Customer Reviews

Autocourse(tm) CHAMP CAR

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those outside the loop of racing, NASCAR garners a great deal of attention. Lost in all the attention paid to that series is a great style of racing collectively known as "open wheel" or "Champ Car." The series has evolved over the years but one thing has always remained. The races are fast, exciting and very competitive. How exciting? Put 800+ horsepower in a 1,600lb car that stands at knee level and enjoy the fun! If you are a fan - new or old - this series from Autocourse is a must-have. Autocourse started doing yearbooks 40+ years ago for the Formula One Grand Prix series and they have grown to include Champ Cars. They offer a tremendous amount of detail about the teams, drivers, cars, technical advances, etc. They also showcase the support series and the up-and-coming drivers in them. Each race is covered in detail with all qualifying times and finishing spots as well as highlights of the event itself. Photography is 100% incredible. That's another point. I enjoy doing my own photography and sometimes it's easy to lose track of things, especially if you don't get the film developed for a while. This book offers tremendous resource materials for someone maintaining photo albums of the events themselves. Basically, if you have a question about this style of racing, you'll find it in this book.

The quality you expect from Autocourse. Fillied with fantastic pictures from the 2003 Chap Car season. Each race is detailed with results and behind the scenes information.

But the pictures are what really steals the show here. Huge color closeup of the cars and the drivers as well.

I can't say enough good things about this book. I really enjoy getting this book each year.

Jeremy Shaw puts the best face he can on a bad situation. However, no amount of gloss and shine can change that the 2003-2004 year for CART (or ChampCar) was motorsport's version of a family deciding whether or not they should honor a "do not resuscitate" order that a dying family member wishes to execute.

Shaw avoids the politics of the CART/Indy Car (IRL) split that lasted eight and a half seasons and lets the great photography stand on its' own. Too bad - it may have lent to a better concept for the book illustrating CART's last days. Hopefully Shaw's photography will be included in future books giving summation to the final days of CART's answer to the 'do not resuscitate" order, ChampCar, which ran in 2004 under a debt-drenched ownership model.

To this one-time CART fan who understands that the IndyCar (IRL) model won the war and should be embraced, not shunned, by ChampCar teams, drivers, and fans, I give tepid marks to this compendium of a once-great racing series. Good book, but not a great book.