Touring Car Racing


Book Description

Touring Car Racing, a feast of nostalgia, celebrates the 60-year heritage of the British Touring Car Championship. From the era of Mini Coopers and Lotus Cortinas to the Vauxhall Astras and Honda Civics of recent years, all the highlights of Britain’s ever-spectacular touring car scene are captured in a year-by-year visual extravaganza with over 600 photos and expert commentary. Compiled by long-time touring car journalist Matt James, the book has a chapter for each year featuring a summary of the season, 10 photos showing all the top cars and drivers in action, key statistics and a profile of the champion driver. Anyone who has ever enjoyed touring car racing as a participant, spectator or television viewer will treasure this book. The 1950s. The British Saloon Car Championship was inaugurated in 1958 and from the start it was super-competitive, ending in a tie that was resolved by a shoot-out in favour of Jack Sears. The 1960s. There were three Mini champions but mainly this was a Ford era, epitomised by Lotus Cortinas (with Jim Clark ever spectacular) and big Falcons, Galaxies and Mustangs from America. The 1970s. Smaller classes came to the fore in this decade, with three drivers sharing seven titles — Bill McGovern took three in Sunbeam Imps while two apiece went to Bernard Unett (Chrysler Avenger GT) and Richard Longman (Mini 1275GT). The 1980s. Three drivers also bestrode this decade but in a wider range of cars, including Mazda RX-7, Alfa Romeo GTV, Rover Vitesse and Ford Sierra XR4i; Win Percy and Andy Rouse each took three titles, Chris Hodgetts two. The 1990s. Overseas drivers arrived in force to mix it with home-grown stars during the highly competitive Super Touring years, the decade’s champions including Joachim Winkelhock (BMW 318is), Frank Biela (Audi A4 quattro), Alain Menu (Renault Laguna), Rickard Rydell (Volvo S40) and Laurent Aïello (Nissan Primera). The 2000s. Vauxhalls were the star cars, taking six titles, while the decade brought three double champions in the form of James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra), Matt Neal (Honda Integra) and Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra VXR). The 2010s. Yet more variety and brilliant racing has characterised the current decade, with Gordon Shedden becoming the winningest driver with three titles in Honda Civics.




Ford in Touring Car Racing


Book Description

Interviews with drivers and engineers, technical discussions, and race photography cover 50 years of Fords in sports car, GT, and rally events around the world.




Rallye Sport Fords - The inside story


Book Description

The inside story of how Rallye Sport Fords were created by Ford in the 70s and 80s, enabling works’ and private teams to be fully competitive in national and international rallies and races, to win many championships, and for RS cars to be bought by over 100,000 enthusiast customers! With around 200 photos and illustrations, many previously unpublished, this formerly untold story is brought vividly to life.




Go Like Hell


Book Description

By the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Young Henry Ford II, who had taken the reins of his grandfather's company with little business experience to speak of, knew he had to do something to shake things up. Baby boomers were taking to the road in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, whose cars epitomized style, lorded it over the European racing scene. He crafted beautiful sports cars, "science fiction on wheels," but was also called "the Assassin" because so many drivers perished while racing them.Go Like Helltells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.Go Like Helltransports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the "pilots" who would drive them to victory, or doom.




British Touring Car Racing in Camera


Book Description

The first official British Saloon Car Championship was held in 1958, so 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of this ever-competitive, highly popular form of racing, now called the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). This book will be a photographic sweep over the entire 50 years (with a preamble about pre-1958 saloon car racing), presented in the style of our Formula 1 in Camera titles, using as much color as possible. As the overview below shows, there have been plenty of well-known and exciting cars over the years, and numerous notable drivers too, including World Champions such as Mike Hawthorn, Jim Clark and Graham Hill and colourful characters such as Gerry Marshall, Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams and Tony Lanfranchi.




The Cars of Trans-Am Racing: 1966-1972


Book Description

The legendary history of the pony car wars comes to life in this softcover edition of The Cars of Trans-Am Racing. The SCCA Trans-Am Racing Series launched in 1966 and was designed to showcase a new class of sporty domestic cars racing on road courses. Each major automotive manufacturer participated heavily in the Trans-Am Series, and in a few short years, it became the ultimate American automobile showdown. When the modified muscle cars of the series were seen performing well on the country’s finest tracks, fans wanted a model of their own in the driveway. These "pony cars" boasted a new look and style not seen before, and their all-around performance eclipsed anything accomplished by production-based American GT cars up to that point. This softcover edition of The Cars of Trans-Am Racing is unique in that it focuses on the cars used in this legendary series. These vintage Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, Barracudas, Firebirds, Cougars, and Javelins all are extremely popular with collectors and enthusiasts today. Seeing them in their “full-competition” versions when they were new will bring back many fond memories for those who were fans of this series. In addition, enthusiasts who enjoy these cars today look to the Trans-Am Series cars for styling inspiration and performance hints as part of the growing Pro Touring trend. Many of these historic cars have been restored to race-ready condition. Additional insight and interviews from the original builders and the teams that maintained the cars provide an insider’s viewpoint never before seen in print.




Boss Mustang


Book Description

The Ford Boss Mustang is the most iconic pony car ever created, and this book covers it more extensively than any other. Boss Mustang: 50 Years—a fully expanded version of Mustang Boss 302—includes the complete history of its creation; racing and street histories of both the 302 and 429 models; and photos and interviews with Boss Mustang designers, engineers, racers, and more. Of all the legendary names in the history of the Ford Mustang, one stands apart: Boss. Originally created to homologate the new Boss 302 engine and option package for SCCA Trans-Am racing, the Mustang Boss 302 debuted for the 1969 model year and was built in limited numbers for the street through 1970. This book features never-before-seen production and racing photography, interviews with designers and engineers, and keen insight from author Donald Farr, a renowned Ford historian and Ford hall-of-fame inductee. Designed by the legendary Larry Shinoda, the Boss cars were easily distinguished from their less potent stablemates by their race-bred powerplant, standard front spoiler, and bold graphics. In 2012, Ford at long last revived this most revered of all Mustang models. With a new racing counterpart and a modern street version that delivers more than 440 horsepower, the Boss was truly back! In 2013, Ford rolled out the Boss one more time. In Boss Mustang: 50 Years, Mustang historian Donald Farr offers a complete history of the car—from its late 1960s origins in Ford's boardrooms through its Trans-Am successes and untimely demise in 1970, up to the conception and development of the spectacular, limited-edition 2012 and 2013 Boss Mustangs. Packed with brilliant photography and firsthand accounts from the people who created the original Boss, as well as the team that resurrected Ford's most iconic Mustang for the 21st century, this is the story every Mustang enthusiast has been waiting to read.




Detroit Speed's How to Build a Pro Touring Car


Book Description

Trends in automotive modification come and go, some outlandish, some practical. Currently, the trend called "Pro Touring," while expensive, definitely leans toward the practical. Originally a term coined for GM cars, the term Pro Touring has come to mean a style of all cars, and many eras. Pro Touring is essentially the art of adding modern technology to aged designs, creating cars that stop, start, handle, drive, and behave just as modern performance cars do. You can do this in many ways and choose from many suppliers. Detroit Speed is at the forefront of the Pro Touring movement. Both a parts manufacturer and car builder, the company is in a unique position not only to design and manufacture parts, but to build cars and test the parts for their effectiveness on the street and track. Kyle and Stacy Tucker have put their considerable skill in engineering and market savvy to create a unique company to lead the Pro Touring movement. Not only do you learn about the history of the company and how they design their performance parts, install sections cover front sub-frame assemblies, rear suspension assemblies, wheel tubs, fuel system upgrades, brake upgrades, driveline upgrades including an LS swap, cooling system upgrades, and more. The featured cars are customer builds as well as DSE test cars, which include a host of different Chevrolet products, a 1966 Mustang and a 1969 Charger. Detroit Speed’s How to Build a Pro Touring Car is a vital edition to every performance enthusiast’s library.




Ford Model T


Book Description

"I will build a car for the great multitude," stated Henry Ford, and so he did. The Ford Model T, or the 'Tin Lizzie' and the 'Flivver' as it was also known, transformed American society, bringing mobility through car ownership to millions of middle-class Americans at a time when the horse and the railroad were the only real viable means of transport. Using moving assembly lines and the best possible materials, between October 1908 and May 1927, Ford built around 16.5 million examples of this extraordinary car. By 1918, half of all cars built in America were Model Ts and by 1925 around 8,000 a day were being produced, making Henry Ford one of the world's best-known manufacturers of automobiles. The selection of body styles varied from two- and four-seat open and closed models - tourers, town cars, runabouts, landaulettes and cabriolets - to vans and pick-up trucks, and customers could also have colours other than black!




The Ford that Beat Ferrari


Book Description

After Ford unsuccessfully attempted to buy Ferrari, in 1963, the American car giant instead embarked on its own racing programme in a bid to beat the famous Italian marque at the world’s most prestigious race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, as told in the forthcoming Hollywood movie Ford v. Ferrari. This updated edition of The Ford that Beat Ferrari tells the story of how that mission was eventually accomplished. Development of the GT40: how the prototype Ford GT emerged in 1964 from the previous year’s Lola GT programme. The works teams and the GT40: the car’s racing exploits in its earlier years, first with Ford Advanced Vehicles (1964), then Shelby American (1965) and Alan Mann Racing (1966). The big ones: this section of the book covers the GT40’s evolution into the 7-litre monsters that brought enormous success, including the first two Le Mans victories with the Mark II (1966) and Mark IV (1967), before becoming outlawed by new restrictions on engine size. The Gulf years: against all expectations, the venerable GT40, now back to 5-litre power, raced on with John Wyer’s crack JW Automotive Engineering outfit in the iconic blue and orange colours of Gulf, successes including two further Le Mans wins (1968 and 1969). The production line racer: the stories of the 68 privateers, big and small, who raced GT40s. Chassis and drivers: a data section giving resumés of type designations, chassis histories and all drivers who raced GT40s. The magic lives on: the book’s concluding sections show surviving cars at differing stages in their later life and bring the story up to date with developments since the 2005 edition.