Racing Reviews

In my quest for knowledge relevant to designing, building and driving a light-weight, high-performance sportscar, I have bought and borrowed numerous books, magazines, plans and workshop-manuals.
This book has been one of the best of my many purchases.
My one regret is that I didn't have this book much earlier; I very nearly did, but when I began my project, "Race and Rally Car" looked wrong to my novices' eyes. I hadn't realised then that my planned sportscars were so closely related to Formula racecars in all their systems and dynamics.
Now, with the benefit of my researching/learning experience, I am able to appreciate just how valuable a source Mr Staniforths' book is!
This is a truly great picture/storybook for us petrol-heads, a practical guide, and a comprehensive reference, all based on the authors' own extensive experience as a race-car designer, builder, and driver.
Those years of hard-won experience left an empathetic awareness of the broad-ranging requirements of a novice. He has created this book with just the right mix of wit and serious technical detail to inspire and encourage the reader with doubts about their own ability to "give it a go".
It encompasses all that is important in building a fast sports or racecar, thoroughly covering topics like planning, design, building techniques, technology, testing and development. It features excellent illustrations, really inspiring photographs, and includes historical and anecdotal material of considerable value to any aspiring Murrays, Tauranacs or Schumakers among us. There is also a detailed source-index to other authoritative sources for more complete descriptions of processes that have been, of necessity, only lightly dealt with here.
Overall, it's an enjoyable read and a sound investment. I suspect that the more sophisticated features of my ultimate design will owe more to this than any other single book.
It deserves a place in your library.

This was the first book I bought related to race and sports car design. It is very well written, and Staniforth's writing style is very entertaining as well as being informative.

The book covers all aspects related to building and modifying a sports car and does so in reasonable depth. I did find that I will need other references where I want detailed information about a specific topic. For example, the sections on suspension are clear and offer good information and are sufficient to get you started with whatever project you have in mind. However, if one really wants to get down into the gritty mathematical details of designing suspension then a second reference specifically on that topic would be needed.

As a book to highlight all that is important in building a fast sports or race car, I recommend the book whole heartedly.

A very useful book, perfect for race engineers, and a good launching platform for an engineer just starting to delve into the field of racecar engineering. Mr Van Valkenburg has a very unique view of racecar engineering that makes his writings a pleasure to read.

Mr. Van Valkenburgh has succeeded in getting across a great deal of technical information, and presenting it in such a way that the non-technical reader can understand and apply it. From tires and shocks, to suspension geometry and slip angles, all of the nuts and bolts info. is covered. No muss, no fuss, no useless information that won't help you win races, just factual, useful information. I take it with me every time we go to the track, and I use it every time.

David Poole's Race with Destiny: The Year that Changed NASCAR envisions history from the present, submerging the reader in a multi-layered account of a dramatic year for the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. The action-filled Hooters 500 race on November 12, 1992 eventually led to the points championship being won by Alan Kulwicki over Davey Allison and Bill Elliott. Poole's crafty and enjoyable read takes his audience not only through a gripping season finale, but also interestingly places the year as a turning point for the sport of stock car racing.

Reading the book not only takes the reader on a season journey-it also compels the reader to think about the difficult project Poole faced as an author. Given the deaths of Allison and Kulwicki in 1992, Poole's primary sources are obviously not accounts from these racing legends, but other first-hand versions constructed through interviews with some of the sport's well-known staples, such as Larry McReynolds, Bill Davis, Ty Norris, Wayne Estes, Michael Kranefuss, Benny Parsons, Jim Hunter, Monte Dutton, and Deb Williams. Poole does an outstanding job recreating the past from the present by situating the reader as an inside spectator-the book allows readers to imaginatively glimpse the personal dramas facing the teams and drivers. By far, the most successful part of Poole's project is the writing itself, as he obviously gave thoughtful consideration to the process of reading-he allows the reader to comfortably envision and imagine what must have been going on in the minds of Kulwicki and Tom Roberts (Kulwicki's PR agent) as the season unfolded. Poole is a gifted storyteller, as he also provides remarkable accounts of several races over the year, and literally allows readers to imagine themselves "being there" listening to drivers' radios, conversations between crew chiefs and drivers, and press conferences throughout the year.

This book is an excellent read-not only for the seasoned NASCAR fan, but those who are just entering the sport in search of historical background. As an anthropologist currently on tour with the NASCAR circuit, I have found this book to be one of my favorite reads this year, and see myself using it not only as a historical reference point, but for understanding how narratives of NASCAR can be successfully inscribed between the covers.

Evidently lost in the shuffle with Joe Menzer's "Wildest Ride" and Ed Hinton's "Daytona," Poole's less-celebrated but fine effort centers on the last race of the 1992 season at Atlanta, where Bill Elliott, Davey Allison, and Alan Kulwicki all had an excellent shot at the Winston Cup Championship and three other drivers were mathematically in the running. The race also marked Jeff Gordon's first Winston Cup appearance and Richard Petty's last, a true changing of the guard, as it developed. Poole does an excellent job at profiling the three drivers fighting for the title, particularly Kulwicki, the eventual title winner, who emerges as a driven outsider, a Yankee in a southern sport and an owner/driver in a period where multicar teams began to take over. Poole shows the difficulties Kulwicki faced handling the pressures of running a small team, as well as the budget problems and sponsor demands arising in all teams, the personality conflicts that arise in top-level racing, and the cameraderie that develops both within and among the racing teams as the caravan heads from track to track through the season. This book does a superb job of showing what NASCAR was like before the explosion of its popularity in the mid-nineties, and while it seems a little silly to be nostalgic for an era only ten years past, it's what you wind up feeling as you close this book. Of course it doesn't help that two of the principal drivers profiled died in separate aircraft accidents in 1993, and Poole speculates briefly about what NASCAR would have been like in the nineties, and who may have been deprived of a top-flight ride, had Allison and Kulwicki lived. A must for NASCAR fans.

Philip Von Borries's Racelines is an anthology of 42-horseracing-related stories written from 1979 through 1998. In his introduction Von Borries calls them stories once and articles twice, and his sports-journalism and folksy writing make both designations accurate. Most of his stories are tributes to horseracing's racers, riders, and trainers, but he also includes one for a longtime horseracing photographer and another for a Civil War General. Imbedded within some essays are added tributes to owners and grooms, but, while tributes supply the majority of Von Borries's stories, there is much variety in this anthology.

Some of Von Borries's stories are not stories. Instead, one is a list of humorous horseracing expressions and another a two-page glossary of horseracing terms. Yet another is a catalog of 100 horseracing films, including Von Borries's top ten and ten more given honorable mention, and another is a list of black horsemen and the Triple-Crown races they have won as either jockeys or trainers. In several tributes, Von Borries introduces his protagonist with background data before getting to his horseracing feats. For example, in "The Wizard of Orleans," about horseracing photographer Louis Nevin Hodges, Sr., Von Borries tells us early that Hodges, age 70, is mild mannered, represents goodness, but is not ordinary. Further, he tempts us when he tells of his visit to Hodges's den, "lined with pictures of the most famous racehorses in American racing history, a mere sample of what passed through his lens from the late 1940s to the early 1980s" (44). By the time Von Borries finishes his pre-story buildup, we want to know how Hodges achieved horseracing fame between the late 1940s and early 1980s, and the author does not disappoint. But don't expect detail. Von Borries's short stories provide only biographical sketches with the brunt of his coverage related to his subject's major achievements in the world of horseracing. Background buildup is a strategy employed often and successfully by Von Borries.

Another strategy Von Borries employs, even if unwittingly, is to explore the variety of horseracing history. His essay, "War and Peace," is about how Civil War Union General Philip Henry Sheridan, the first president of old Washington Park Racetrack in Chicago, helped limit the devastating Chicago fire of 1871 with fire breaks. The horse industry's tribute was to name a race, the Sheridan Stakes, after the general in 1884. The race has been an annual event since. Von Borries also includes several biographical sketches of black horsemen prominent in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. "Cruising Past 7,000 and Climbing" furnishes biographical sketches of eleven trainers with 3,000 or more wins to their credit, and "Giant: Cigar's Win streak" includes capsule histories of the 23 American thoroughbreds with the longest winning streaks dating back to the 18th century. If there is a weakness in Von Borries's enjoyable writing, it lies in the sameness and overzealous nature of his tributes. For example, when the standardbred, Niatross, broke the one mile pacing record in October 1980, Von Borries wrote, "Niatross appealed to all that is good and noble and decent in life itself. In an age of antiheroes, he had resurrected the rare personage of a true hero who could endure and overcome all challenges," and later, "He had reaffirmed basic human values, exalted the beat of life, and sanctified the pursuit of excellence. Freed temporarily from our natural reserve, we dared to live and dream" (193). There are similar overblown tributes to racers Holy Bull and Dr. Fager. Too much personification of horses deserving credit as fast runners, but not as miracle rainbow makers representing all that is right and good and almost Godly in humanity. Moreover, he does the same with his human protagonists, often making them almost cherubic. The world, its people, and its horses are just not that glowing. A little more realism, a little more reality in his humanoid horses and his human heroes would serve well.

Still, Von Borries's stories are easy and enjoyable reads. Most represent an enjoyable trip into horseracing history from more than a century past to the present.

Philip Von Borries's Racelines is an anthology of 42-horseracing-related stories written from 1979 through 1998. In his introduction Von Borries calls them stories once and articles twice, and his sports-journalism and folksy writing make both designations accurate. Most of his stories are tributes to horseracing's racers, riders, and trainers, but he also includes one for a longtime horseracing photographer and another for a Civil War General. Imbedded within some essays are added tributes to owners and grooms, but, while tributes supply the majority of Von Borries's stories, there is much variety in this anthology.

Some of Von Borries's stories are not stories. Instead, one is a list of humorous horseracing expressions and another a two-page glossary of horseracing terms. Yet another is a catalog of 100 horseracing films, including Von Borries's top ten and ten more given honorable mention, and another is a list of black horsemen and the Triple-Crown races they have won as either jockeys or trainers. In several tributes, Von Borries introduces his protagonist with background data before getting to his horseracing feats. For example, in "The Wizard of Orleans," about horseracing photographer Louis Nevin Hodges, Sr., Von Borries tells us early that Hodges, age 70, is mild mannered, represents goodness, but is not ordinary. Further, he tempts us when he tells of his visit to Hodges's den, "lined with pictures of the most famous racehorses in American racing history, a mere sample of what passed through his lens from the late 1940s to the early 1980s" (44). By the time Von Borries finishes his pre-story buildup, we want to know how Hodges achieved horseracing fame between the late 1940s and early 1980s, and the author does not disappoint. But don't expect detail. Von Borries's short stories provide only biographical sketches with the brunt of his coverage related to his subject's major achievements in the world of horseracing. Background buildup is a strategy employed often and successfully by Von Borries.

Another strategy Von Borries employs, even if unwittingly, is to explore the variety of horseracing history. His essay, "War and Peace," is about how Civil War Union General Philip Henry Sheridan, the first president of old Washington Park Racetrack in Chicago, helped limit the devastating Chicago fire of 1871 with fire breaks. The horse industry's tribute was to name a race, the Sheridan Stakes, after the general in 1884. The race has been an annual event since. Von Borries also includes several biographical sketches of black horsemen prominent in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. "Cruising Past 7,000 and Climbing" furnishes biographical sketches of eleven trainers with 3,000 or more wins to their credit, and "Giant: Cigar's Win streak" includes capsule histories of the 23 American thoroughbreds with the longest winning streaks dating back to the 18th century.

If there is a weakness in Von Borries's enjoyable writing, it lies in the sameness and overzealous nature of his tributes. For example, when the standardbred, Niatross, broke the one mile pacing record in October 1980, Von Borries wrote, "Niatross appealed to all that is good and noble and decent in life itself. In an age of antiheroes, he had resurrected the rare personage of a true hero who could endure and overcome all challenges," and later, "He had reaffirmed basic human values, exalted the beat of life, and sanctified the pursuit of excellence. Freed temporarily from our natural reserve, we dared to live and dream" (193). There are similar overblown tributes to racers Holy Bull and Dr. Fager. Too much personification of horses deserving credit as fast runners, but not as miracle rainbow makers representing all that is right and good and almost Godly in humanity. Moreover, he does the same with his human protagonists, often making them almost cherubic. The world, its people, and its horses are just not that glowing. A little more realism, a little more reality in his humanoid horses and his human heroes would serve well.

Still, Von Borries's stories are easy and enjoyable reads. Most represent an enjoyable trip into horseracing history from more than a century past to the present.

Great pictures. Great section on equiptment. Too many books are lacking in the equipment sections for fear of obsolescence, not this one! This is a great overview for road racing enthusiasts.

This book is superb. I couldn`t corner properly until I read the section on cornering, now I can power through at a higher speed than some of my team mates. The training section is particularly useful. Throughout this book makes its points with excellent colour photographs.

This highly recommended car racing book will prove essential for any fan of auto sports. Tom Gillesie's Racing Families provides a tribute to the main race car dynasties who have generations involved in the sport, from the Pettys and Earnhardts to the Unsers and Waltrips. Each family is featured in a chapter packed with color photos and history.

Nascar is more of a family sport than any other sport in America. This book showcases NASCAR's greatest families. The Earnhardts, the Jarretts, the Allisons, and of course the Petty's. This book has great insights and awesome pictures. A must have for racing fans.

If Sally Baker would care to get in touch with me (my e-mail address is richardson@tote.co.uk) I would be happy to help her make contact with Kate Fox, the author of The Racing Tribe. I commissioned the original research project undertaken by Kate whilst I was marketing director at the British Horseracing Board, and from which the book came to be written. I can't, therefore, review with any real objectivity this book, as I am naturally biaised(!); safe to say it is a truly fascinating read, and successfully debunks various myths associated with horseracing and it's participants.

I am currently studying Social Anthropology at the University of Kent. Thus this book was a refreshing change for me - instead of reading about far away, bizarre locations - it was something I could actaully connect with and properly understand. I am also doing a dissertation this year on the topic of Foxhunting: A Rural Ritual - and I would be very interested to somehow contact Kate Fox and maybe get some input from her on the topic. Does anyone know how I might be able to get in touch with her? Her approach to the Racing Tribe is similar to my project - participant observation and interviewing a group of people withing the England - with an equine theme.

REMEMBERING THE DERBY is the second book in the five-book series written by the late Jim Bolus, the man who knew all the stories and all the trivia of the great race. Like the other books, this is a must-have for racing fans.

Included in this volume is a chapter on Flip Sal, a horse who was injured in the centennial running of the Derby in 1974, another on Sir Barton, the first Triple Winner, one on Northern Dancer (1964), a chapter on the 1957 Kentucky Derby in which Bill Shoemaker misjudged the finish line, and who could forget to read about Silky Sullivan?

Your racing library would be incomplete without the Bolus series.

This book explores the stories that come with a race as big as the Derby. The author writes of horses, people, and their experiences at the Derby; wether they won or not. A must for racing fans.

It's eighty-seven degrees, just after noon and Danny and his father are sharing a cigarette in the heat on their way to the track.

This is the way of Michael DeCapite. How he moves through the telling of what he sees. Life as it is, with no embellishment. Slow mostly. Mostly time passing...

DeCapite is to writing what baseball is to sports-deceptively simple, slow, quiet, an expanse of green spread out under sun or lights, a few players...waiting...most of them. Men returning to the field daily, doing it again, waiting it out. A field so perfectly laid out that the deeper into you get, the more you realize the perfection of the game-from the precise incline of the pitcher's mound, adjusted over the years to most evenly match pitcher and batter-to the distance to dead center-it all matters...quietly...it's all headed somewhere. And there is so much going on in any given moment that you can scarcely take it in. This is DeCapite on the page.

Sitting Pretty is a quiet story. Seven men spending an afternoon together, old friends, one of them dying, his grown son too 'slow,' too 'troubled' to realize. "Those doctors know what they're doing. They're scientists. My dad was sick but he went to see the doctor. They can do anything. The doctor gave him some pills, he's better now. Aren't you, Dad? Hey Dad, you're my sunshine, right?"

Gambling, drinking, cancer, oppressive heat, loss, the horses barreling down the stretch for home...all this hanging from the afternoon sky, while downstage, seven lives move tenderly through another couple of hours. So quietly you might miss it if you didn't know where to look. A father's hand on the back of his son's neck. The whole world is in it.

DeCapite traffics gracefully in the realm of the overlooked - here in Sitting Pretty and in his novel Through the Windshield. I hope America doesn't overlook Michael DeCapite.

I had to read it twice, and will probably read it several times more to get all the little nuances that Decapite has filled this story with. My favorite line on first reading..."It's so bright my soul squints..." The story is very male socially and very human relationally. It offers an insight into something that most of us take for granted, a father's love. Decapite's writing captures the essence of the human relationships in a microcosm that is so full, it is like glimpsing the angels on the head of a pin.

This is a very well done book on the slot car hobby for the beginner, novice and advanced enthusiast. I particularly found the information on various track layout designs, car tune-up and custom car building to be excellent. This book focuses on 1/32 scale and provides limited HO scale coverage. It has rekindled my interest in the hobby.

This is a must have . If you are an avid slot fan or have ever owned slot cars you will appreciate this book. Robert did a great job....