Racing in the Rain: My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team
by John Horsman
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Book Summary Information
Author: John HorsmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-15
ISBN: 1893618714
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: David Bull Publishing
Book Reviews of Racing in the Rain: My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team
Book Review: A New Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Far too many "Three Star" or "Four Star" books are given a "Five Star" rating, but John Horsman's, Racing in the Rain, truly deserves five stars because it is one of less than a handful of automotive racing books that is absolutely first class in informing the reader, and doing it elegantly, of both how and why some racing cars win and others just compete. I put it along side Laurence Pomeroy's, The Grand Prix Car, and Karl Ludvigson's, Mercedes-Benz Racing Cars, as the best of the genre.
Horsman has the direct personal experience and engineering expertise to know and understand what went on in the sportscar racing world from the late 1950s through the early 1980s, a period that coincides with the golden age of prototype sportscar racing. In this era, Aston-Martin, Ford, Porsche, and Mirage battled with Ferrari, Matra, Alfa Romeo, Renault-Alpine, and other marques in endurance competitions that tested designers, teams, drivers and cars. Rule fixing or "performance balancing" was not part of the racing scene then: it was a tough, honest, win-or-lose world, and John Horsman had an insider's view of it all, and, happily for us, provides a clear, well-written, and, most importantly, an informative account of what went on and why.
One learns, for example, exactly how much bhp and at what rpm a Ford engine produced and what its design weaknesses were and what measures were taken to turn an essentially production-car engine into a race-winning proposition, or what the drag and frontal areas of Mirage racing cars were and, thus, what speeds down the Mulsanne straight might expected, etc., and consequently why some cars won, others came close, or still others failed entirely. In particular, he writes with an unusually clear-sighted eye when discussing Porsche, recognizing the firm's real engineering and production strengths, but not in an awe-struck way (as so many do) for he is able to see how, occasionally, blindness and arrogance on the part of Porsche people led to potential victories slipping away. I also appreciated the hard information Horsman provides on myth-shrouded or obscure topics such as the reason why the Weslake-Ford V-12 failed to be used in Mirage cars.
From an engineer, like Horsman, one expects accurate and detailed information on the cars he worked on or of those against which he competed, but he is also good in capturing the essence of the personalities he encountered during a quarter century's involvement in racing at the highest level. Compassion and feeling are shown where deserved, good drivers are respected and the risks that all assumed are not overlooked, while the occasional fools and knaves of the racing car world are given what they deserve.
If you have even the slightest interest in sportscar racing, you should get this book immediately, but even if your motoring interests lie outside this area of the automotive performance world, you will still enjoy reading it -though be warned, it will make other car books seem thin, pale and dull.
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Summary of Racing in the Rain: My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team
Few can claim that their racing careers spanned the greatest decades in sports-car competition-the 1960s and 1970s-and then extended into the 1980s. Fewer still were consistently successful. John Horsman is one of the fortunate few. Horsman's vivid personal account takes you to the world's greates circuits and puts you alongside the drivers and the crew as you experience things such as Jacky Ickx's prowess driving in the rain, the fiery determination of Pedro Rodriguez and his astonishing come-from-behind wins, and Horsman's exciting solution to the Porsche 917's handling problems, with a tail of his own design.History Books
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