Brooklands - The Complete Motor Racing History

William Boddy

ISBN 10: 1899870563 / ISBN 13: 9781899870561

Edité par Motor Racing Publications Ltd, 2001

A propos de cet article

Forget your carbon-fibre hypercars, telemetry, DRS, tyre strategy apps and drivers who spend half the race apologising over the radio. Before all that there was Brooklands ? a vast concrete bowl where men with spectacular moustaches and an apparently casual attitude towards self-preservation attempted to discover exactly how fast machinery, physics and common sense could be persuaded to travel before parting company. William Boddy wasn?t merely writing about Brooklands; he practically lived there. Having first fallen under its spell as a boy in the 1920s, he devoted decades to preserving its history, eventually producing what is widely regarded as the definitive account of the world?s first purpose-built motor racing circuit. This substantial 480-page volume charts everything from the circuit?s creation in 1907 through its golden years of record-breaking, Grand Prix racing and engineering innovation, before the outbreak of the Second World War brought competitive racing at Brooklands to an abrupt halt. What makes this book so remarkable is that it isn?t simply a catalogue of races and lap times. It is a love letter to an era when drivers routinely climbed into machines that looked as though they?d been assembled from girders, brass plumbing and optimism, then accelerated towards concrete banking with little more than a leather helmet and the comforting thought that "it?ll probably be fine." The cast of pioneering engineers, fearless racers, eccentric inventors and wealthy enthusiasts reads like Britain?s answer to the Wild West?only with considerably more oil leaks. The research is astonishing. Boddy knew many of the personalities involved personally, spent decades gathering photographs, programmes, technical records and first-hand accounts, and stitches them together into an absorbing narrative that captures both the excitement and sheer improbability of early motor racing. Whether your interest lies in vintage Bentleys, Napier monsters, aero-engined specials or simply the extraordinary people who believed 120mph on rough concrete was a splendid afternoon?s entertainment, there?s something here to delight. Of course, this is not the sort of book one casually flicks through while waiting for the kettle to boil. It is wonderfully, gloriously obsessive. Every race, record, machine and memorable incident receives the attention it deserves, making this a volume that rewards dipping into repeatedly?or disappearing with for an entire rainy weekend while muttering things like, "Good heavens, they really did that." Condition: Good. The book remains in pleasing, fully readable condition with the expected signs of a previous life. It has already survived over a century?s worth of motoring history, numerous enthusiastic owners and, presumably, the temptation to take the racing line through the living room. It is now patiently waiting for the next custodian who appreciates that speed may be fleeting, but a really good motoring history is built to last.

N° de réf. du vendeur 6756

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Brooklands - The Complete Motor Racing History
• Éditeur: Motor Racing Publications Ltd
• Date de parution: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1899870563
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781899870561
• Reliure: Hardback
• État de l'article: Near Fine

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

This is a definitive history of the world's first purpose built motor racing course. The author first visited the famous Brooklands Motor Course as a youngster in the 1920s and quickly became a fixture at the track, which a wealthy landowner had built in 1907 and on which motor racing and motor industry testing was to take place through to 1939, when World War II brought it all to a halt. Much of the land was then given over to aviation, then to industrial development, but parts of the historic track still survive, along with many restored and refurbished buildings steeped in motor racing history. Today they form a backcloth to the many activities staged by motor clubs in the South East of England and to the newly created Brooklands Museum, which is devoted to both motorsports and aviation. The editor of the magazine "Motor Sport" for more than half a century, Bill Boddy felt the loss of Brooklands to motor racing very deeply and was moved to write its definitive history, which has been long out of print but forms the basis for this completely new edition, incorporating extensive revisions and new material, and is now being issued by Motor Racing Publications as a limited edition collector's item. A quantity of the illustrations which appeared in the previous edition have been used again, but they have been augmented by many more, for which the publishers are grateful to both the Brooklands Museum and the Brooklands Society for access to their respective archives. No library of motor racing history can be complete without the inclusion of a book which pays due tribute to what many would regard as the most significant race track of them all. For it was Brooklands, thanks to the generosity of landowner Hugh Locke King, which began it all, and it was its early success which inspired people in the USA to build Indianapolis and for Europe's motorsports drivers, from international stars to unknown novices, to use it week after week for their racing and record-breaking activities.