as I am concerned. If you haven't yet read 'First Light' by Geoffrey Wellum, then order it right now.

I find it one of the most penetrating, unforgettable, atmospheric, un-put-downable biogs I have ever read. So HUGELY recommended.

As father of a pilot maybe I'm biased, but the training experiences - with the inevitable balls-up - all ring utterly true. Wellum went from novice kid through the Battle of Britain and its aftermath, bomber escorts, to the Malta convoys and defence of the island, before his body (and mind) cried enough. His emergent detestation of war itself is compelling...as is the sheer aesthetic joy of flight...

'First Light' - Geoffrey Wellum - I cannot believe you would not be as entranced by it as I have been - you might even forget to signal that passing cruise liner...

DCN

When you have to deal with "desert island books" with a heavy dose of practicality, such as what fits in a rucksack or within the limited baggage you can drag around with you -- if it doesn't fit you must omit -- it becomes an entirely different matter. In one way I cheated and brought with me a CD with many of the more notable works of literature with me -- such as some of the works of Dickens, Thackery, Hawthorne, Clemens/Twain, and others. What I did have sent to me were my Hornblower books by C.S. Forester. Plus, I brought along a few of my "Putnam" aviation books (even if they are really under the imprint of the Smithsonian). Gary Doyle's book on Ralph De Palma is my only motor sports book currently here with me in the desert. It is interesting what flotsom and jetsom shows up here: I just read "The Making of the President 1972" by Teddy White (the paperbook is in mint condition!), along with "From Here to Eternity" by James Jones, and "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren among others. Mike Argetsinger's book on Walt Hansgen is on its way here, so that will be a second racing book.

Where I free to actually select my "desert island books" without any restrictions, I am not what I would select any more. Several of Doug's books would be seriously considered (the Cooper book would be a definite pick) and chosen as would the Dick Wallen tomes on the board tracks and the fifties and sixties. Then it gets really difficult.... how do you choose between Robert Dick's wonderful book on Mercedes, Karl's books, Chris Nixon's books, and so forth and so on? The Hilton book on Nuvolari would probably make the list, if only to read what he recorded of our conversation on Tripoli. If there is one book that I wish were available to select, it would be the book on the National Championship that Phil never quite got around to writing.... or that Russ Catlin never finished.

In the end, I decided to just leave them in my library since one never knows what might happen over here.

As Paul Simon reminds us, "Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." Interestingly enough, he is correct since I am always surprised how many books I can literally "see" the pages of whenever I think about them.....

Originally posted by kayemod
I'd also take 'Fighter Boys' by Patrick Bishop. That one is about the Battle of Britain, but I'm listing it because it's a great book with a lot of the 'Bentley Boys' spirit about it, mustn't be too narrow-minded must we?

Given there's a great bit in 'Fighter Boys' about some pilots taking motorbikes around Le Mans as they retreated through France it almost qualifies as a motor racing book!

Originally posted by petefenelon




Fortunately I own none of these.

The worst racing book I actually own is vol. 2 of Leo Levine's Ford: The Dust And The Glory. the original book, or Volume 1 these days, is truly excellent, a really splendid overview of the people, cars, engines and races in Ford's first 70 years or so; Volume 2 is bitty, inconsequential, trivial, wrong (particularly with regard to the C100 project) and focussed almost entirely on "human interest" rather than taking a balanced view - it also marginalises everything but NASCAR. A really awful book. Fortunately I got both at a decent discount, so it's not too painful a memory.

I have no shortage of passion for the Sport;and I have read a good proportion of the titles endorsed...but ..sorry ....I would not take any one of them to the desert island.Few of them are worth a reread unless you need to remind yourself of facts . But I don't like that Gradgrind stuff- and too few motorsport authors describe how it was ,concentrating instead on recycling facts for the anally retentive.The tragedy is that both Bulgin and Setright are gone- they are pre-eminent so far as I am concerned.

My other passion is flyfishing- and there is not enough room to list how many great authors this sport has inspired.

Cat now rampaging amongst the pigeons...I'm off.

Originally posted by john aston
My other passion is flyfishing- and there is not enough room to list how many great authors this sport has inspired.

"I wonder if you could help me?"

1. Court's Grand Prix Requiem
2-3. DCN's Autocourse History of the Grand Prix Car, vols. 1 & 2
4. Borgeson's Golden Age of the American Racing Car
5. McCarthy's Flat Out, Flat Broke
6. Hallé's La mort dans mon contrat
7. Ferguson's Team Lotus: The Indy Years
8. Scalzo's Indy Roadsters: 1952-1964
9. Small's Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who
10. DCN's Cooper Cars

Originally posted by john aston
I have no shortage of passion for the Sport;and I have read a good proportion of the titles endorsed...but ..sorry ....I would not take any one of them to the desert island.Few of them are worth a reread unless you need to remind yourself of facts . But I don't like that Gradgrind stuff- and too few motorsport authors describe how it was ,concentrating instead on recycling facts for the anally retentive.....

Check the first two I listed...

Mine's always changing some too, but tonight:

Mon Ami Mate -- Nixon

Power and Glory -- Court
Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing -- Jarrott
Can Am -- Lyons
American Grand Prix Racing -- Considine
By Brooks Too Broad For Leaping -- McCluggage
Cooper Cars -- Nye
Challenge Me the Race -- Hawthorn
A Passion for Motor Sport -- Jenkinson
Alf Francis, Racing Mechanic -- Francis/Lewis

However, if I had to choose ten books from any one author, it would be Mike Lawrence.

(P.S. -- Great post, jph!)

Fabulous Fifties – Dick Wallen
Roar from the Sixties – Dick Wallen
Chasing the Title – Nigel Roebuck
Formula One The Cars and the Drivers – Nigel Roebuck / Michael Turner
Against Death and Time – Brock Yates
Indy The Race and Ritual of the Indianapolis 500 – Terry Reed
Indianapolis Roadsters 1952-64 – Joe Scalzo
Vukovich – Bob Gates
One of the Clymer Indy yearbooks – 1953 or 1964 perhaps
Motor Racing Circuits in England – Peter Swinger

And that’s leaving out so much great stuff

Somewhat unexpectedly, my list has nothing in common with anybody else's!

Tony Brooks' autobiography
Lola: the Broadley Years by Mike Lawrence
Maserati 250F, the Definitive History by Barrie Hobkirk and David McKinney (all three volumes)
Connaught by Doug Nye
Motor Sport in the 1940s by Allesandro Silva
Georgano's Encyclopedia of Motor Sport (2nd edition, updated by the members of TNF)
Small Capacity Italian Sports Cars of the 1940s and 50s by Stuart Schaller
The History of Auto-Union Racing Cars, by various members of TNF
Personal Photographs from Paddock, Track and Hills (various)
A History of European Hill Climbing by Hans Etzrodt
The Collected Entries of the Original 8W Competition
OldRacingCars.com in book form
Connew: A Racing history by Barry Boor
Lotus 16: A Study in Failure by David Beard
Anything by Pete Fennelon
Madness and How I Learned to Live With It by Roger Clark

Originally posted by Roger Clark
Somewhat unexpectedly, my list has nothing in common with anybody else's!

Tony Brooks' autobiography
Lola: the Broadley Years by Mike Lawrence
Maserati 250F, the Definitive History by Barrie Hobkirk and David McKinney (all three volumes)
Connaught by Doug Nye
Motor Sport in the 1940s by Allesandro Silva
Georgano's Encyclopedia of Motor Sport (2nd edition, updated by the members of TNF)
Small Capacity Italian Sports Cars of the 1940s and 50s by Stuart Schaller
The History of Auto-Union Racing Cars, by various members of TNF
Personal Photographs from Paddock, Track and Hills (various)
A History of European Hill Climbing by Hans Etzrodt
The Collected Entries of the Original 8W Competition
OldRacingCars.com in book form
Connew: A Racing history by Barry Boor
Lotus 16: A Study in Failure by David Beard
Anything by Pete Fennelon
Madness and How I Learned to Live With It by Roger Clark

I tried your list with Amazon Roger, but they couldn't trace any of these books, which was quite a surprise. The only slight ray of hope was on Connew's Racing History, they thought someone might be able to cobble together a slim volume by re-packaging all of Barry Bloor's TNF postings on the subject.

Sorry E.B. -- its a matter of taste of course but I personally cannot think of a more disappointing motorsports book over the last five years than Brock Yates's Against Death and Time; hastily thrown together, poorly edited, full of his cranky political commentary, whether it fit the period he was writing about or not, with both the lamest dialogue and the worst-written sex scene published in the last century. If I had this volume on a desert island I'd use it for kindling.

Seriously, I love the man, but I had to go back and quickly find and read a copy of Sunday Driver to wash that nonsense out of my mind and remind me why I liked him in the first place.


Oh, and at the risk of being accused of sucking up if I could only take one author to the island it would be Nye. Doug Nye.

"It Beats Working" Eoin Young

Originally posted by red stick

Oh, and at the risk of being accused of sucking up if I could only take one author to the island it would be Nye. Doug Nye.

All due respect to Doug but I think it'd have to be Nigella Lawson ;)

Originally posted by petefenelon
All due respect to Doug but I think it'd have to be Nigella Lawson ;)

But have you tasted Doug's cooking?

Originally posted by red stick
Oh, and at the risk of being accused of sucking up if I could only take one author to the island it would be Nye. Doug Nye.

Well, it's clearly too late for this but, no disrespect to Mr. Nye, or his cooking, and to ward off any untoward rumors, tabloid possibilities, inquiries from the Sun, etc., I meant to say "one author's books . . ."


The self-editing function isn't what it used to be.









And, frankly, never was.