OK. It was a cliche-ridden lightweight but to a teenaged racing fan in 1960 this story had a lot of appeal. It centred on a motley crew who raced in second tier formula one events around Europe.
The hero was twice-flawed so unlikely to ever make it to the top. Firstly he was American and as we all knew, Americans just couldn't cut the mustard in European racing. Something in the genes.
And secondly, being six feet tall suited him admirably as the hero of a novel but not as the compleat racing driver.
'Geoffrey', the quintessential Englishman, had a triangular head, the better to accommodate his excessive grey cells. He designed, built and entered his little team of green racers but unlike Geoffrey Taylor, he also piloted one.
Geoffrey's wife was endowed with great beauty and was friendly with it which caused lust, angst and intrigue within the group.
Our hero was joined by a compatriot, 'Charlie', who landed a drive in a Gordini but at a mountainous circuit a child ran onto the road in front of him. Charlie's swift evasive action still had fatal consequences, "the sun glinting on the little blue car as it end-for-ended into the abyss..."
The young Italian, Massimo, was the coming man. He drove in a team of obsolete Italian cars [Centro Sud?] but was widely tipped to be moving
up to Ferrari and the big-time next year.
Unfortunately Massimo suffered from consumption, a condition which caused his untimely end behind the wheel before his potential was realised.
That's as I remember it anyway. I loaned my copy to a friend back then and never saw it again.
Does anyone know the title or author?
. 'Nürburgring' is constantly rendered without the definite article, which may or may not be accurate but is definitely jarring! On the whole its not a bad Bond novel, but obviously that's a discussion for a whole other forum.
