Pro Sports Car Racing In America 1958 1974

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.

Presents sports car racing, providing simple explanations surrounding the sport including descriptions of famous races, the culture of racing, and brief career highlights of its legendary stars.

This comprehensive reference guide reviews the literature concerning the impact of the automobile on American social, economic, and political history. Covering the complete history of the automobile to date, twelve chapters of bibliographic essays describe the important works in a series of related topics and provide broad thematic contexts. This work includes general histories of the automobile, the industry it spawned and labor-management relations, as well as biographies of famous automotive personalities. Focusing on books concerned with various social aspects, chapters discuss such issues as the car's influence on family life, youth, women, the elderly, minorities, literature, and leisure and recreation. Berger has also included works that investigate the government's role in aiding and regulating the automobile, with sections on roads and highways, safety, and pollution. The guide concludes with an overview of reference works and periodicals in the field and a description of selected research collections. The Automobile in American History and Culture provides a resource with which to examine the entire field and its structure. Popular culture scholars and enthusiasts involved in automotive research will appreciate the extensive scope of this reference. Cross-referenced throughout, it will serve as a valuable research tool.

In the forty-year period between 1951 and 1991, Canadian sports car competition underwent a massive change, transforming itself from an amateur recreational pastime to a commercialized profession and from an individual sport to a spectacle for mass consumption. The Chequered Past is the story of the struggle over power and purpose within the Canadian auto sport that led to this transformation. The first comprehensive history of sports car racing and rallying in Canada, The Chequered Past traces the efforts of the national governing body - the Canadian Auto Sport Clubs (CASC) - to bring its sports car competition up to a 'world class' level, and to manage the consequences of those efforts in the second half of the twentieth century. David Charters traces the social origins of the sport and the major trends that shaped it: professionalism, technological change, rising costs, and the influence of commercial sponsors. Charters argues that while early enthusiasts set the sport on a course toward professionalism that would eventually produce world-class Canadian events and racers, that course would also ultimately change the purpose of the sport: from personal recreation to mass entertainment. As technological innovations drove up the costs of competing at the top ranks, racers were forced to rely on sponsors, who commercialized and ultimately gained control of the sport. The end result, Charters argues, was the marginalization of the amateur competitor and of the CASC itself. Based on extensive research into the CASC's records and dozens of interviews with former competitors and officials, The Chequered Past opens a window into the rich but virtually unknown history of the auto sport, and claims for it a place in Canadian sports history.

When the Trans Am series let pony cars loose on the road circuits of America, some of the most exciting road racing in history took place. Until rule changes forced American manufacturer teams to withdraw in 1972, these ground-pounders enjoyed a golden era of dominance. Fans of vintage racing and muscle cars will enjoy this book's great photography and commentary from series participants, as well as comprehensive race results.

Bruce McLaren's performances as a F1, endurance, and Can-Am driver were almost always impressive. But it was the New Zealander's career as an innovative carbuilder which forever etched the McLaren name in the annals of motorsport. This photohistory examines McLaren's legendary endurance and Can-Am racers beginning with the formation of Bruce McLaren Racing Limited in 1963, continuing through his death at Goodwood in 1970, and finishing with the completion of the Can-Am series in 1974. Splendid photography gives readers views of the cars under construction and in action, and candid glimpses of Bruce McLaren and other personalities associated with the organization, including long-time teammate Denis Hulme. Dave Friedman is a prolific motorsport photographer and historian. His recent MBI titles include Lola: Can-Am & Endurance Race Cars and Pro Sports Car Racing in America 1958-1974. He lives in Newport Beach, California.

The first organized, sanctioned American stock car race took place in 1908 on a road course around Briarcliff, New York--staged by one of America's early speed mavens, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. A veteran of the early Ormond-Daytona Beach speed trials, Vanderbilt brought the Grand Prize races to Savannah, Georgia, the same year. What began as a rich man's sport eventually became the working man's sport, finding a home in the South with the infusion of moonshiners and their souped-up cars. Based in large part on statements of drivers, car owners and others garnered from archived newspaper articles, this history details the development of stock car racing into a megasport, chronicling each season through 1974. It examines the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing's 1948 incorporation documents and how they differ from the agreements adopted at NASCAR's organization meeting two months earlier. The meeting's participants soon realized that their sport was actually owned by William H.G. "Bill" France, and its consequential growth turned his family into billionaires. The book traces the transition from dirt to asphalt to superspeedways, the painfully slow advance of safety measures and the shadowy economics of the sport.