Vintage Racing or Sportscar Books

[TomoHawk]

I'm not involved in much racing, but I like the occasional country drive or a lap or two on a track.  So in the off-season, I sometimes buy a vintage book on the subject.  Last summer I bought a very good documentary of the "Greatest Road Race in the World," the  Mille Miglia, which means "1000 miles."  It's an Italian race on open public roads 1923-1957 that covers a large part of Italy, sort of like the Targa California.

I just got another book called The Technique of Motor Racing, by Piero Taruffi.  He discusses how to drive, in 1950s style.

What book(s) do you have on your bookshelf, or which book(s) would you like to have?

Some books may only be available as a PDF, or may be in someone's possession, and maybe with a little (arm-twisting) we could get that person to share the book in some way (I will photograph the pages of an old book and make a PDF file from the images.)

Edited April 21, 2017 by TomoHawk

[26th-Z]

Tomo,

Scanning a published book and posting it to the internet is a clear violation of federal copyright law.

[TomoHawk]

I"m not asking anyone to do that.

[260DET]

There is Paul Newman's Winning of course but what I'd really like to read about is the US development of the racing Z covering S30 to Z31. I'm not sure how interesting this topic would be in the US but to this furriner it was magic, those race cars were just the best and far superior to anything else in the world concerning production sports cars at that time.

[HS30-H]

1 hour ago, 260DET said:

There is Paul Newman's Winning of course but what I'd really like to read about is the US development of the racing Z covering S30 to Z31. I'm not sure how interesting this topic would be in the US but to this furriner it was magic, those race cars were just the best and far superior to anything else in the world concerning production sports cars at that time.

"...the best and far superior to anything else in the world..."..?

The products of a small company in Germany named Porsche may have slipped your memory, perhaps? A few other candidates making "production sports cars" in the same period might also be in with a shout.

[26th-Z]

Point well taken, Alan.  Nissan has one hell of a race record in the U.S. which promotes the impression of dominance.  What is interesting about your point is that manufacturers that might dominate on a global scale don't necessarily dominate in North America.  And vice-versa.

[HS30-H]

1 hour ago, 26th-Z said:

Point well taken, Alan.  Nissan has one hell of a race record in the U.S. which promotes the impression of dominance.  What is interesting about your point is that manufacturers that might dominate on a global scale don't necessarily dominate in North America.  And vice-versa.

History shows us that Porsche dominated the decade (and more) in question if we are talking S30 thru Z31, as they took victory in the various classes of the World Sportscar Championship more often than not during that period. 

Point taken about North American dominance not necessarily equating to global dominance (it kind of makes my point for me...) but I was answering specifically the quote "...the best and far superior to anything else in the world...", which is just daft. Just last week I was playing Facebook tennis with somebody who was insisting that Porsche was playing catch-up to Nissan during the 1960s and 1970s (??!!), and that the 911 was some kind of *response* to the SP/SPL Fairlady roadsters (???!!!). FAKE NEWS right there...    

 

Addressing the thread topic: There's far too many books on the subject to give specific recommendations. I've got a fairly big collection but it's just scratching the surface really and if you want depth you have to refine your collecting to your primary area of interest. Personal faves include Mike Schoen's excellent 'The Cobra-Ferrari Wars' and Janos Wimpffen's epic 'Time And Two Seats' on the topic of endurance racing, but my interest in the Japanese racing scene of the 1960s, 70s and 80s leads me to collecting complete runs of Auto Sport Japan and Auto Technic for those decades, as well as modern titles such as Auto Sport Archive Japan's fabulously in-depth '100 Great Races' series (now up to volume 73) and the superb Racing On magazine's offshoot 'Racing On Archives', which also go in-depth, and deep in-depth at that...    

 

[TomoHawk]

The point of the topic is to have something pleasant to read, in stead of watching what is on TV, which is nothing.  You don't need to define any particular interest to have something pleasant or interesting to read.

Edited April 22, 2017 by TomoHawk

[HS30-H]

26 minutes ago, TomoHawk said:

You don't need to define any particular interest to have something pleasant or interesting to read.

Sure, but the thread title you chose is "Vintage Racing or Sportscar Books"....

I've just finished another of Charles Willeford's novels (been reading everything of his I can get hold of) and I'm halfway through re-reading Patrick Hamilton's 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky' triptych. I read a lot.

[TomoHawk]

Good.  The books I like to get are actually old books, not books on  racing antique cars

[Mark Maras]

 Non-fiction-The Technique of Motor Racing, Piero Taruffi

 Fiction-The Red Car, Don Stanford

[TomoHawk]

There is an example of am American marque that dominated every American race, then dominated in Europe as well.

Edited April 27, 2017 by TomoHawk