Cars and Racing

Books about car culture and auto racing, from Formula 1 to the insights of weekend track day aficionados. Stories about racers and technical investigations into the techniques and mechanics of speed.
Updated December 14, 2022
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The Art of Racing in the Rain
Garth Stein
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM FOX 2000 STARRING MILO VENTIMIGLIA, AMANDA SEYFRIED, AND KEVIN COSTNER MEET THE DOG WHO WILL SHOW THE WORLD HOW TO BE HUMAN The New York Times bestselling novel from Garth Stein--a heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately...
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip
Matthew Algeo
Paper Book
On June 19, 1953, Harry Truman got up early, packed the trunk of his Chrysler New Yorker, and did something no other former president has done before or since: he hit the road. No Secret Service protection. No traveling press. Just Harry and his childhood sweetheart Bess, off to visit old...
Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-Bending Celebrating America the Way It's Supposed to Be—With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn
P. J. O'Rourke
Paper Book
A collection spanning thirty years, chronicling famed humorist and gearhead P. J. O'Rourke's love affair with the automobile from mid-twentieth century to now--from heyday to sickbay.
Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans
A.J. Baime
Paper Book
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....
Legendary story about cars.
How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer
Adrian Newey
Paper Book
'Adrian has a unique gift for understanding drivers and racing cars. He is ultra competitive but never forgets to have fun. An immensely likeable man.' Damon Hill The world's foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain's greatest engineers and this is his...
Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best
Neal Bascomb
Paper Book
Winner of the Motor Press Guild Best Book of the Year Award & Dean Batchelor Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism  For fans of The Boys in the Boat and In the Garden of Beasts, a pulse-pounding tale of triumph by an improbable team of...
My Mercedes is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou...An Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara
Jeroen van Bergeijk
Paper Book
"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?"--Janis Joplin A journalist's intrepid endeavor to sell his used car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa. "Look, there's my car," I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking...
The Mechanic's Tale: Life in the Pit-Lanes of Formula One
Steve Matchett
Paper Book
A fascinating insider's look at life behind-the-scenes at Formula One. 'An essential read' AUTOSPORT 'A must for the real inside story' FORMULA 1 RACING 'Recommended for anyone interested in F1 on the inside' MOTORING NEWS...
Taken for a Ride : How Daimler-Benz Drove off with Chrysler
Bill Vlasic
Paper Book
It was the deal heard round the world. In May 1998, a stunning $36 billion merger was announced by Chrysler, the all-American automaker, and Daimler-Benz, the German manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz luxury sedans. The Wall Street Journal christened the deal "the biggest industrial merger of all time...
The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit
Michael Cannell
Paper Book
In The Limit, Michael Cannell tells the enthralling story of Phil Hill-a lowly California mechanic who would become the first American-born driver to win the Grand Prix-and, on the fiftieth anniversary of his triumph, brings to life a vanished world of glamour, valor, and daring. ...
Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving
Bob Bondurant
Paper Book
For more than 35 years, Le Mans champion and former Formula One driver Bob Bondurant has been the most successful high-performance driving instructor in the world. The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving has seen thousands of students pass through its doors and emerge as better, more...
Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors
Edward Niedermeyer
Paper Book
Tesla is the most exciting car company in a generation . . . but can it live up to the hype? Tesla Motors and CEO Elon Musk have become household names, shaking up the staid auto industry by creating a set of innovative electric vehicles that have wowed the marketplace and defied...
ALL CORVETTES ARE RED: The Rebirth of an American Legend
James Schefter
Paper Book
This work focuses on how the automobile giant GM reinvented the Corvette, a car which became legendary soon after its original release in 1953. It explains how dedicated designers, engineers and executives, eventually managed to produce the fifth-generation Corvette, which was originally meant to be...
Sports Car and Competition Driving
Paul Frère
Paper Book
Paul Frere - Le Mans winner, Grand Prix driver, and Road & Track magazine's European editor - has prepared a new edition of his classic, Sports Car and Competition Driving. First published in 1963, Sports Car and Competition Driving sold tens of thousands of copies, establishing it as a standard...
The car : the rise and fall of the machine that made the modern world
Appleyard, Bryan
Paper Book
A spirited, insightful exploration of our favorite machine and it's cultural impact on society over the past one hundred and fifty years. More than any other technology, cars have transformed American popular culture. Cars have created vast wealth as well as novel dreams of...
Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing's Glory Years
Brock Yates
Paper Book
Yates tells the story of the reckless, dispossessed young men who raced during the fatal 1955 season at Indianapolis Speedway--not for fame or money, because there was none--but for the sheer unvarnished hell of it.
Tales from the Toolbox: A Collection of Behind-the-Scenes Tales from Grand Prix Mechanics
Michael Oliver
Paper Book
Tales from the Toolbox is a unique collection of behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes as told, in their own words, by former Grand Prix mechanics who have worked at the top level of the sport during the past 50 years. On the front line of the sport, mixing with drivers and team bosses, they...
Inside Shelby American: Wrenching and Racing with Carroll Shelby in the 1960s
John Morton
Ebook
"More than just a well-written telling of Morton's early racing career . . . an incredible, no-holds-barred look into the goings-on at Shelby American." --Classic MotorsportsIn the late 1950s, a young John Morton was transfixed with sports car racing. His dreams of...
Survival of the fastest : weed, speed, and the 1980s drug scandal that shocked the sports world
Lanier, Randy
Paper Book
**Winner of the Best Book Award by the Motor Press Guild** The high-octane, Seabiscuit-meets-Scarface story of how Randy Lanier became a 1980s international sports star, soaring through the ranks of car racing while holding a dark...
Indy 500 Mechanic: The Inside Story of Big Time Auto Racing
Clint Brawner
Paper Book
Fast Guys Rich Guys and Idiots a Racing Odyssey on Border of Obsession
Sam Moses
Paper Book
Sam Moses, a motorsports writer for Sports Illustrated, was assigned to go racing and write about what happened. Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots is a personal odyssey that peers over the cliff of change and into the pit of obsession. From small-time races to glittery grands prix,...
Rx-7 the New Mazda Rx-7 and Mazda Rotary Engine Sports Cars
Jack K. Yamaguchi
Paper Book
Robot, Take the Wheel: The Road to Autonomous Cars and the Lost Art of Driving
Jason Torchinsky
Paper Book
From the star of the YouTube sensation Jason Drives, the senior editor of the acclaimed website Jalopnik, and a producer of Jay Leno's Garage comes the wittiest and most insightful guide yet to self-driving cars and the road ahead. Self-driving cars sound fantastical...
Fast Girl: Don't Brake Until You See the Face of God and Other Good Advice from the Racetrack
Ingrid Steffensen
Ebook
Life in Ingrid Steffensen's New Jersey suburb was safe, comfortable, and predictable. A college professor, wife, and mother of a preadolescent daughter, her carefully cultivated world was comprised of the usual suspects: family, work, book clubs, yoga classes, and date nights. Then, one day-...

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