| Cars at Speed: Classic Stories from Grand Prix's Golden Age | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 91340
Category: Book
Author: Robert Daley
Publisher: Motorbooks
Studio: Motorbooks
Manufacturer: Motorbooks
Label: Motorbooks
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0760331170
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.72
EAN: 9780760331170
ASIN: 0760331170
Publication Date: June 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Long before he became a best-selling novelist, Robert Daley was a European sports correspondent for the New York Times. In 1961, he published his first book, Cars At Speed, an historical and contemporary look at Grand Prix and sports car racing at twelve of the worlds greatest circuits.
This hard-to-find and now collectible book, widely considered one of the best books ever written about sports car racing, returns here in a special edition, with a new Introduction by Daley as well as commissioned drawings of each featured circuit.
A rare opportunity to travel back in time to racings golden era, Cars at Speed offers a fascinating look at a time when danger and passion defined racing. Daley discusses the Grand Prix circuits of that era--e.g., Nu00fcrburgring, Monza, Silverstone, Zandvoort, Spa, Monaco--detailing the qualities, history, great races, controversies, and accidents of each. He focuses on the stories of drivers such as the Marquis de Portago, Phil Hill, Stirling Moss, and Jean Behra, among others, recreating the mythical quality of the Grand Prix in its prime.
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| Customer Reviews:
 An entertaining book about the golden age of car racing July 11, 2008
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 :)
Another excellent book by Daly March 31, 2008
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.
 Mediocre tabloid journalism March 14, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
 Ghoulish January 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
 EXCELLENT BOOK August 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
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