Category: History

Books – 100 Le Mans

“100 Le Mans: A Century at the World’s Greatest Endurance Race” – Glen Smale

Very probably, of all the books that I have, this is one of the very few that got me anxious. “100 Le Mans: A Century at the World’s Greatest Endurance Race”, by Glen Smale, was announced in 2022. Hardcover, 240 pages, with a slip case and chock-full of photos, celebrating Le Mans’ centennial race. Has to be awesome so a must buy, right? When I saw it on Amazon I immediately put it on pre-order, and it should come out in 2023. Well, as soon as the initial euphoria passed, I payed better attention to the price. I know books nowadays are expensive, yet this one was REALLY expensive, especially factoring in shipping fees. So I thought better of it and grudgingly canceled my pre-order 🙄. Oh well, another awesome book that was just too darn expensive…

For every year there’s a small write-up on the race.

I honestly forgot about the book; the centennial Le Mans came, I watched the race and busied myself trying to decide what 2023 models would be must buys. Fast forward to July, 2024. Since Amazon Prime Day was coming, my son asked me to get him a few books. So I went to Amazon and while looking for his books, there’s “100 Le Mans”, on sale. For US$ 27,00 😲. Locally, so no oversea shipping 😲😲. When first announced, the price was over $100, plus shipping.

The pictures are FANTASTIC!

I bought it on the spot and only after paying and confirming my order was good that I remembered that I still needed to order my son’s books 😂. And as expected, I got what I paid for. This is important: do NOT expect it to be the be-all-end-all book about Le Mans. It is a (good) coffee table book, with loads of info and fantastic photographs. For every year there’s a small resume and a few anecdotes of that year’s race (the best part, IMO). Since these anecdotes were the “big” stories of that year, most of them were not news to me, however I still learned a couple new stories. This book is NOT the definitive book on Le Mans up to 2023, despite the title.

Someone doesn’t know squat about racing cars…

Nonetheless, the photography is GREAT, though, there is this caption on one of the fold-out pictures 😖. How the proof-reader could have mistaken a R18 TDI for a M3 GT2 is beyond me… Fortunately I can show the real car in question 😁. I only found that one wrong, yet specially with the older cars that I’m not very familiar with, there could be more mistakes. Honestly, a very small blunder, nothing that would condemn the book. Even so, do I recommend this book? Maybe not. Let’s start with the title. Though the name says 100 Le Mans, it covers 99 years, from 1923 to 2022. That right there tells me that this book came out before the centennial race to be a cash grab. “Let’s milk the cash cow before the centennial race becomes old news…”🤑 I’m sure this book was not intended for the hardcore Le Mans nut, but for the casual fan. Therefor, it will be disappointing for some (like me). Honestly, W-143 has MUCH more general information on Le Mans than 100 Le Mans.

The definition of a coffee table book – great photos and a lot of anecdotal information.

With all that, I would say “100 Le Mans” is more of a light & generic book about Le Mans. I read it from cover to cover (captions and all) in I think about 4-5 hours. A nice read, no doubt, with GREAT photos, yet I would like to taste more meat in my sandwich, you know? Basically, more info, more content. Bottom line, if you want a generic coffee table book on Le Mans, this is a (very?) nice buy. If you want technical statistics, pit lane stories or more detailed information, very probably this is not for you. Even if you can find it for a heavily discounted price. And yes, now I know the reason for the huge price slash…🙄

Caveat emptor.

Books – Racing In The Dark

“RACING IN THE DARK: When The Bentley Boys Conquered Le Mans” – Peter Grimsdale

I have a confession to make. Until very recently, in my eyes Bentley was just a “cheaper Rolls Royce”. Yeah, they had a lot of victories at Le Mans and won again in 2003, nonetheless for the last 50 or 60 years it was just a luxury brand. Very good cars, no doubt, yet only a luxury brand. However, that view changed a lot after I read Peter Grimsdale’s book. With a fluid and enticing writing, Grimsdale showed me the story of W. O. Bentley, and his saga to make a great car. And he did – with blood, sweat and tears he made what was at the time, probably THE best sports car in the market.

Unfortunately though, financial strife ended his dream, to the point where the once great Bentley Motors became a cheaper Rolls Royce 😣. I truly loved the book – honestly, without a doubt the best car book I read in the last couple of years. A hardback with not too many photos (unfortunately), it is easily available at Amazon. Despite the title, I would say this book would be for all motorsports enthusiasts.

Onboard race footage with Fangio

A few years ago, I posted the link to a short video showing footage of Fangio testing a Maserati 250F in 1957 at Modena. The video is really cool, showing El Chueco deftly handling that beautiful car. I’m bringing up this again because yesterday I found out how they made that footage. When I first saw that video I assumed that the camera had been fixed to the rear of the car, and remotely triggered by Fangio himself. However, I was mistaken, and as you can see above, it was not shot using a GoPro either 😂. Well, I therefor conclude that if pilots at that time had balls of steel, cameramen had balls of adamantium. Even though it was Fangio at the wheel, holy cow! 😲😲😲

Donohue & Penske Documentary

Written by Brock Yates, I think “Four Hands on The Wheel” came out in 1970. The film is a 47 minutes look into the partnership between Mark Donohue and Roger Penske. Fantastic to see Penske’s blue and yellow Sunoco cars of the late 60s, from Camaros to Lolas. In other words, a must see for gearheads fans of vintage racing.

Le Mans 1968

Found this one yesterday. All in all, 33 minutes of very nice footage of the 1968 race. As a bonus, it has an English voice-over narration (the original film is in French). And best of all, this time there isn’t that typical gut-wrenching seizure-inducing awfully terrible elevator music that you hear a lot in many of the 60s and 70s documentaries.

PS: This is the third nice film I found about the 1968 race. While from some years you can’t find zilch, for some reason 1968 was prolific.

Auto Union’s Silberpfeile

After I found that old Grand Prix racing video I posted a few days ago, I stumbled upon this. This one is exclusively about Auto Union’s Silver Arrows. Almost 42 minutes long, the footage is pretty good. Yet, being quite old, it is far from the “movies quality” we’re currently used to. And of course, the race noises and tires screeching dubbed over the scenes are not exactly high quality…🙄 Even so, pretty nice for the Silberpfeil fan.

Golden Age of Grand Prix Racing

Though this has been on YouTube for many years, I first saw it last night. The original documentary is pretty old (80s, perhaps?), so the video quality is far from what we expect today. Even so, it’s a delightful 49 minutes about the Golden Era of Grand Prix racing. The last third part of the film is almost solely about the Silberpfeile, which of course was the best part in my opinion. In fact, this was the first time I saw color footage on the Silver Arrows. All in all, a very nice documentary about the Silberpfeile and something on their predecessors.

Books – Against Death and Time

“Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing’s Glory Years” – Brock Yates

Originally published in 2004, I got this book around 2006 or 2007. It was a gift from my friend Jeff, a fellow moderator at DiecastXchange, at the time the biggest 1:18 diecast forum on the web. Back then I was an avid 1:18 collector, trying to build a focused collection 🙄. I wanted to stick to Le Mans and Silberpfeile, and just a few road cars, yet in 1:18 those themes were scarce. And books like this didn’t help either. Brock Yates tells a great story about the 1955 Indy 500, and Bill Vukovich’s tragic accident. He also talks about the 1955 Le Mans tragedy and the aftermath. For both cases, it was VERY interesting to see how much a pilot’s safety (and life) was important. Or better said, how little that mattered. He also writes about the death of James Dean, in the last part of the book. However, being honest, that part was subpar compared to the rest. Being blunt, he could have stopped at Le Mans.

Even so, all in all a good book. To the point that I branched my 1:18 collection into vintage Indy racecars 😣. Despite the James Dean part, it’s a very good book. However, I looked it up at Amazon and it’s out of print. If you get a chance to get one, even if you’re not into Indy, it’s a good way to understand a little how racing was done in the 50s. Oh, Brock Yates also wrote “Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine”.

Gold. Pure gold…

The video above is about John Wyer’s Gulf Porsche 917 team. With interviews with Pedro Rodriguez, Jo “Seppi” Siffert and John Wyer himself, it focuses on the JWA team in 1970. The video, 33 minutes long, covers all the 1970 championship races, from Daytona to Zeltweg. The most interesting part is John Wyer’s take on the team’s performance on each race. In the end, a delightful half hour that will please any vintage gearhead.