Customer Reviews

Forza Amon! A Biography of Chris Amon

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A big fan of Chris Amon, I tried to follow his career and watched some of the Formula One races where he was comfortably leading (Jarama 1968, Montjuich 1969) and must have won. The way I felt witnessing his car breaking down those times, I cannot even imagine how he must have felt! I also watched some other of his rides during those years in Spain, France and Britain. And I unfortunately missed his masterful driving pieces at Monza, Spa and, very especially, Clermont-Ferrand. After all, not much F1 on TV then, and no time and money to get to every Grand Prix there was.

And here I found, a few months ago, his biography written by no less than Eoin Young. Besides attending a race live, the other best way of knowing what was going on, and getting fine entertainment out of the reading, was to get a copy of Autocar, (not easy to find here in Spain) and read one of Eoin's articles. Of course, I couldn't miss this book!

I really felt transported to the "good old times", and enjoyed enormously the reading. It was much better than attending the missing races, and knowing first-hand about Chris personality, ups and downs, were both gratifying and touching. I especially savoured the italian anecdotes of his Ferrari times: His lunches in the company of the great Enzo Ferrari, were really something, not to mention the return trips with the Old Man at the wheel of the 2+2 Berlinetta. And the situation during the '67 Le Mans 24-hour, in the middle of the night, trying to replace a punctured wheel of his P4, can make you laugh to tears.

I believe this book is a must for anyone interested in the history of motorsport. Thanks to Eoin for such great reading moments.

"Forza Amon" is the first full length biography of this legendary unlucky driver, and is a ripping good yarn. Previous writings about Amon were usually hindered by the fact that Amon was considered to be part of a trio - Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme were other New Zealand drivers participating in Formula One at more or less the same time as Chris, and there are a number of "Trio at the top" titles which deal with all three New Zealanders. "Forza Amon" is written by a fellow New Zealander, Eoin Young, who used to work for the McLaren Racing Team in the 1960's, and later on as a motorsport journalist. Young and Amon both knew each other back in the early McLaren days when Chris was an up and comer in the game.

The tale begins with a young Kiwi on a farm in Bulls, New Zealand, the same young Kiwi who would taste the ultimate success at Le Mans in 1966, and who would go on to lead the famous and illustrious Ferrari team in their F1 efforts. During a Formula One career spanning 13 seasons from 1963 to 1976, Amon would famously lead 183 laps in Formula One Championship races, failing to finish first even once (he did win a couple of non-championship F1 events, including the 1971 Argentine F1 race).

Yound writes of Amon's early motorsport endeavours in small town NZ in the 50's, before debutting with Reg Parnell's outfit in 1963, having made the trip to Europe. The glory days with Ferrari, March, and Matra are covered. The distasterous Amon F1 car is discussed, as is the shambolic 1973 effort with Tecno, before Amon stepped into the 3rd Tyrell for the penultimate race of the season. Chris's F1 career winds down with Ensign, the little outfit for which Chris finished 5th in one race.

The book benefits from what appears to considerable input from Chris himself - it is obvious that Young spent a lot of time down on the family farm in Bulls, coaxing these stories out of Chris over a beer (or dozen). Young also draws upon contempory writings particularly those of Motorsport and Denis Jenkinson. There are a number of photographs, colour and black & white in 4 inserts throughout the book. "Forza Amon!" is fast, easy, and enjoyable reading especially for those who dislike the sanitized Formula One of today.

Despite some glaring omissions, such as the lack of any detail about Amon's first marriage, this is a very interesting biography, especially for a New Zealand reader who is old enough to remember Amon's racing years. The book is good but noticeably shorter than Young's biographies of Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme.

I've seen Chris Amon race a few times in the sixties. In formula 2 in Zolder (where I was born) and in formula 1 in Franchorchamps. He was a nice chap (he still is, I suppose)and readily spent a couple of minutes with a 15-year old who spoke lousy English. Posing for a few pictures was no problem either. 40-odd years later, I still have the (black&white) snapshots.
I always considered him to be one of the best drivers ever. Victories and/or world titles never tell the complete story. Michael Schumacher is a mediocre, because very unsportsmanlike, driver with an impressive roll of honour. Amon was a great driver and, most of all, a real human being, not a walking advertising column.

Back in the olden days-well, the seventies-when there was no such thing as F1 racing on teevee, one had to rely on periodicals to stay current! Really, magazines! One quickly discovered the good magazines were:"Autosport","Motorsport" and "Competition Press" and that guys like Denis Jenkinson, Pete Lyons and Eoin Young were the guys you wanted to read. Sure there were others but these were my big three. Anyway, imagine my delight on finding a biography of the eternally unlucky Kiwi written by the eternally entertaining one! I only saw Amon in action twice, both times near the end of his career (Long Beach and Anderstorp 1976) but had known of him for years longer and like I said: Eoin Young's prose is of the best! The book is wonderfully evocative of a better time in the world of autoracing, or so it would seem; the drivers, anyway, were personalities and not corporate paper dolls, the circuits varied and challenging and the cars needful of drivers, real drivers!

If for nothing more than chapter three, "High times: the Ditton Road Flyers and 'Big Ed'"this book is well worth the money and the time it takes to read. I was laughing so hard it was a wonder the nice men with the butterfly nets didn't come and take me to the laughing academy.

The rest of the book is likewise engaging, informative and sometimes the incidents described are tragic, so that it's a relief to find that our hero hadn't gone home to Bulls, New Zealand to become a bitter recluse forever damning the (bad) old days.

I will certainly be keeping an eye open for future offerings from Mister Young, as long as he keeps writing 'em, I'll keep reading 'em.