Legendary Race Cars [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

With a title like this, a book has much to live up to, but fortunately, Basem Wasef's Legendary Race Cars delivers on all fronts: it's an entertaining and informative read, there are both historical and new photographs, and it's beautifully produced. In fact, the publishers, Motorbooks, even had the foresight to allow the book's jacket to double as a foldout poster, increasing its Christmas gift appeal substantially.Even before you reach the racecars, there's a foreword by Sir Stirling Moss who sets the tone of the book perfectly, and it encouraged me to turn to the chapter on his Mille Miglia victory in the famous Mercedes-Benz 300SLR. As a large format, coffee table book, Legendary Race Cars allows you to pick it up and delve into its chapters at your leisure, in much the same way his previous publication, Legendary Motorcycles. I really enjoy this 'lucky dip' aspect, where each exploration uncovers another gem.As the author will confirm, choosing 25 of the most memorable and significant racecars from history isn't an easy task. Yet he's been able to tick most of the boxes we expected with vehicles like the Auto Union GP cars, the Mercedes Silver Arrows, Ford's GT40 and Fangio's Maserati 250F, etc.From the modern F1 era there are notables such as Senna's McLaren MP4/4, Andretti's Lotus 79 and Schumacher's Ferraris. Add the STP turbine cars, McRae's Impreza, Prudhomme's dragster, Parnelli Jones' Big Oly, Rohrl's quattro and the Porsche 917 to get an idea of the ground it straddles. I started a second list of cars I'd like to have seen and will be sending it to Wasef as the basis for a second volume!For racing fans wanting a more insightful read and to gaze upon the 3181 photos within its hard covers, Legendary Race Cars, won't disappoint...Eurotuner dot com, November, 2009...Over the years, there have been only a handful of race cars that have earned the moniker "legendary." Likewise, there are just as few drivers who can add themselves to that list. Legendary Race Cars, by Basem Wasef, pairs those renowned automobiles with the drivers who made them great in a tribute to the top race cars in history. With a foreword by renowned British racing driver Sir Stirling Moss, this 176-page book chronicles the history of both vehicle and driver with a detailed explanation of each, illustrated with vivid glossy images of these classic automobiles. No matter the style of race car, this book manages to cover any and all types imaginable, from the world-trekking Thomas Flyer of 1908 to NASCAR champion Richard Petty's Plymouth SuperBird from the 1960s and Formula 1 racer Michael Schumacher's Ferraris of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Racing fans and car enthusiasts will love this book and shouldn't stop reading 'til they reach the finish...gayot dot com, November, 2009...Legendary Race Cars could fill many volumes. Basem Wasef has chosen to document and photograph 25 of them. Sir Stirling Moss in the Foreword addresses the difficulty of such a task.'Selecting these 25 legendary cars cannot have been easy. Automobiles, like paintings and any other works of art, have different effects on different people. Which era do you love? Which look? Two-or single seaters? Suited to which kind of activity? This is a unique book and, no doubt, it will be controversial in much the same way that books about the qualities of the drivers are. Who was the greatest?'A remarkable book because Basem Wasef is a remarkable double-edged talent. He is an exceptional photographer and a fine writer. The combination of skills creates a totally enjoyable book. The dust jacket is a work of art in its own right. It is a 'jacket-poster suitable for framing' of the gorgeous 1968 Team Lotus-STP Type 56 Turbine Indy Car driven by Joe Leonard. The beautifully lit portrait leaps from the black background. I just hung it in my cubicle. It looks wonderful. -- --Road and Track, January, 2010

As the title gives away the book picks out 25 of the greatest racing cars in the opinion of author Basem Wasef, who s written a similar book on motor bikes. As you d expect F1 and other Grand Prix cars features heavily among their number and you can probably guess a few of them: the McLaren-Honda MP4/4, Lotuses 49 and 79, Maserati 250F and the Ferrari 156. Without wishing to get too nit-picky, the absence of the first rear-engined car to win the world championship the Cooper-Climax T51 feels like an oversight. There is also, somewhat oddly, a chapter given over to 'Michael Schumacher s Ferraris'. He may have worked miracles with the fast-as-it-was-pretty 1996 F310, but that hardly justifies calling it a great car. I d suggest the F2002 and F2004 definitely belong in this kind of company, but I m not sure all the others do. However on the whole the choice of cars reflects an impressive knowledge of the breadth of motor racing, with machines from all manner of other disciplines including rallying, drag racing, Indy cars, NASCAR, sports cars and more. Many of the chapters include specially-shot close-ups of the cars, but this isn t consistent throughout the book. I would also have liked a steadier focus on the subject at hand the cars rather than the people who drove them or the races they entered. But I enjoyed the variety of the cars chosen, the succinctly-told stories behind them and the generous complement of contemporary photographs. An interesting choice for technically-minded fans with a taste for more than just F1 cars. --F1 Fanatic dot com, January, 2010......tells the story of motor racings greatest machines. The scope is refreshingly inclusive, featuring rallying, NASCAR, drag racing and Edwardian racers,a s well as the more obvious contenders. Each of the 25 chapters are compact but illustrate clearly why each car rose to greatness, comfortably balencing technical information, key races and driver accounts. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with both archive and contemporary photography and, fear not, Porsche is well represented, although which cars are featured we'll leave for you to discover.... --Total 911 Porsche Magazine, March, 2010...Motor racing enthusiasts should add Basem Wasef's work, legendary race Cars, to their library. It has a foreward by the equallly legendary Stirling Moss, and looks at some of the world's greatest race cars. --South Cheshire Advertiser, January, 2010......tells the story of motor racings greatest machines. The scope is refreshingly inclusive, featuring rallying, NASCAR, drag racing and Edwardian racers,a s well as the more obvious contenders. Each of the 25 chapters are compact but illustrate clearly why each car rose to greatness, comfortably balencing technical information, key races and driver accounts. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with both archive and contemporary photography and, fear not, Porsche is well represented, although which cars are featured we'll leave for you to discover.... --Total 911 Porsche Magazine, March, 2010... a subjective but absorbing historical account of 25 legendary racring machines spanning all the disciplines. From the 1930's Auto Unio GP cars, through dominant rally, Indycar and sports-prototype weapons, to modern F1 missiles, this beautifully-illustrated book tells the story of over 60 years of heroic machinery...Autosport, feb, 2010....the latest in a line of books that have covered this topic many, many times over before. This new collection of 25 racers is wide and varied, form the prewar Auto Unions, to Michael Schumaker's F1 Ferrari. of course, there will always be debate on what should and should not be admitted but the mix works well thanks to good quality period shots. . --Classic cars for Sale, March, 2010

The history of motor sport is filled with larger-than-life characters. But not all of legendary icons were flesh and blood.Some of the boldest figures in racing were made of steel, aluminium, and carbon fibre, and had fuel and oil coursing through their veins. Legendary Race Cars tells the story of twenty-five unforgettable cars from a century of racing history. beautiful photography along with entertaining and absorbing profiles cover a wide range of motorsport genres, including Formula 1 and sports cars racing with mercedes represented in both categories. --Mercedes Owner, March, 2010

Motorsport racing finds its heroes in a perfect meeting of man and machine, and these legendary pairings are profiled in this book - Maroi Andretti and his world-championship winning Lotus 79, Sterling Moss' unstoppable Mercedes-Benz SLR, Ray Harroun's Indy-500 winning Marmon Wasp, Graham Hill and the Lotus 49, Colin McRae, Parnell Jones in a Ford Bronco, Walter Rohr's in an Audi S1, Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari F2000, adding up to an invaluable reference book and Motorsport fan.