Our favorite racing books/biographies

French, english and german

Just seen prices of those books from a shop!! £134!!!

Yes they're rare, hence the price. That is why I prefer to wait to find somebody on eBay not knowing the value of what he is selling. I got both books for 60€

Well done you got a bargain there!! That £134 was for each book. so you saved a fortune. Bet the person you bought them off would kick themselves if they knew the true value

Yep, and I said I got lucky because most of the time when these kind of deal appear on eBay, they're sold within the hour. In fact I have the eBay app on my phone, which warns me when new items I want are available, and could buy those while driving on the highway. Ah technology

Quote :

could buy those while driving on the highway

I guess you spend more on traffic fines than on books

As Formula 1 is a mystery to me in many regards I decided that I would actually learn something about it and so I picked up this book:



A good book on the subject for someone like me, my knowledge only goes for the '98 and '99 seasons of F1

Contains a Historcal overview, from the combustion engine to the early 2000's (doesn't contain anything newer than 2001)

It also contains the Technology: Regulations and Developments from the first F1 car to those in the 2000's

Contains some historic drivers were we get to read about their birth, their racing, and unfortunatly for many, their deaths:

J.M. Fangio
A. Ascari
J. Brabham
Graham and Damon Hill
S. Moss
J.Clark
J. Stewart
M. Andretti
N. Lauda
G. Villeneuve
N. Piquet
N. Mansell
A. Prost
M. Hakkinen
M. Schumacher
And A. Senna

Also the Teams that has taken part over all the years are in the book, from the first to the early 2000's

The rest of the book after that, about 90 pages in, the book is quite large so the pages are big , they bring up all tracks that F1 has visited, from the innagural season in the 50's to the 2001 one

All of this is accompanied with statistics for the drivers and teams to give you an idea of how successful or unseccessful they were/are while the tracks brings up good races, bad races and how the tracks has been altered over the years

All of this still, is accompanied with pictures, pictures and more pictures of cars, drivers and the tracks, such as the layout, battles on the track and other interesting things. 160 pages of reading for anyone wanting to learn a bit more of F1 if you don't know that much about it, like me

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

And now I have to finish reading this one :

You finished this book? Saw it on eBay for £15.00 and i wondered if that is a good price and if its worth getting??

Thanks

Yes I think I got it for that price as well.
It is an excellent book, mainly focused on the cars themselves, their conception, design, evolution ... rather than on their actual results. It is not a yearbook, describing each season race after race. It describes only the cars that raced in the IMSA series (GTP and Light classes), so no Sauber, Lancia, Aston Martin or Mazda for example. It is a bit technical, and overall it's more a book for the die-hard Group C/GTP fan than for the casual motorsport lover. But it's still filled with tons of pics and cool stories about the men and machines of that time.

Thanks for the response, Sounds like my sort of book, I personally enjoy more finding out about cars, drivers etc more than the results. Also love the IMSA Camel GTP series, I prefer them to the Group C cars, Purely because of the tracks, (Love street courses) and the fact the racing wasnt a 'economy run' as Derek Bell put it. Also love the cars, Loved the Nissan and the Eagle Toyota's, Think the Castrol Jaguar's looked better than the Silk Cut ones too.

Think its time to start suggesting birthday presents to the missus

Thanks again.

Any of you guys recommend so good Group C books (82-90 WEC/WSPC years) without paying a kings ransom.
Seen a few books on the 956 & 962 but don't know which would be better.

Thanks

One of my favourite books is the serie 'GRAND PRIX STORY' by the austrian writer/sportsjournalist/commentator Heinz Prüller.

As far as I know they have only been published in german and dutch (sadly). Last year I bought all dutch translations of the 1973-1987 span (after 1987 the dutch translations stopped due to the loss of the Zandvoort GP and therefore declining interest in Holland). Some but for sure the german speaking members here will know about these yearbooks. They give a perfect and detailed insight of the man behind the wheel. A rich ensemble of facts about what really happened behind the scenes   

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1988-IMSA-Camel-GT-Program-Yearbook-Media-Guide-Al-Holbert-Hurley-Haywood-/251417998572?pt=US_Racing_Fan_Shop&hash=item3a89ae34ec

Have any of you guys bought one of these or any other years? Tempted too but am a bit wary of buying if not that good as postage is very expensive and ive bought from America before through ebay and then my bank account got cleared.   

I bought all books from 1988 to 1993 on the ALMS website last year, 5$ each book. Postage was arond 50$ for all 6 books iirc, bit expensive but considering the price of the books...

These books are very superficial, no technical or team by team reviews, lots of advert... Here's what I posted when I got them.

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

I received the IMSA yearbooks yesterday and I was a bit disapointed to see they chose to give the same coverage to all the IMSA classes (GTP, Lights, GTO, GTU, American Challenge ...). You'd think the GTP/Lights classes would get the most coverage considering the cars, drivers and technologies who raced in them but all in all you have something like 30 pages about the prototypes amongst the 180 pages of the books (and lots of advert).

I would not recommend buying them at the price you got here on ebay.

Cheers for the heads up, Will be leaving well alone   

Did you get this one ? It's much better

Ordering before end of the week!   

Good boy
You'll see it's kind of a GTP version of the Bible   

Just ordered   Amazon £19.99   

Peter Blom wrote:

One of my favourite books is the serie 'GRAND PRIX STORY' by the austrian writer/sportsjournalist/commentator Heinz Prüller.

As far as I know they have only been published in german and dutch (sadly). Last year I bought all dutch translations of the 1973-1987 span (after 1987 the dutch translations stopped due to the loss of the Zandvoort GP and therefore declining interest in Holland). Some but for sure the german speaking members here will know about these yearbooks. They give a perfect and detailed insight of the man behind the wheel. A rich ensemble of facts about what really happened behind the scenes   

I do know them  

I've got '73 and '76. But seem to be quite expensive these days.

Prüller as insider and journalist is good, but his commentating was strange at times...

I love to read about engines so 2 yrs ago I bought this beauty   

Another book I've read,



A long book, but a very good read

Patiently waiting for my IMSA book to arrive   

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

Good boy
You'll see it's kind of a GTP version of the Bible   

Was dispatched yesterday, Best be worth the wait!   

Started a book about the Sauber Mercedes C9 by Ian Bamsey, Very detailed and informative so far   

when that book will reach Richard he will probably reach 'ultimate heights'   

    

nah books are great, expecially quality ones   

Just want to say Gui, What a great book! Only read 2 chapters (About Lola and March) And its been so insightful and informative, So many great pictures too!

I recommend to anyone, if you like IMSA GTP cars, This is a great book to buy. You won't regret it.