Pro Sports Car Racing in America 1958-1974 [Hardcover]

Dave Friedman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

Penske, Shelby, Hall, Gurney, Hill, Ginther, Reventlow, Miles, Cunningham, Krause - these are the men who dominated sports car racing in North America at the start of the 1958 racing season. They had spent a lot of their own money on the hobby they loved, but now they wanted something back. They wanted to go pro. For the next 16 years, the cars became progressively faster, the competition hotter, and the stakes higher. But what was it really like to thread a factory-sponsored Porsche 917 or Ferrari 512 through the corkscrew at Riverside or to tromp the brake on a factory McLaren at the last possible deep spot of the Canadian Corner at Road America? Few are fortunate to know first-hand, but for the rest, Dave Friedman's photography straps you in the driver's seat. More than 300 photos, many in color, relive the fastest, hottest, most intense racing in American history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Friedman is a world renowned photographer and motion picture still photographer known for his pictures of celebrities and cinema, racing and ballet. In 1986, Friedman became the first and only Still Photographer to be voted in to the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. By the 1990s, the film industry had drastically changed and Friedman didn\u2019t like what he saw. He decided to move on to other photographic challenges such as international endurance racing and classical ballet, for which his pictures have won numerous awards. David Friedman currently resides in southern California.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks International (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760306184
• ISBN-13: 978-0760306185
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,468,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pro Sports Car Racing in America, 1958/1974, July 5, 2002

By 

Dennis Kochan (Allentown, Pa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pro Sports Car Racing in America 1958-1974 (Hardcover)

Some really good photographs and, at times a good account of the object of same. ABSOLUTELY lacking of what races where run at what time and all of the accompaning data that you would, and have come to expect from a book such as as this.

As such, if you try to correlate the data from other books with the non-existant data from this book.............

Really nothing more than a 'magazine article' which had been given limited pages......

A limited volume, which only leads us to wait, and hope for someone else to do a complete job on this subject.

Dennis

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good...but not great, September 18, 2007

By 

P. Gorski (Milwaukee WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pro Sports Car Racing in America 1958-1974 (Hardcover)

As others have mentioned, the photos are great. They do a great job of showing the state and conditions of sports car racing at the time. So if the photos are great, why only three stars?

Because the content beyond that is really light. I'm too young to have seen these cars the first time(36 now) but have seen many of them at vintage events. While pictures of a field full of three different types of Lotus are enjoyable to look at, there's no explanation as to what makes them different. The same is true for all the marques. Also missing is much detail from or about the drivers and teams.

Finally, the book has a decided West Coast bias. I've been to Road Atlanta several times and live a short drive from Road America but found few photos from either of these tracks.

It's not bad, but you'll need some other reference material to fill in the dead air around the great images.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Pictorial of a bygone era in racing., July 26, 2008

By 

Jose Lopez "Jose Lopez" (Miami,Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Sports Car Racing in America 1958-1974 (Hardcover)

This is a Really Nice Pictorial.. Of a Bygone era..Many who did not have the pleasure to see these cool cars myself included get a Chance at it.Before Sponsors and Rude People took it over.Not as many Corvette Pics as I would like, but interesting nonetheless. Mr.Friedman, Thank you, And Consider Doing another Corvette Racing book!