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Forza Amon!: A Biography of Chris Amon
 
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Forza Amon!: A Biography of Chris Amon (Hardcover)

by Eoin Young (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 239 pages
  • Publisher: J H Haynes & Co Ltd; illustrated edition edition (27 Aug 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1844250164
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844250165
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 258,046 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #92 in  Books > Biography > Sport > Formula One & Other Motor Racing

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Product Description

Review

'This won't disappoint' Motor Sport 'affectionate and readable' Formula 1 Magazine 'long overdue' Motorsport News 'Worth a read' Classic & Sports Car


Product Description

Chris Amon, a New Zealand sheep farmer's son who led the Ferrari team for two seasons in the late 1960s, is remembered in Formula 1 as the best driver never to win a Grand Prix. Yet his contemporary Jackie Stewart rated him as one of the world's foremost drivers and Jochen Rindt considered him a true rival. Eoin Young chronicles the life of this extraordinary racer who was driving at the age of six, had a pilot's licence at 16 and competed a 1954 250F Grand Prix Maserati a year later.
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Adequate overview but lacks depth, 10 Feb 2009
By Joolz (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
Though I had seen him race a year or two earlier, Amon first grabbed my attention in 1966 whilst driving one of those wonderful M1B McLarens at Snetterton (the book has a picture from that event!). He seemed young and glamorous to a 10 year old, so I tended to follow his career thereafter, yet never really knew much about him except for his infamous bad 'luck' and poor decision making!

It's good, after all this time, to finally come across a book that fills in the many gaps, leading us through his life up to the present, though inevitably dwelling mostly on his racing career. It's quite a small book, so there isn't much depth to it (eg Young's description of Amon's own GP team in 1974 is woefully inadequate), but it succeeds in getting across something of the man's character and motivations.

Amon's 'luck' is legendary, and you really do get a sense of doom gradually descending as the book progresses, but overall I would have liked to see more detail and perhaps less reliance on borrowed quotes. Hardly a classic, but a worthwhile read nevertheless!
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Great subject, poor effort, 6 Oct 2003
By aglaess (Littleton, CO) - See all my reviews
A biography about Chris Amon is long overdue, so I was looking forward to this book with great anticipation. I neeedn't have bothered.
Forza Amon is more like an outline of a biography than anything else. Taking a page from the Christopher Hilton school of book writing, Eoin Young gives us a very quicky account of a great driver and fascinating character. The most annoying thing is that much of it Young didn't even write--for too much of this book is text taken from other sources, books magazines and correspondence.
Where are the interviews of Amon's peers? There are a few snippets, but nothing like a good biography requires. Mr. Young is a Motorsports book dealer on the side, and I wish he would go read some of Gerald Donaldson's, James Hunt, or Adam Cooper's, Piers Courage, before attempting his next work.
Save your money.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but rather too short, 20 Jan 2005
By Peter Fenelon - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Forza Amon!: A Biography of Chris Amon (Hardcover)
Chris Amon has entered racing legend as "the man who never won a Grand Prix" - largely through bad luck. He could and indeed should have won many, and could so easily have taken a couple of championships.

Eoin Young's biography concentrates squarely on Amon the driver - from a teenager racing an obsolete Maserati 250F in New Zealand races against the established aces in their rear-engined Coopers to the man recognised as one of the quickest and best drivers of the late 60s and early 70s - there is much insight into how McLaren, Ferrari and Matra went racing.

The style is brisk and rather rushed, skipping over deeper personal insight in preference for analysis of Chris' racing career in single seaters and sports cars.

Some of the "Ditton Road Flyers" social scene is described, as are some of Chris' occasionally catastrophic business ventures, but the emphasis is firmly on racing - the personal side is somewhat neglected and at one point I'm sure Chris is described as getting divorced from someone who we haven't even been told he'd married!

The descriptions of the chaos Chris found at Tecno and the tribulations of the Amon F1 car (and the offers Chris threw away out of loyalty to his staff and backers), and Chris' twilight career at Ensign stand as a rather frightening footnote to a career that promised so much and yet despite success in so many other areas of motorsport failed to give Chris the Grand Prix wins and Championships he so richly deserved.

There is some interesting material about Chris' life after racing, bringing the story pretty much up to date.

A good book, but I was left with the definite impression that something twice its length still wouldn't be sufficient to cover all the detail I wanted to see.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars A Real Disappointment
I have to agree with the other review posted here. Amon is one of the most engaging and enigmatic characters of his era and his career that promised so much demands a really good... Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2005 by L. N. Nixon

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