Can anyone recommend a good history of motor sport?

[Matt Bacon]

Hi, all... I recently bought a book called "The Chequered Flag - a history of motor racing", which is quite an interesting read, but...

1) It only covers what became Formula One and the Indy 500, not Le Mans or endurance races, nor rallying, not GT racing or DTM

2) It's really only about seasons, drivers and results (and a LOT of crashes and deaths!) - there's very little about the development of the racing cars, or engines, and the way they are optimised for different kinds of motor sports.

So, can anyone recommend me a book about the history and development of the racing sports car, in its different specialised forms? Ideally one that's a bit easier to read than the very technical descriptions in Hans Tanner's Ferrari book, which assumes you already know what different kinds of suspension or valve arrangements are called, rather than explaining the innovation the first time it happens!

Thanks!

bestest,

M.

[Junkman]

There are millions of books out there on motor sports. From children's books to the ones for the seriously disturbed nutters and every nook and cranny in between. If you want a sensible recommendation, you must at least tell which era and class you are interested in.

[Matt Bacon]

Maybe I'm not being clear. This:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chequered-Flag-Years-Motor-Racing/dp/0297824023/

is a one-volume history of motor racing, well illustrated, but which talks about drivers, races and results.

What I want is an equally well-illustrated one volume account of the evolution of the design and engineering of sports and racing cars, identifying and explaining the key innovations in engine and car design and technology, the breakthrough cars, the key designers and so on, ideally with good scale drawings of the important cars (to 1:43, like those in the Tanner Ferrari book) and cutaways. And even more ideally, if it could cover more than simply F1 and its immediate ancestors - I'd like to know about Quattro rally cars, Bentley 4 litres, Aston DBR9s and the rest as well...

Does that help?

bestest,

M.

[Junkman]

I have this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1845841417/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=185960403X&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=17QR4NJ0K5Q5JVCV2S4Z

on Audi Quattros and can only recommend it. It is well researched and the information it contains is well above the level for the casual bystander.

I hope you mean the 4 1/2 Litre Bentleys, since I have no knowledge of 4 Litre Bentleys. One book about the former, which I can strongly recommend, is unfortunately no longer in print, but you should be able to obtain it antiquarian relatively easy. It is the

Bentley 4.5 Litre Supercharged Autofolio (Autofolio Series)

Publisher: G T Foulis & Co Ltd

ISBN-10: 0854298304

ISBN-13: 978-0854298303

The 'bible' for the recent racing Astons is this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aston-Martin-DBR9-DBRS9-Press/dp/1841556602/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274111891&sr=1-2

Now, I don't know of a book which would contain all three of the cars mentioned.