Cars at Speed is widley considered to be one of the finest books available on Grand Prix and sports car racing ever published, covering twelve of the world s greatest racing circuits. Long out of print, this book now returns with a new introduction by Daley, plus commissioned drawings of each featured circuit be it Nurburing, Monza, Silverstone, Spa, Zandvoort, Monaco. A rare opportunity to travel back in time to when passion and danger defined racing, this is a fascinating look at the early days of racing: the qualties of each track, the history, races, controversies, and accidents on each circuit. Focusing in turn on each top racer Sterling Moss, Phil Hill, Jean Behra, Marquis de Portago, Jack Brabham,Rudi Carracciola, this recreates the the mythicall quality of the Grand Prix in it s glittering prime and is sure to be recived enthusiastically by fans worldwide.
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Cars at Speed for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Card, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more
|
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
After starting out as a non-fiction wrire - he was European sports correspondent for the New York times in the late 50's and early 60's - Robert daley branched out into writing novels. His latent talent in this field is evident from his embryonic writing style in this series of Classic stories from Grand Prix Golden Age as Cars at speed is subtitled. Originally written during the 1960 season and published the following year, the book has now been reprinted with a new ntroduction by the author. Denounced by the more comventional motoring journalists at the time, its approach to accounts of what was generally accepted to be one of the most dangerous eras of the sport does tend to empasize its more lurid aspects, as did 'The Cruel Sport' his later non-fiction book about motor racing. However, fiifty years on, Daley's humanistic accounts of events that have long since passed into motor racing folklore make an interesting and certainly readable comparison with the more conventinal reportage of the time, while the contrast with the sport as it is today has rarley been more clearly emphasised. A good series of stories, accuratly and excitingly told, although purists may have to steel themselves to the task. --Speed Scene
Book Of The Month This book should have ben called 'How to Be a CAMRRAD Driver'. All the vital ingredients for indocrination into our hall of fame are here: steel-testicled racing, epic philandering, and, naturally, a healthy dose of death and destruction. In fact, the death and destruction are the central themes of this astonishing history of racing through the 1950's. Not in a morbid way, but simply as a matter-of-fact part of motorsport of the day: change tyres, check the oil, flatten a spectator, lose a leg. Next race, plaese. Originally published back in 1961, the book's heroes - Fangio, Moss, Ascari and more - are a roll-call of motoring legends from an era where brandy-fuelled courage trumped lighting pit stops, where driver lifespan was measuredd in laps, not years. But, even in 1961, that era was coming to and end, as the spiralling death toll forced racing away from the open road and onto safer purpose-built tracks; a move many feared would spell the end of the heroic racer. Thankfully, for our back page at least, it didn't --BBC Top Gear Magazine
Book Of The Month This book should have ben called 'How to Be a CAMRRAD Driver'. All the vital ingredients for indocrination into our hall of fame are here: steel-testicled racing, epic philandering, and, naturally, a healthy dose of death and destruction. In fact, the death and destruction are the central themes of this astonishing history of racing through the 1950's. Not in a morbid way, but simply as a matter-of-fact part of motorsport of the day: change tyres, check the oil, flatten a spectator, lose a leg. Next race, plaese. Originally published back in 1961, the book's heroes - Fangio, Moss, Ascari and more - are a roll-call of motoring legends from an era where brandy-fuelled courage trumped lighting pit stops, where driver lifespan was measuredd in laps, not years. But, even in 1961, that era was coming to and end, as the spiralling death toll forced racing away from the open road and onto safer purpose-built tracks; a move many feared would spell the end of the heroic racer. Thankfully, for our back page at least, it didn't --BBC Top Gear Magazine
About the Author
Robert Daley is the author of Cars at Speed and Cruel Sport, plus numerouse bestselling fiction titles. He is an avid racing follower, and wrote Cars at Speed when working in France for the New York Times.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars
10 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Re-Issue of a Racing Classic
28 Jan 2009
By Stephen J. Triesch
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I purchased the paperback version of this book sometime in the late 60s, and I've returned to it many times over the years. Apart from it's hardcover format, line-drawings to lead-off each chapter, and a new introduction by author Robert Daley, this is exactly the same book that was issued many years ago. It captures an era (the late 50s and early 60s) in Formula 1 and international sports car racing that bears little resemblance to what we see today.
As Daley points out in his introduction, the two main differences between then and now are death and money. Then, several top drivers would die every year; the chance of a top grand prix driver surviving into retirement were literally less than the odds of surviving a round of Russian roulette. Now, Formula 1 has not seen a fatal accident since that horrible weekend 15 years ago when Ratzenberger and Senna died at San Marino
And the money: then, the driver's salaries were comparable to that of a successful insurance salesman, and endorsements were few and far between. Why risk an ad campaign on a driver who might be dead before the campaign could even get under way? Now, the drivers make millions on salaries and endorsements, and are part of a jet-setting international celebrity elite.
The world of Cars at Speed was a world in which advertising played a minimal role and in which old national rivalries were still in the forefront. The color of the car was determined by the country of it's manufacturer (red for Italy, green for England, silver for Germany, and so on). There were few if any sponsorhsip logos on the cars or on the drivers' uniforms; it was a game for wealthy sportsman and the manufacturers of world-class sports cars, not for international corporations marketing beer, cigarettes, or clothing.
Daley's format is essentially to focus on the sport nation-by-nation, with a chapter on each major grand prix and sports car event (in the latter group, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, and Le Mans).
Daley captures the color and danger of the era very well, anecdotally and almost gossipy at times. He captures the specifics of time and place, the ambiance of the circuits. Speaking of the circuits, several of those featured in Cars at Speed - the old Nurburgring, Zandvoort, Reims - have not been used for years, victims of economics or heightened safety standards. Others - Monza, Spa, Silverstone - have seen major alterations, mostly in the name of safety - and bear little resemblance to the circuits described in Cars at Speed.
Daley is above all preoccupied with the danger of the sport, and that overriding possibility of death on the track is perhaps the main theme of the book. According to Daley, that aspect of the original book drew a lot of criticism from the fraternity of motor racing journalists, who downplayed the death and danger of the era almost to a fault. (In that vein, I remember a piece in the mid-60s, written - I believe - by Road & Track's then-F1 correspondent, Henry Manney, describing the death of a driver during the German Grand Prix (I forget the specific driver, perhaps de Beaufort or Anderson or Mitter). Manney's terse comment: "Also, sad to relate, poor _________ went off at Bergwerk and suffered fatal injuries." That was it.)
Middle-aged readers will read this with a sense of nostalgia for a more romantic and less commercialized era, albeit a much more dangerous one. Younger readers will read it with a different perspective, perhaps with wonder that so much death and danger was allowed to persist for so long before reforms were implemented. But they may also be fascinated by a look into a day when money wasn't everything, when the drivers seemed to have more varied personalities and interests than they do now, and when even a determined amateur could find his way onto a Grand Prix grid.
A final comment on some of the book's features: unlike Daley's The Cruel Sport, this book is all text with no photographs other than those on the cover. There are, however, diagrams of the circuits, and listings of the winners of major F1 and sports car races through 1961.
As Daley points out in his introduction, the two main differences between then and now are death and money. Then, several top drivers would die every year; the chance of a top grand prix driver surviving into retirement were literally less than the odds of surviving a round of Russian roulette. Now, Formula 1 has not seen a fatal accident since that horrible weekend 15 years ago when Ratzenberger and Senna died at San Marino
And the money: then, the driver's salaries were comparable to that of a successful insurance salesman, and endorsements were few and far between. Why risk an ad campaign on a driver who might be dead before the campaign could even get under way? Now, the drivers make millions on salaries and endorsements, and are part of a jet-setting international celebrity elite.
The world of Cars at Speed was a world in which advertising played a minimal role and in which old national rivalries were still in the forefront. The color of the car was determined by the country of it's manufacturer (red for Italy, green for England, silver for Germany, and so on). There were few if any sponsorhsip logos on the cars or on the drivers' uniforms; it was a game for wealthy sportsman and the manufacturers of world-class sports cars, not for international corporations marketing beer, cigarettes, or clothing.
Daley's format is essentially to focus on the sport nation-by-nation, with a chapter on each major grand prix and sports car event (in the latter group, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, and Le Mans).
Daley captures the color and danger of the era very well, anecdotally and almost gossipy at times. He captures the specifics of time and place, the ambiance of the circuits. Speaking of the circuits, several of those featured in Cars at Speed - the old Nurburgring, Zandvoort, Reims - have not been used for years, victims of economics or heightened safety standards. Others - Monza, Spa, Silverstone - have seen major alterations, mostly in the name of safety - and bear little resemblance to the circuits described in Cars at Speed.
Daley is above all preoccupied with the danger of the sport, and that overriding possibility of death on the track is perhaps the main theme of the book. According to Daley, that aspect of the original book drew a lot of criticism from the fraternity of motor racing journalists, who downplayed the death and danger of the era almost to a fault. (In that vein, I remember a piece in the mid-60s, written - I believe - by Road & Track's then-F1 correspondent, Henry Manney, describing the death of a driver during the German Grand Prix (I forget the specific driver, perhaps de Beaufort or Anderson or Mitter). Manney's terse comment: "Also, sad to relate, poor _________ went off at Bergwerk and suffered fatal injuries." That was it.)
Middle-aged readers will read this with a sense of nostalgia for a more romantic and less commercialized era, albeit a much more dangerous one. Younger readers will read it with a different perspective, perhaps with wonder that so much death and danger was allowed to persist for so long before reforms were implemented. But they may also be fascinated by a look into a day when money wasn't everything, when the drivers seemed to have more varied personalities and interests than they do now, and when even a determined amateur could find his way onto a Grand Prix grid.
A final comment on some of the book's features: unlike Daley's The Cruel Sport, this book is all text with no photographs other than those on the cover. There are, however, diagrams of the circuits, and listings of the winners of major F1 and sports car races through 1961.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ghoulish
4 Jan 2008
By Alfred E.
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
An interesting read to be sure. Mr. Daley regulary interjects rather morbid thoughts and incidents. Yes, these things happened, but one is left with the feeling those participants of the era/period (1935-1960)were borderline psychotics with a death wish. This era surely was a difficult transitional and learning period for those involved which, in my humble opinion, this author's perspective is overly negative and a bit sarcastic.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good book on a DANGEROUS time in Formula One!
11 Jan 2010
By J. Wages
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This volume is a bit earlier, written in the 1961 season, just before Lotus introduced the goalpost 25. It is VERY interesting, capturing the period, esp. the thrill, romance in the eyes of the drivers and fans (romance and attraction of racing, rather than romantic/love/sexual), and overt deadly dangerous nature of racing from the 1950s and early 60s.
It isn't glossed, highly pictured, or cover much of the more well known drivers of the later 1960s. As it was written in 1961, most weren't around yet. The illustrations that are there show the track layouts of the period.
If one is very interested in the older history of Grand Prix racing (and the sports car racing up to the beginning of the 1960s and the beginning of the British rise to F1 dominance (which is still in place, as most teams are British-based and have huge contingents of Brits on the teams), then this book will be interesting.
Be warned: this period of F1 was VERY dangerous and drivers died on a regular basis, often a number in a single season. Daley says it like he saw it, warts and all. For me, that makes this book even more interesting, as the reader gets to know their heroes the way they were known by those around them. Some bubbles may get burst in the process. If unwilling to experience that, don't bother to read it.
As for me, I found it VERY interesting and WELL worth the price and time to read. It is practically a primary source on an era now mostly lost in romance and the fog of memory. It is from the period and of the period. To a history-person who loves F1 racing, this is a "must have" on your self, whether you agree with the author or not. Many surviving folks from the period likely HATE it, as it reminds them of the bad times that surround their good memories. I'd say it balances the story . . .
I'd recommend it and am VERY glad I bought it!
It isn't glossed, highly pictured, or cover much of the more well known drivers of the later 1960s. As it was written in 1961, most weren't around yet. The illustrations that are there show the track layouts of the period.
If one is very interested in the older history of Grand Prix racing (and the sports car racing up to the beginning of the 1960s and the beginning of the British rise to F1 dominance (which is still in place, as most teams are British-based and have huge contingents of Brits on the teams), then this book will be interesting.
Be warned: this period of F1 was VERY dangerous and drivers died on a regular basis, often a number in a single season. Daley says it like he saw it, warts and all. For me, that makes this book even more interesting, as the reader gets to know their heroes the way they were known by those around them. Some bubbles may get burst in the process. If unwilling to experience that, don't bother to read it.
As for me, I found it VERY interesting and WELL worth the price and time to read. It is practically a primary source on an era now mostly lost in romance and the fog of memory. It is from the period and of the period. To a history-person who loves F1 racing, this is a "must have" on your self, whether you agree with the author or not. Many surviving folks from the period likely HATE it, as it reminds them of the bad times that surround their good memories. I'd say it balances the story . . .
I'd recommend it and am VERY glad I bought it!
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
