Dan Gurneys Eagle Racing Cars [Hardcover]

John Zimmermann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

In the more than four decades since it was founded by racing legends Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby, All American Racers has consistently built cars that have competed and won at the highest levels of motorsports. One of the earliest AAR Eagles made racing history in 1967 when Gurney himself drove it to victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, making him the only American in Formula 1 to ever win a GP in a car of his own making. Less than a year later, an Eagle driven by Bobby Unser would capture the marque's first Indianapolis 500 victory, with others to follow in 1973 and 1975. Two decades later, AAR's Toyota Eagle Mark III dominated IMSA s Grand Touring Prototype category, scoring back-to-back drivers and manufacturers championships in 1992 and 1993. Under Gurney's leadership, AAR has always applied a combination of cutting-edge engineering, experimentation, and real-world driving experience to produce cars that were unmatched in their speed, sophistication, and elegance. In Dan Gurney's Eagle Racing Cars: The Technical History of the Machines Designed and Built by All American Racers, author John Zimmermann delivers the definitive account of the planning, development and race history of every car built by AAR. Drawing on extensive interviews with Dan Gurney and the company's top designers, engineers, and drivers, Zimmermann explains how each car was conceived, created, and refined for maximum performance. His descriptions and analysis are accompanied by hundreds of color and black and white photos showing each car's journey from the drawing board to the racetrack.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Zimmermann was exposed to racing at birth. His father worked for famed race car builder Kurtis Kraft, and later as a mechanic at Indianapolis and on the Championship Trail for drivers such as Rex Mays, Ted Horn, and Troy Ruttman. John has written about racing for more than 25 years, first at RACECAR before helping found both On Track and RACER, overseeing the latter for a dozen years. He was also motorsports editor at AutoWeek and editor of SportsCar, and his book The Atlantic Championship celebrates the first 25 years of Formula Atlantic. His freelance work has appeared in Road & Track, Motor Sport, Autosport, and Vintage Motorsport, among others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: David Bull Publishing (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189361882X
• ISBN-13: 978-1893618824
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Everyone said we couldn't do it"--Dan Gurney, from the book, September 24, 2007

By 

John Joss (Los Altos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dan Gurneys Eagle Racing Cars (Hardcover)

Dan Gurney is an American original who defied the skeptics: he, Bruce McLaren and Sir Jack Brabham created, raced and won Grand Prix events with their own Formula 1 cars, at the pinnacle of motorsports. Of those three, Gurney was the only American to win an F1 Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, 1967) in a car he conceived, designed and built--a record unlikely ever to be challenged (Brabham won in France, Holland and Germany in 1966, Monaco and Germany in 1967; McLaren took Belgium in 1968).

This is the basic premise of Gurney's greatness at All American Racers (AAR), captured brilliantly in this new David Bull book, written by John Zimmermann with exquisite attention to detail and carefully quoted history from many participants. It is illustrated lavishly with important historical photos to levels of information that will satisfy the most demanding reader, and published to Bull's typical standards of excellence.

Zimmermann explores not only the Gurney-Eagle F1 car but many of the 157 cars that emerged from AAR's Santa Ana facility (invited guests can see a select few in the small AAR museum): the Indycars (49 victories!) and their derivatives in other formulae, the CanAm McLeagle, the TransAm Barracudas, the Champ cars, the Toyota GTP, GTU and GTO winners and what the author calls unfulfilled ambitions, or `Stillborn Eagles,' an insider's look at efforts that came to nought (often for reasons beyond Gurney's control--rule changes, for example). Bonuses: his unique `Alligator' motorcycle, in 2007 still under intensive development, and the `Gurney Flap.'

Life is struggle; that's normal. Time and money are relentless taskmasters. The odds facing designers, builders and drivers of race cars are beyond long into some new dimension of space-time, at appalling risk. On track, luck is often the key, at even longer odds. As this book explains, Gurney never relied on luck, never paused to consider the odds against success. He invested himself at levels of energy, concentration and commitment that are staggering to read about, supported by designers and master craftsmen whom he motivated with his enthusiasm.

Besides designing and building beautiful, winning race cars, he pioneered, e.g. with Harry Weslake, important advances in valve angles and combustion-chamber configurations, as well as in materials applications such as titanium, carbon fiber and magnesium, and in aerodynamics. He innovated in every category in which he competed, particularly at Indy and especially with Ford V-8 engines (Gurney and Weslake met over a Ford V-8 `stock block' project). The record, summarized in the Appendix, speaks for itself.

Gurney had another obstacle to overcome. Unlike some well known people in the sport, he is saddled with the heavy burden of being a kind, decent, modest and charming individual who has proved that nice guys can finish first. His personal racing memoir, to which his wife Evi is contributing, is in process. Thousands of eager readers can hardly wait to read it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK for general knowledge but not in depth, March 17, 2009

By 

John Thornton "BigdaddyJT" (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dan Gurneys Eagle Racing Cars (Hardcover)

Don't buy this book expecting to find in-depth information on any of the many racing cars raced or tested by AAR. Most cars get little attention and those that do merit more than five paragraphs are still poorly covered. Don't expect great photographs either. This book has SOME photos but again they provide little detail. If you want a very general overview of AAR and their accomplishments this book will probably satisfy that requirement but if you want detailed photos, technical illustrations, and technical information you'll have to look elsewhere.

There is next to nothing on the F1 Eagle and next to nothing on the Gurney-Weslake small block Ford head conversion with intake manifold. Four pages are all the book devotes to this engine. The Gurney-Weslake V-12 also gets only four pages of text and two pages of photos. The entire Grand Prix Eagle chapter has five pages of text and six pages of photos. That's it for an entire F1 season and one of the most beautiful F1 cars ever created! There are a handful of good photos but only two beautiful photos of the GP Eagles.

Most of the chapters are only four pages long. The author has done a very good job of LISTING every AAR racing car and including at least one photo but if want much more than that a list and accompanying photo or three this book is not for you. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Gurney's Eagle Racing Cars, September 21, 2007

By 

S. H. Shunck (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dan Gurneys Eagle Racing Cars (Hardcover)

A fantastic book. Great photos and very well written!!! This book is a "must have" for any racing fan. A very informative book. If you like racing, history and "insider" stories and information this is the book for you. Buy it - you will not be sorry!