Customer Reviews

Cars at Speed: Classic Stories from Grand Prix's Golden Age

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

 

 

I purchased the paperback version of this book sometime in the late 60s, and I've returned to it many times over the years. Apart from it's hardcover format, line-drawings to lead-off each chapter, and a new introduction by author Robert Daley, this is exactly the same book that was issued many years ago. It captures an era (the late 50s and early 60s) in Formula 1 and international sports car racing that bears little resemblance to what we see today.

As Daley points out in his introduction, the two main differences between then and now are death and money. Then, several top drivers would die every year; the chance of a top grand prix driver surviving into retirement were literally less than the odds of surviving a round of Russian roulette. Now, Formula 1 has not seen a fatal accident since that horrible weekend 15 years ago when Ratzenberger and Senna died at San Marino

And the money: then, the driver's salaries were comparable to that of a successful insurance salesman, and endorsements were few and far between. Why risk an ad campaign on a driver who might be dead before the campaign could even get under way? Now, the drivers make millions on salaries and endorsements, and are part of a jet-setting international celebrity elite.

The world of Cars at Speed was a world in which advertising played a minimal role and in which old national rivalries were still in the forefront. The color of the car was determined by the country of it's manufacturer (red for Italy, green for England, silver for Germany, and so on). There were few if any sponsorhsip logos on the cars or on the drivers' uniforms; it was a game for wealthy sportsman and the manufacturers of world-class sports cars, not for international corporations marketing beer, cigarettes, or clothing.

Daley's format is essentially to focus on the sport nation-by-nation, with a chapter on each major grand prix and sports car event (in the latter group, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, and Le Mans).

Daley captures the color and danger of the era very well, anecdotally and almost gossipy at times. He captures the specifics of time and place, the ambiance of the circuits. Speaking of the circuits, several of those featured in Cars at Speed - the old Nurburgring, Zandvoort, Reims - have not been used for years, victims of economics or heightened safety standards. Others - Monza, Spa, Silverstone - have seen major alterations, mostly in the name of safety - and bear little resemblance to the circuits described in Cars at Speed.

Daley is above all preoccupied with the danger of the sport, and that overriding possibility of death on the track is perhaps the main theme of the book. According to Daley, that aspect of the original book drew a lot of criticism from the fraternity of motor racing journalists, who downplayed the death and danger of the era almost to a fault. (In that vein, I remember a piece in the mid-60s, written - I believe - by Road & Track's then-F1 correspondent, Henry Manney, describing the death of a driver during the German Grand Prix (I forget the specific driver, perhaps de Beaufort or Anderson or Mitter). Manney's terse comment: "Also, sad to relate, poor _________ went off at Bergwerk and suffered fatal injuries." That was it.)

Middle-aged readers will read this with a sense of nostalgia for a more romantic and less commercialized era, albeit a much more dangerous one. Younger readers will read it with a different perspective, perhaps with wonder that so much death and danger was allowed to persist for so long before reforms were implemented. But they may also be fascinated by a look into a day when money wasn't everything, when the drivers seemed to have more varied personalities and interests than they do now, and when even a determined amateur could find his way onto a Grand Prix grid.

A final comment on some of the book's features: unlike Daley's The Cruel Sport, this book is all text with no photographs other than those on the cover. There are, however, diagrams of the circuits, and listings of the winners of major F1 and sports car races through 1961.

An interesting read to be sure. Mr. Daley regulary interjects rather morbid thoughts and incidents. Yes, these things happened, but one is left with the feeling those participants of the era/period (1935-1960)were borderline psychotics with a death wish. This era surely was a difficult transitional and learning period for those involved which, in my humble opinion, this author's perspective is overly negative and a bit sarcastic.

This volume is a bit earlier, written in the 1961 season, just before Lotus introduced the goalpost 25. It is VERY interesting, capturing the period, esp. the thrill, romance in the eyes of the drivers and fans (romance and attraction of racing, rather than romantic/love/sexual), and overt deadly dangerous nature of racing from the 1950s and early 60s.

It isn't glossed, highly pictured, or cover much of the more well known drivers of the later 1960s. As it was written in 1961, most weren't around yet. The illustrations that are there show the track layouts of the period.

If one is very interested in the older history of Grand Prix racing (and the sports car racing up to the beginning of the 1960s and the beginning of the British rise to F1 dominance (which is still in place, as most teams are British-based and have huge contingents of Brits on the teams), then this book will be interesting.

Be warned: this period of F1 was VERY dangerous and drivers died on a regular basis, often a number in a single season. Daley says it like he saw it, warts and all. For me, that makes this book even more interesting, as the reader gets to know their heroes the way they were known by those around them. Some bubbles may get burst in the process. If unwilling to experience that, don't bother to read it.

As for me, I found it VERY interesting and WELL worth the price and time to read. It is practically a primary source on an era now mostly lost in romance and the fog of memory. It is from the period and of the period. To a history-person who loves F1 racing, this is a "must have" on your self, whether you agree with the author or not. Many surviving folks from the period likely HATE it, as it reminds them of the bad times that surround their good memories. I'd say it balances the story . . .
I'd recommend it and am VERY glad I bought it!

I find this book to be very entertaining. Overall, the writing is excellent, but the chapters seem disjointed. I was puzzled at the abrupt transitions into tangents. Then, I figured out that the author threw several columns together to create each chapter. I don't know why he didn't just re-publish the columns if he wasn't going to take the effort to massage his stories so that the story flows more cohesively. The disjointed nature of the storytelling prevents me from giving this book five stars.

I first read this book as an eighth grader back in 1964. It hooked me on racing. Over the years, I had thought many times about rereading it.
I was very happy to see it had been reissued. It wasn't disappointing to reread it.
If you are interested in the time period it is written about, I doubt you can find a better history. As I read it, I was reminded of the the computer racing simulation called Grand Prix Legends which is based on the racing era of the book.

Good book with a lot of very entertaining chapters summarizing great moments of the "old days" of racing. Many of them are created around accidents, like the ones about first Paris-Madrid event, Le Mans 55 or the last Mille Miglia. But there're also other interesting parts. And anyway crashes were usually fatal on these days and were part of racing also.

Summarizing: a book I recommend to anyone who love that age of motor racing :)

Cars at Speed is very similar to one of Daly's other books, The Cruel Sport. Though it should be mentioned that Cars at Speed was initially published years before The Cruel Sport. The Cruel Sport had breathtaking pictures of Grand Prix racing from the era, with enough text to tell the story behind the pictures. Cars at Speed is all about the stories.

The stories are excellent and another great view into the world of motorsport. The focal period of the book is the 1950s and early 60s when the author lived in Europe covering the sport. Each chapter focuses on a particular track, with other stories included as Daly sees fit to include them. As in The Cruel Sport, Daly tells us that death was a big part of the sport, and the drivers knew it could happen, but dwelling on it wouldn't do them any good. Death is a major theme of this book, lots of drivers did die during this era as motor racing was nowhere near as safe as it is today.

While the focus was on the 1950s, I found the stories of the prewar era about the great Mercedes and Auto Unions of the 1930s some of the most fascinating. They way they came prepared to race as opposed to some of the smaller teams can't help but remind me of the current F1 situation of the larger teams with half billion dollar budgets and the smaller teams scraping by on fifty million. It goes to prove, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in motor racing, but becomes a superb read for anyone interested in F1, Le Mans, or Mille Miglia history. The stories are fast-moving and interesting.

Inside this book I was hoping to discover a delightful account of sports car racing's early European history complete with descriptions and comparisons of these beautiful machines and the stories of their drivers. What I found was a "cocktail" racing fan's chauvinistic view whom knows nothing about racing or the engineering genius behind these machines, but is more than happy to talk about where he has been and experienced in a pseudo-sophisticated manner. Simply imagine a tabloid writer describing a race and you should understand this book. Every other paragraph centers on the death of drivers or spectators. This shallow attempt of "shock-value" writing defines his style.
This book did help me understand two things; how primitive European tracks were when compared to tracks in the US of the same era, and how racing in the US centered on fans while racing in Europe was reserved for the privileged. The icing on the cake for me was his hatred of American cars, fans, and tracks.