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Product Description
The great cars, drivers and races from the top motor-sporting nations form the theme of this spectacular new series of magnificently illustrated volumes. Each country boasts its bloodlines, companies, engineers, executives and enthusiasts whose powerful competitive spirit and dauntless courage drives them to dominate in motor racing. In this dramatic first volume, leading experts of British motor racing reveal the amazing stories behind their successes and failures, the great classic endurance races and Grand Prix contests in which they dominated or faced disaster. Motor racing, which has no equal in the ecstasy of victory and agony of defeat, comes vividly to life in the colourful pages of these magnificent books. It took Britain a few years to get to grips with first-rank motor racing. Apart from Sunbeam's Grand Prix success in the 1920s, it had to be content with the dramatic exploits of Bentley at Le Mans and in the next decade with victories by MG, Austin, ERA, Aston Martin, Riley and Lagonda as well as star drivers Tim Birkin, Malcolm Campbell and Richard Seaman. Only after World War II, as David Venables so dramatically portrays, did Britain get the hang of Formula 1 racing. Once it did, there was no stopping British cars and drivers. Momentous breakthroughs came in the 1950s with Connaught, Vanwall and BRM, followed by the rear-engined revolution led by Cooper and Lotus. Engines from Coventry Climax and then Cosworth sat behind great champions including Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, John Surtees and Jackie Stewart. Meanwhile Jaguar and Aston Martin flew the Union Jack with pride at Le Mans. A reborn Donington joined Goodwood, Silverstone and Brands Hatch as the UK s classic tracks. Thrusting teams like Williams, Tyrrell, McLaren and Brabham joined Lotus at the forefront of Grand Prix racing with the likes of James Hunt, Damon Hill, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton at their wheels. British expertise even prevailed at Indianapolis with wins for Lotus, Lola and March. Between these covers these men and their machines come colourfully to life in authoritative text, rare illustrations from the world-renowned Ludvigsen Library and striking portraits of great racing cars specially commissioned for this book.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Great British Racing Book. Highly recommended for a collector or novice wanting to learn about British Racing (the best).
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
SpeedReaders.info Review
12 Dec 2009
British Racing Green; Drivers, Cars and Triumphs of British Motor Racing
by David Venables
This is the first of what is currently (meaning late 2009) four books in this publisher's "Racing Colours" series, edited by the renowned Karl Ludvigsen. Ludvigsen wrote the German Racing Silver and Italian Racing Red volumes in this series, while Venables, the assistant editor of the Vintage Sports Car Club Bulletin, authored the French Racing Blue and this volume, British Racing Green. Both men are pillars of the auto-journalist community, with many books and articles to their respective credit. The purpose of the series is to showcase the cars, circuits, drivers, and automakers of the great motor sporting countries--one per book.
Racing today is as multinational and multicultural as the world in which it takes place. In the car's and racing's early days, the world had not yet become a global village, and individual countries were still carving out their places in the world order. Technology was a key to the future and any display of prowess or supremacy was a matter of fiercely nationalistic pride and political importance.
As early as 1900 the organizers of the Gordon Bennett, as it has become commonly known--but was then correctly the Coupé International which enthusiast Gordon Bennett sponsored by way of his ownership of the New York Times Herald and its sister Paris, France edition, thus becoming by 1903 the Gordon Bennett Coupé Internaltionale--decreed distinctive official team colors for the various participating countries. The very next year this concept fell into disarray. It did not become truly established until the 1921 French GP at Le Mans and even then it applied only to factory teams at the GP level.
This book starts off with a map of the British Isles that shows the locations of 30 manufacturers and nine racetracks, with a brief summary of the origins of organized racing in Europe and the allocation of racing colors. It then presents its topic organized by marque, one per chapter, for the proverbial "household" names. Several of the "lesser" marques are bundled together, ending with a four-page chapter bringing up the rear of the field, the also-rans. The order in which the marques are presented is not explained nor is it self-evident (and, except to the arch defender of a particular marque, it really shouldn't matter). They appear to be in roughly chronological order of their having established their name in racing, although the inevitable overlap in time would make any attempt at ordering them as arbitrary as doing it any other way.
At any rate, each entry describes the basic arc of history for the subject firm through 2007, enumerating racing highlights and technical/developmental details of especially significant cars. Sidebars contain driver profiles and track analyses of four circuits. The numerous photos (b/w and color; many sourced from the bottomless archive of the Ludvigsen Library) are supplemented by ten specially-commissioned color drawings from Steve Anderson of cars in profile, along with two unattributed period cutaway drawings of a Sunbeam and an ERA. Even the oldest period photos are quite sharp and show good detail. There is a short bibliography and a thorough index.
Copyright 2009, Sabu Advani (speedreaders.info), rewritten and adapted from a review first published in the November/December 2009 issue of The Flying Lady, the periodical of the Rolls-Royce Owners' Club (RROC/USA).
by David Venables
This is the first of what is currently (meaning late 2009) four books in this publisher's "Racing Colours" series, edited by the renowned Karl Ludvigsen. Ludvigsen wrote the German Racing Silver and Italian Racing Red volumes in this series, while Venables, the assistant editor of the Vintage Sports Car Club Bulletin, authored the French Racing Blue and this volume, British Racing Green. Both men are pillars of the auto-journalist community, with many books and articles to their respective credit. The purpose of the series is to showcase the cars, circuits, drivers, and automakers of the great motor sporting countries--one per book.
Racing today is as multinational and multicultural as the world in which it takes place. In the car's and racing's early days, the world had not yet become a global village, and individual countries were still carving out their places in the world order. Technology was a key to the future and any display of prowess or supremacy was a matter of fiercely nationalistic pride and political importance.
As early as 1900 the organizers of the Gordon Bennett, as it has become commonly known--but was then correctly the Coupé International which enthusiast Gordon Bennett sponsored by way of his ownership of the New York Times Herald and its sister Paris, France edition, thus becoming by 1903 the Gordon Bennett Coupé Internaltionale--decreed distinctive official team colors for the various participating countries. The very next year this concept fell into disarray. It did not become truly established until the 1921 French GP at Le Mans and even then it applied only to factory teams at the GP level.
This book starts off with a map of the British Isles that shows the locations of 30 manufacturers and nine racetracks, with a brief summary of the origins of organized racing in Europe and the allocation of racing colors. It then presents its topic organized by marque, one per chapter, for the proverbial "household" names. Several of the "lesser" marques are bundled together, ending with a four-page chapter bringing up the rear of the field, the also-rans. The order in which the marques are presented is not explained nor is it self-evident (and, except to the arch defender of a particular marque, it really shouldn't matter). They appear to be in roughly chronological order of their having established their name in racing, although the inevitable overlap in time would make any attempt at ordering them as arbitrary as doing it any other way.
At any rate, each entry describes the basic arc of history for the subject firm through 2007, enumerating racing highlights and technical/developmental details of especially significant cars. Sidebars contain driver profiles and track analyses of four circuits. The numerous photos (b/w and color; many sourced from the bottomless archive of the Ludvigsen Library) are supplemented by ten specially-commissioned color drawings from Steve Anderson of cars in profile, along with two unattributed period cutaway drawings of a Sunbeam and an ERA. Even the oldest period photos are quite sharp and show good detail. There is a short bibliography and a thorough index.
Copyright 2009, Sabu Advani (speedreaders.info), rewritten and adapted from a review first published in the November/December 2009 issue of The Flying Lady, the periodical of the Rolls-Royce Owners' Club (RROC/USA).
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
BRG - Ultimate Historic Book
19 Dec 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase
Here is the answer-
Here is where it all started-
The reason you love Green-
In all it's shades - 40 or more-
Irish - English - British Isles . . .
I keep this Book on my Coffee Table
Not only an intelligently written work
But a nice Book to display !
Own a Jag a Mini an Aston Martin or Triumph
YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED
PRICEY - BUT MANY HOURS OF INFO
AND LITTLE KNOW FACTS ABOUT RACING
THE EARLY PIONEERS AND QUIRKY ANTIDOTES
WITH MANY HISTORIC PHOTOS - WOW BRG -
NOT TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE.
Here is where it all started-
The reason you love Green-
In all it's shades - 40 or more-
Irish - English - British Isles . . .
I keep this Book on my Coffee Table
Not only an intelligently written work
But a nice Book to display !
Own a Jag a Mini an Aston Martin or Triumph
YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED
PRICEY - BUT MANY HOURS OF INFO
AND LITTLE KNOW FACTS ABOUT RACING
THE EARLY PIONEERS AND QUIRKY ANTIDOTES
WITH MANY HISTORIC PHOTOS - WOW BRG -
NOT TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Nigel's Judgement
23 Nov 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a beautifully presented hardback book with magnificent photographs and coloured line drawings of the outstanding cars.
Furthermore, the text is notably economic with words, yet imparts very interesting facts concisely. I wish more authors would heed this precept more than they do. Many new aspects of the subject are presented which keeps the reader wanting to read more.
Not only a "must-read" book but also a "must-have" book.
Nigel (not Maunsell !).
Furthermore, the text is notably economic with words, yet imparts very interesting facts concisely. I wish more authors would heed this precept more than they do. Many new aspects of the subject are presented which keeps the reader wanting to read more.
Not only a "must-read" book but also a "must-have" book.
Nigel (not Maunsell !).
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